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Friday, April 04, 2008,7:23 PM
A Downtown Impresario’s New Uptown Canvas
By BEN SISARIO
Between sets backstage at Joe’s Pub one evening recently, the crew was busy carrying out a menagerie of African drums for one act and carefully loading in a piano for the comedy-cabaret group coming up next. Inches away, fans crowded the merchandise table while the artists squeezed through to their dressing rooms, and patrons from a play down the hall rushed to the restrooms at intermission.
Cross-cultural juxtapositions like these are part of the plan at Joe’s Pub, the tiny, upscale club at the Public Theater that for nine years has served as a center of downtown eclecticism, presenting a nightly travelogue of world music, jazz, singer-songwriters and genres in between, from unknowns to superstars like Elvis Costello and Norah Jones.
Its philosophy is largely the work of Bill Bragin, a 40-year-old music obsessive from Long Island who has become one of the most influential figures in the New York live-music business, wooed by talent agents and record company executives eager for the endorsement of a prominent booking.
But in an unusual move, Mr. Bragin left Joe’s Pub for Lincoln Center at the beginning of this year, where he will oversee two summer series, Midsummer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Many in the industry are now waiting to see if he can bring his golden touch to such a large and rigid uptown institution.
“Bill had a vision,” said David Bither, senior vice president of Nonesuch Records. One of that label’s stars, Audra McDonald, was the club’s first booking when it opened in 1998, and Mr. Bither said he had discovered one of his newest artists there, the singer Christina Courtin. “It’s not a jazz club, it’s not a cabaret, it’s not a poetry club,” he added, “but it is all of those things.”
The Public has appointed Shanta Thake, Mr. Bragin’s second-in-command for five years, as his successor. And Mr. Bragin’s move comes just as one of his signature achievements, the rock musical “Passing Strange,” transfers to Broadway, opening Thursday at the Belasco Theater. As with “Passing Strange,” by the acid-tongued indie songwriter Stew — a show he helped shepherd in its earliest stages at the Public Theater — Mr. Bragin’s own uptown transfer is a natural and carefully thought-out move, he said.
“The way I define myself and my work is as an arts presenter, not a nightclub booker,” Mr. Bragin said in an interview. “This was exactly the right move. It’s multidisciplinary, it’s multiethnic. I have always been a generalist working in those boundaries between popular art and high art.”
With curls of jet-black hair and a boyish excitement in his voice, Mr. Bragin is known as a musical omnivore who is often several steps ahead of the hype. He got his start promoting concerts at Haverford College outside Philadelphia, and while still a student there, began working at Festival Productions, which presents JVC Jazz and other major festivals.
He booked five seasons of Central Park SummerStage, beginning in 1994, and then went to Symphony Space before starting at Joe’s Pub shortly before Sept. 11, 2001. Operating under the aegis of a nonprofit arts institution, the club was ailing financially when Mr. Bragin took it over, and his first job was to bring accounts into the black.
“There was a managerial statement to Joe’s Pub: basically, you figure out how to pay for yourself, and you can keep going,” said Oskar Eustis, who took over as artistic director of the Public Theater in 2004. “Bragin did that brilliantly.”
He did it by tripling the number of presentations to more than 700 a year, which increased revenue, and expanded its musical reach. Its diversity has limits, though. An intimate room with red, romantic lighting; pricey drinks; and a capacity of 150, Joe’s Pub specializes in mellow music — very little hip-hop and rock — that appeals to upmarket adults.
The annual operating budget of the Public Theater is $19.5 million. A spokeswoman declined to break down what portion of that is for Joe’s Pub, which has fund-raising money specifically earmarked for its programming and also takes a portion of the profits from the independently owned company that operates the food and beverage service at Joe’s.
By embracing Mr. Bragin, whose new title is director of public programming, Lincoln Center is aiming to capitalize on the Joe’s Pub cool factor and further its slow and sometimes fitful effort to attract younger audiences. Jane S. Moss, the vice president for programming at Lincoln Center, who hired Mr. Bragin, said it was also a chance to give greater credibility to two outdoor series that have often been perceived as lightweight.
“We are eager that they not be perceived simply as a kind of community-outreach audience access point but as significant artistic entities in their own right,” she said.
Mr. Bragin says the substance of his presentations will not change with the move uptown, only the scale. “The metaphor I’ve been using,” he said, “is that you’re painting watercolor miniatures on the one hand, and you’re painting murals on the other.”
Some in the live-music business note that the freedom Mr. Bragin enjoyed at Joe’s Pub might be curtailed on a bigger and more public stage.
“Because Joe’s is so small, you can take a lot of risks,” said Danny Melnick, the president of Absolutely Live and the former artistic director of Festival Productions. “You could do a lot for 100-odd people that you can’t do for 2,000 or 3,000 people.”
Mr. Bragin said the opportunities on a big stage could be even more extensive, and his influence could also widen the range of summer concert offerings in the city, which have already expanded significantly in recent years, with series like the River to River Festival downtown and the indie-rock concerts at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn.
The success of his tenure at Lincoln Center — and of any concert, uptown or downtown — is ultimately in the hands and dancing feet of the audience, Mr. Bragin said.
“It’s about putting artists together in combinations that might not be the most expected,” he added. “But it’s also about the community that’s being built in that period of time. You get people dancing together on the plaza. The next song comes up, and you grab a partner. You build bridges.”
