Brian Slattery Photos
Nick Di Maria and Austin Alianiello sat behind a table they’d set up in a gallery of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. On the table were a mixing board, a couple laptops and phones, and other devices. A set of cables snaked across the room to where the four-piece band Ubuntu had set up. It was the inaugural show of Mind the Hang, a new streamed concert series from New Haven Jazz Underground, and a few minutes before showtime, there were just a few questions left unanswered.
The band — Avery Collins on drums, Alec Rice on vibes, Kris Ervin on keyboard, and Maxx Spinelli on bass — quickly worked its way through the chart of one of the tunes they wanted to play, ironing out a few details. Alianiello adjusted one of the phones being used as a camera to make sure Collins was in the shot. And where did they want to put the Black Lives Matter sign? They found a music stand and hoisted it high.
“Start streaming, and then we’re good,” Rice said. “Do you want to say anything?” He motioned toward Di Maria.
Alianiello intoned: “My name is Nick Di Maria, and I am your god!” The band laughed.
“We’re learning as we go,” Di Maria said. The band started its set, swinging into a bluesy number that gave Rice, Ervin, and Spinelli a chance to settle in and warm up with expansive solos. They finished, and Di Maria and Alianiello clapped, proxies for the audience listening online.
Now fully warmed, the band settled into its second tune. Rice began with a delicate, intricate set of changes on the vibes. The rest of the band slid in behind him in the final measure of his phrase, and they were off.
“I miss the days of just having to worry about raising money,” Di Maria said with a laugh. “It makes me nostalgic. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m employed, I’m healthy, and the rest falls into place.”
In addition to organizing New Haven Jazz Underground, which began in 2019, Di Maria teaches music at the Truman School and is a regularly gigging trumpet player. His last gig before the shutdown was on March 8, at Atelier Florian. He was sent home from Truman on March 12, initially for two weeks, he recalled; on March 13, he said, “it was forever.”
The NHJU raises funds through small donations on Patreon, and “by the grace of the cosmos, none of our sponsors pulled out of their sponsorships” even as the NHJU was no longer able to plan events. But in March, Di Maria said, “I felt like I could do something.” Working with the administrators at his school, he helped raise money for people to be able to buy groceries. The effort netted over $1,000. Di Maria went to Stop & Shop and bought a six-inch stack of gift cards to distribute.
Di Maria.
“We found out who was an actual hero during this,” Di Maria said. “For me, that was a lot of my students’ parents. I’m a New Haven educator. A lot of my students’ parents are working cash registers. I had students who got the virus, or parents who got the virus. People were hospitalized.”
Meanwhile, the money from sponsors in NHJU’s pot continued to grow, and Di Maria started looking for ways to make music happen again. “Just our 22 patrons who stayed committed to us created a scenario where we could do this,” he said. “When June came around I looked at our accounts and said, ‘we have some money and we can do something with it.” He had his eye on starting up live, streamed music in July, initially thinking of doing a show in someone’s backyard. That didn’t pan out. “We’re just really concerned with everybody’s safety,” he said. “Do we have a safe and secure place that we can control?”
The Ely Center offered its space for summer Wednesdays, and Di Maria started lining up bands. With Ubuntu kicking off the series, Di Maria now has music booked every Wednesday into early September (check the NHJU’s Facebook page for details).
Thanks to the continued donations from sponsors, Di Maria is able to pay the bands who appear on Mind the Hang. In addition, he said, “this is our first series dedicated to raising awareness for social justice,” Di Maria said. Ubuntu’s set allowed viewers to donate to the band, to the NHJU, or to Black Lives Matter. Di Maria said he’ll choose different organizations for each installment of Mind the Hang, like the NAACP or CT Food Bank.
“Everything that’s been going on in the past 20 years just reached a boiling point,” Di Maria said. “I hope nobody’s surprised that this is all happening at once. I realized there was something we could do and something we should do.”
Di Maria is well aware of the sense of doing a small concert series during a major crisis. “We’re all going through something traumatic. It’s OK to sit home and do nothing,” he said. “No one’s talking about the PTSD we’re all going to have.” At the same time, he has noticed people taking care of one another around him. “I think people are realizing how important community is,” he said. “I think a lot of people are in a charitable mood.” In wearing masks and following rules of social distancing, he said, “we are all supporting each other to stay healthy.”
And among musicians and listeners, Di Maria said, “so many people are eager to perform or support music — I’ve had nothing but good responses to what we’re trying to do.” So he has assembled his “little street team” of NHJU members. “We’re using phones, a laptop, a couple microphones, and we’ll go from there,” he said. “We’re just trying to get some cats to play.”
To see what’s next in the Mind the Hang series, visit the New Haven Jazz Underground’s Facebook page.