Brian Slattery Photos
Williams.
Terminal 110 on Sargent Drive was already crowded Wednesday evening, the tables near the stage accounted for and the bar area bustling, when Anthony Williams stepped to the microphone.
“Time to network, maybe meet somebody,” he said. “Maybe you meet someone who’s struggling, tell them they’re going to make it. You never know.” He continued: “You had a bite to eat. You had something to drink. Now it’s time to feel the vibe.”
It was another R&B Wednesday at the Long Wharf club, still making another mid-week evening feel like a weekend. The band — a three-piece of keys, guitar, and bass — was warming up as Williams explained the ground rules. He wanted to “open up the stage for each and everyone to express themselves.” Participants had called, texted or emailed Williams beforehand (at 203-901-6809 or thecollectivevibect@gmail.com) saying they were interested, and Williams had made room.
“We don’t boo,” Williams said. “If you don’t have the courage to come up here, shut your mouth.” He explained that the stage was a safe space, and a place to find an audience. “You don’t have to sing in your bathroom no more. You don’t have to sing in your garage.”
Williams then turned the microphone over to Kaeli Roselle to break the ice, which she did first by setting the band into a slow, jazzy groove that gave her the chance to stretch out on a melody. Gesturing toward the crowd from a stool as she sang, she exuded confidence while also assuring the people following her that everything was going to be all right.
Though a singer named Alex didn’t need any more confidence than he had. If Roselle had been nurturing, Alex went straight into the bedroom, his voice and words dripping with desire as the band let the rhythm strut a bit. Alex connected, gathering a crowd in front of the stage that drew close to its edge, reaching out toward him when he got close enough.
Singer Veronica then made it about family, dedicating her song to her brother. With her powerful voice and keen emotional communication, as the band settled into a swinging 3/4 time, Veronica got half the audience in front of her to sing along, helping carry the song aloft. She finished the song and made to leave the stage, though the audience’s response had been the heaviest so far.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no,” said Roselle. “You got another song?” Veronica said she did. Roselle turned to the audience.
“You want to hear another one?” she said. Several in the audience said they did. So Veronica returned to the stage for another number that hooked the audience even more.
The night was cruising, then, for Breezy, a military veteran who proved an adept singer and rapper. The drummer kicked up the energy a notch during Breezy’s song, preparing the crowd for the evening’s featured artist, I Am King of CT, who prowled the stage with an original song he’d brought for the occasion.
“This week we ran a little longer because people came up and said ‘I want to sing!’ And I’m a sucker,” Williams said. “Give it up for your state. Give it up for your city.”
Smith.
Outside, Chef Ronnie Smith, a.k.a. Chef Pink Polo, who runs the kitchen at Keys to the City, attached to Terminal 110, was manning a giant smoker in the cold. Inside that smoker were succulent pieces of chicken by the rackful and pans of macaroni and cheese. Four years ago, he explained, he was working in youth services, but it wasn’t where his true passion lay.
“I always felt relaxed in the kitchen,” he said. Four years ago he got a food truck and called his business Wings on the Fly.
“My wings kind of blew up,” he said.
He moved to take over the club’s Long Wharf kitchen due to longstanding friendships with the club’s owners. “We all grew up in New Haven, and when we got older, we all came back together.”
Smith estimated that the full smoker of chicken and macaroni and cheese would be empty in just a couple hours, when Terminal 110 closed its doors and people had to depart. After midnight, the club’s lights came on and its patrons swarmed back into the parking lot, descending on his smoker. Smith was right.