Between sets backstage at Joe’s Pub one evening recently, the crew was busy carrying out a menagerie of African drums for one act and carefully loading in a piano for the comedy-cabaret group coming up next. Inches away, fans crowded the merchandise table while the artists squeezed through to their dressing rooms, and patrons from a play down the hall rushed to the restrooms at intermission.
Cross-cultural juxtapositions like these are part of the plan at Joe’s Pub, the tiny, upscale club at the Public Theater that for nine years has served as a center of downtown eclecticism, presenting a nightly travelogue of world music, jazz, singer-songwriters and genres in between, from unknowns to superstars like Elvis Costello and Norah Jones.
Its philosophy is largely the work of Bill Bragin, a 40-year-old music obsessive from Long Island who has become one of the most influential figures in the New York live-music business, wooed by talent agents and record company executives eager for the endorsement of a prominent booking.
But in an unusual move, Mr. Bragin left Joe’s Pub for Lincoln Center at the beginning of this year, where he will oversee two summer series, Midsummer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Many in the industry are now waiting to see if he can bring his golden touch to such a large and rigid uptown institution.
“Bill had a vision,” said David Bither, senior vice president of Nonesuch Records. One of that label’s stars, Audra McDonald, was the club’s first booking when it opened in 1998, and Mr. Bither said he had discovered one of his newest artists there, the singer Christina Courtin. “It’s not a jazz club, it’s not a cabaret, it’s not a poetry club,” he added, “but it is all of those things.”
The Public has appointed Shanta Thake, Mr. Bragin’s second-in-command for five years, as his successor. And Mr. Bragin’s move comes just as one of his signature achievements, the rock musical “Passing Strange,” transfers to Broadway, opening Thursday at the Belasco Theater. As with “Passing Strange,” by the acid-tongued indie songwriter Stew — a show he helped shepherd in its earliest stages at the Public Theater — Mr. Bragin’s own uptown transfer is a natural and carefully thought-out move, he said.
“The way I define myself and my work is as an arts presenter, not a nightclub booker,” Mr. Bragin said in an interview. “This was exactly the right move. It’s multidisciplinary, it’s multiethnic. I have always been a generalist working in those boundaries between popular art and high art.”
With curls of jet-black hair and a boyish excitement in his voice, Mr. Bragin is known as a musical omnivore who is often several steps ahead of the hype. He got his start promoting concerts at Haverford College outside Philadelphia, and while still a student there, began working at Festival Productions, which presents JVC Jazz and other major festivals.
He booked five seasons of Central Park SummerStage, beginning in 1994, and then went to Symphony Space before starting at Joe’s Pub shortly before Sept. 11, 2001. Operating under the aegis of a nonprofit arts institution, the club was ailing financially when Mr. Bragin took it over, and his first job was to bring accounts into the black.
“There was a managerial statement to Joe’s Pub: basically, you figure out how to pay for yourself, and you can keep going,” said Oskar Eustis, who took over as artistic director of the Public Theater in 2004. “Bragin did that brilliantly.”
He did it by tripling the number of presentations to more than 700 a year, which increased revenue, and expanded its musical reach. Its diversity has limits, though. An intimate room with red, romantic lighting; pricey drinks; and a capacity of 150, Joe’s Pub specializes in mellow music — very little hip-hop and rock — that appeals to upmarket adults.
The annual operating budget of the Public Theater is $19.5 million. A spokeswoman declined to break down what portion of that is for Joe’s Pub, which has fund-raising money specifically earmarked for its programming and also takes a portion of the profits from the independently owned company that operates the food and beverage service at Joe’s.
By embracing Mr. Bragin, whose new title is director of public programming, Lincoln Center is aiming to capitalize on the Joe’s Pub cool factor and further its slow and sometimes fitful effort to attract younger audiences. Jane S. Moss, the vice president for programming at Lincoln Center, who hired Mr. Bragin, said it was also a chance to give greater credibility to two outdoor series that have often been perceived as lightweight.
“We are eager that they not be perceived simply as a kind of community-outreach audience access point but as significant artistic entities in their own right,” she said.
Mr. Bragin says the substance of his presentations will not change with the move uptown, only the scale. “The metaphor I’ve been using,” he said, “is that you’re painting watercolor miniatures on the one hand, and you’re painting murals on the other.”
Some in the live-music business note that the freedom Mr. Bragin enjoyed at Joe’s Pub might be curtailed on a bigger and more public stage.
“Because Joe’s is so small, you can take a lot of risks,” said Danny Melnick, the president of Absolutely Live and the former artistic director of Festival Productions. “You could do a lot for 100-odd people that you can’t do for 2,000 or 3,000 people.”
Mr. Bragin said the opportunities on a big stage could be even more extensive, and his influence could also widen the range of summer concert offerings in the city, which have already expanded significantly in recent years, with series like the River to River Festival downtown and the indie-rock concerts at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn.
The success of his tenure at Lincoln Center — and of any concert, uptown or downtown — is ultimately in the hands and dancing feet of the audience, Mr. Bragin said.
“It’s about putting artists together in combinations that might not be the most expected,” he added. “But it’s also about the community that’s being built in that period of time. You get people dancing together on the plaza. The next song comes up, and you grab a partner. You build bridges.”
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