The Parsonage
The Parsonage: True Tales of Love and Anarchy at 64 East 7th Street is a concept album with words by Hajdu and music by eight different composers, released by Sunnyside Records on April 7, 2023. The composers: Darcy James Argue, Theo Bleckmann, Regina Carter, Ted Hearne, Kirk Nurock, Renee Rosnes, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Dan Tepfer. Performers: singers Theo Bleckmann and Alicia Olatuja, pianist Dan Tepfer. A premiere concert of The Parsonage was performed at the Museum of the City of New York on April 27, 2023.
Track Listing and Credits:
1. Sailing to the Sunday School Picnic Regina Carter (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann and Olatuja (vocals)
2. Ballad of the Man Who Laughed Renee Rosnes (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann and Olatuja (vocals) Erik Friedlander (cello), Sean Smith (bass)
3. Translation, Two Cigar Butts Ted Hearne (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann and Olatuja (vocals) Sound collage created by Hearne.
4. East in the Village Kirk Nurock (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann and Olatuja (vocals) Carl Maraghi (bass clarinet), Smith (bass)
5. Living Light Dan Tepfer (music), Hajdu (words) Olatuja (vocals)
6. Lou Reed Was Very Well Read Theo Bleckmann (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann (vocals) Friedlander (cello)
7. Glamour and Standing Music by Jill Sobule and David Hajdu Vocal: Jo Lawry Arr. and piano: Tedd Firth
8. Eighteen Million Six Sarah Kirkland Snider (music), Hajdu (words) Bleckmann and Olatuja (vocals)
All songs with Dan Tepfer, piano. Historical sound research by Jon Moskowitz. Produced by David Hajdu.
The Parsonage is a concept album about New York history, told through the story of a single building in the East Village. The site, 64 East 7th Street, was at the heart of eight major moments in the cultural history of the city, from its beginnings as the parsonage for the church whose membership was decimated by the infamous Slocum disaster through the rise of the Beats and performance art to the gentrification of the 21st century. To give voice to the eight distinctive chapters in the story of the building, The Parsonage was created by a group of eight different composers from the worlds of jazz, contemporary classical, and "post-classical" music: Darcy James Argue, Theo Bleckmann, Regina Carter, Ted Hearne, Kirk Nurock, Renee Rosnes, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Dan Tepfer. The libretto is by David Hajdu.
The genre-defying vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Alicia Olatuja sing this unusual set of highly varied pieces. Dan Tepfer is pianist and musical director, with a chamber ensemble of cello, bass clarinet, and double bass.| "Tragedy, Peyote, Beat Poets, Yoko Ono. The 9 Lives of an East Village Townhouse." - New York Times |
| "'The Parsonage: True Tales of Love and Anarchy at 64 East 7th Street' Review: Music for a Townhouse's Many Lives" - Wall Street Journal |
| "The Parsonage:" - Places Journal |
| "The Shocking History of One East Village Building Is Captured in This New Album" - Time Out New York |
| "The Parsonage" - The New Yorker |
| "The Concept Album Is Alive and Well in Jazz" - New York Sun |
| "David Hajdu Finds Love, Anarchy in a Single New York City Building" - Downbeat |
| "'The Parsonage' Tells the Tales in Music of a Single New York City Building" - Columbia News |
| "From Peyote to Yoko Ono, Inside the Many Surreal Lives of One New York Building" - Double Blind |