By TAMMY SCILEPPI
Legendary Queens-bred singer-songwriter Paul Simon is coming back to his roots on April 5 to headline a benefit concert supporting Materials for the Arts in Long Island City.
MFTA will host the concert at its 35,000-square-foot warehouse on Northern Boulevard, which is where Simon himself actually came up with the idea for the event, when he dropped by to visit and chat with Skip LaPlante. He is one of MFTA’s local teaching artists, who has been with them for the last 15 years.
LaPlante, who plays whimsical chimes he constructs from found objects such as lobster pots, license plates, and bicycle pedals will accompany Simon on stage, along with Brooklyn-based guitarist Mark Stewart.
Known citywide for its abundance of free art supplies, MFTA’s warehouse features more than 40 aisles stocked with items such as folders, binders, beads, fabric, ribbon and such, to serve the needs of artists and others. Every year, public school teachers are invited to the facility to grab all the free supplies they can carry.
“When Paul Simon visited the MFTA warehouse in December, to see the wind chimes that had been created by fellow musician Skip LaPlante, I think he was amazed by what he encountered,” said the group’s executive director, Harriet Taub.
“He was able to meet our artist-in-residence at that time — Michael Kelly Williams — and even stop by to say hello to a classroom full of elementary school students,” Taub said. “I guess only he would know, but my gut tells me that he was impressed with the work we are doing to foster arts and culture in NYC, and the best way he could help to support our mission was to offer to play at an intimate concert in our warehouse. His generosity will go so far in helping us with the work we do.”
The concert will benefit the group’s nonprofit branch, Friends of Materials for the Arts, and help MFTA continue its 250 free, arts-oriented field trips for public schools and Title I schools, and help them host free, monthly workshops open to the public on environmental sustainability through art.
When Simon first heard about LaPlante’s wind chimes project, he was intrigued, as he wanted to use more wind chimes on an upcoming tour.
The Ridgewood-based musical instrument maker, who was involved with several of Simon’s recording projects about 15 years ago and periodically in years since, has been making unique instruments crafted from found materials since the 1970s. Last May, he gave a free performance, “A Symphony of Chimes,” at Flushing Town Hall.
“I’ve got really strange instruments, and every once in a while, something works for something that Paul is working on,” said LaPlante, who will be playing about 40 wind chimes during next week’s concert.
The artist said Simon has been using his wind chimes for all his tours, and at some point Simon will finish recording with all 130 of his chimes.
LaPlante said he’s looking forward to playing with guitarist Mark Stewart, who is another instrument builder.
“It’s gonna be a hoot because the situations I’ve worked with Paul have been kind of structured, and this time it isn’t — we don’t have the time for it,” he quipped. “It’ll be improvised on my part for sure, but really interesting. What you got here is three great musicians coming at this, but we’re coming at it from three different planets,” he said. “So, it’s going to be fascinating to see how this works. What’s going to be fun is that Paul hasn’t had the chance to work directly with this many wind chimes.”
Simon, who grew up in Kew Gardens, has performed in the borough before, of course. He played to a packed house at Forest Hills Stadium with Art Garfunkel in 1967, and the folk duo came back to the venue once more in 1970, which marked their final performance as a duo before splitting up.
It would be 46 years before Simon came back to Queens, however, returning to Forest Hills Stadium as a solo act at the end of his 2016 summer tour, once again selling out the venue with fans young and old.
The intimate quarters of MFTA’s warehouse are definitely not the sort of venue the arena-packing impresario normally plays, but it was Simon’s call, according to Kwame Belle, MFTA’s communications coordinator.
“But that was ultimately the point — and his direct requirement, in fact” Belle said, “to play the nontraditional venue in hopes of bringing more people into MFTA that would never have seen it otherwise.”
