One Concert, One Child
Composer and musician Robert Nasta hosts a series of salon-style house concerts in a small, intimate setting. In addition to offering great music, each concert benefits Artists for World Peace and supports its ongoing Children of Peace projects. Seating is limited, and all concerts are advertised on the AFWP Facebook page.
The series is new but already a hit, judging by audience responses at the first two concerts. Chester “Big Boy” Coda rocked the packed Hubbard House in May with his inspired original blues tunes, wry observations on growing old and having a job, and nimble guitar work. (Chester Coda is actually the alter ego of multi-instrume
ntalist Nasta.) Hartford Courant editorial cartoonist Bob Englehart was seen laughing uproariously and slapping his knees. The concert was reprised in June at Black-eyed Sally’s in Hartford.
The September concert at Hubbard House was a real family affair featuring the jazz vocals of Wendy Black-Nasta backed by Robert and Miles Nasta (guitar and percussion) and Matt McCauley (bass). Wendy designated McCauley an honorary Nasta for the evening. The instrumentalists were rock solid, but Wendy provided the evening’s greatest surprise. Three notes into her first song, the audience’s collective jaw dropped and stayed dropped. Listeners couldn’t think of enough superlative adjectives to describe their experience. “Who would think we could walk around the corner and hear world-class jazz in Middletown,” a woman remarked to her companion as they were leaving.
One Child/One Concert, one problem, one solution, one step and then another, one more way to realize the vision of building peace through art.
