Would you like some coffee with your music?
Once a month, Jersey City’s regal Brennan Court House transforms into a coffee house for performances by local and national folk musicians.
The Brennan Coffee House Series gives musicians the opportunity to perform in an architectural beauty that conservationist Theodore Conrad helped save – the rotunda that exhibits local art and hosts the series bears his name.
The first 2008 concert is Jan. 18, serving up coffee and refreshments to go with music by Scott E. Moore, Gene D. Plumber, and Anna Fiszman and her husband Marc Landesberg.
Stepping up to the mic
There’s always an open mic in the evening’s program, and Anna Fiszman and Marc Landesberg got their invitation to play for the Brennan Coffee House series after stepping up to the mic one night.
The pair has lived in Jersey City since they married four years ago. Fiszman, originally of Melbourne, Australia, met Landesberg, of Brooklyn, in New York after moving to the states in 1989.
Recently, the couple began focusing on their musical career, which they describe as a mix of American roots music, fusing the sounds of jazz, blues, and R&B.
“It’s a very soulful feel, and it’s very crossover,” says Fiszman, explaining that their sound has a wide appeal. “It’s not intellectual, and it’s not fancy. You feel it in the body and in the heart.”
And the court house lets you feel it in the atmosphere.
“It’s an extraordinarily beautiful space,” Landesberg says, “It really reminds me of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. with the rotunda. It envelops you with this huge space. It’s just gorgeous. It’s probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever played.”
Fiszman is equally taken with the location.
“Acoustically, it’s just stunning. The music is really what people are there for, so it’s culture, and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s like being in Rome,” said Fiszman.
A Hoboken plumber
Gene D. Plumber – yes, that’s the name he’s officially recognized by – is a plumber in Hoboken by day and a Western Tex Jazzabilly musician by night.
Plumber is “one of the great treasures of Hoboken,” according to Glenn Morrow, owner of Bar None Records.
“He’s served a great sort of Americana tradition of various threads of musical culture; blues, country, and folk – he kinds of mixes them all together in his own style.”
Plumber says that the court house provides a unique and unlikely venue where musicians can find local support, not just from the county but from the audience.
“There’s a good crowd,” Plumber says. “The crowd’s there to listen to music. It’s not a bar crowd. They’re not there to drink. That’s a good audience.”
Scott E. Moore, whose singing/songwriting style has been called Americana Soul, is headlining the Jan. 18 concert – he’s also celebrating the 10th anniversary of his monthly Writer’s Hang at the Goldhawk on March 6.
A musician focusing on the human experience, Moore finds the experience and feeling in the Brennan Court House particularly special when converted into a performance space.
“I love when art is brought into a living, breathing place, and you can experience that place in a new way,” says Moore. “I think it’s wonderful that Jersey City is embracing the arts.”
Unique venue
Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise is a big fan of folk music, and the Brennan Coffee House Series is his baby, born in 2004.
“We have provided over the last three years a venue that never existed in Hudson County before,” DeGise says.
“The level of talent that we’ve been able to attract has been surprising and impressive, and it’s going to continue. We have the most unique venue in the entire country for this type of music.”
DeGise’s inspiration comes from his own background.
“I’m a child of the ’60s and ’70s, and I spent some of my good years over in Greenwich Village hanging around Washington Square Park listening to music and going to clubs like Gaslight and the Bitter End,” DeGise explains, wanting to recapture that up-close and personal relationship with folk music. “You forget sometimes how good live music is performed by really talented people. There’s something very special about going to a live concert.”
The coffee house atmosphere is recreated by a crowd that’s at most about 100 people with tables for three or four where you can buy coffee or wine, and that intimate performance environment with the acoustics of the court house is a draw in itself.
Bill LaRosa, administrator of Hudson County Cultural Affairs, says that people have come from Virginia and Milwaukee, Wisc. just to see the Coffee House concerts, creating Hudson’s own version of cultural tourism while keeping our homegrown musicians at its heart.
“We always wanted to make sure that local performers are on the bill, and that’s always been one of our primary objectives,” explains LaRosa.
DeGise encourages residents to come experience outstanding national and local musicians in concert for the price of a movie ticket.
“All of us talk about supporting the burgeoning artists community – now you get a chance to show how you support them, and if people come to hear them, they may be surprised how talented some of their neighbors are.”
The 2008 Brennan Coffee House Series
Check out local artists throughout the year at the Brennan Court House at 583 Newark Ave. in Jersey City.
Performances start at 7:30 p.m. Open mic follows the concert with an allowance of five minutes per performer. Admission is $10; $5 for seniors and students. For more information, call (800) 542-7894 or visit www.brennancoffeehouse.com.
Jan. 18: Scott E. Moore, Anna Fiszman, Gene D. Plumber
Feb. 15: Vance Gilbert, Chrissy Roberts
Mar. 28: Amy Speace
Apr. 18: Red Molly
May 16: Antje Duvekot
June 20: David Wilcox
Sept. 19: Jesse Winchester
Oct. 17: Maria Sangiolo
Nov. 21: Richard Shindell
Comments on this story can be sent to Mpaul@hudsonreporter.com.