Keep an eye out for John Snow

John Snow (photo by John Carges)

New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1960’s was the epicenter of American counterculture, and a magnet for actors, songwriters, musicians, writers, poets, dancers and artists of all types who created within a vibrant six block radius.

A bohemian culture that served first as a hotbed for the literary movement of the Beat Generation it became in the 60’s a world-famous, cutting-edge cabaret and music scene. A dense network of coffeehouses and clubs, particularly along MacDougal and Bleecker Streets, providing opportunities for emerging talent to perform. These intimate venues, often seating 30 to 100 people, were crucial in launching the careers of many legendary performers.

Director and Musical Director John Snow gave us a glimpse of this experience in January with “Greenwich Village in the 60’s” at the beautiful Renberg Theatre in Los Angeles. More of a musical review than a play it is a loosely stung together tapestry of significant songs by artists who were part of the Village scene.

It was performed last year at the Odyssey Theatre as part of Music At The Odyssey which Snow has curated since 2021.

At the Odyssey, Snow also frequently collaborates with the brilliantly innovative Tony Abatemarco and his “Thresholds of Invention”, a cabaret-style series, blending storytelling and song.

As you enter the full house in the theater you see record albums hung on the walls: Peter, Paul, & Mary, Judy Collins, Etta James, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Billy Holliday, Barbara Streisand, Simon & Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Richie Havens, Jackie Wilson, and others. These are just a few of the musicians who performed in Greenwich Village. Two record albums are highlighted on stage: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. I realize I have all of these precious albums. Is this going to be something special?

The program indicates there is a live band, and their instruments sit silently on the empty stage. Upright Bass: John Snow; Piano: Nathan Hellman; Drums: Adam Starkopf; Guitar: Jake Noveck. I’m thinking to myself. A saxophone huh? Interesting.

Jake Novak enters and starts playing electric guitar. The rest of the musicians emerge joining in a swirling sound as Kenton Chen takes center stage and breaks into a stunning version of House Of The Rising Sun. After the third verse, Ben Flocks magically appears hit by a spotlight coming down the aisle with a saxophone solo. The band is with Chen who is expanding and bringing a life to the song that I have never heard before. The last verse Chen ends the song by singing solo. The audience erupts in applause. What a beginning.

This song is over a hundred years old. Very popular in the 60’s Village blues and folk scene.

Bob Dylan was befriended by blues, folk, and jazz singer Dave Van Ronk, often called the Mayor of Greenwich Village. Van Ronk let him crash on his couch for as long as he wanted. His wife Terri was Dylan’s first manager, trying to get him gigs in the Village. Van Ronk introduced Dylan to philosophy, poetry, his massive record collection of folk, blues, jazz. And introduced him around the Village.

It was Van Ronk who got Dylan his first professional gig supporting John Lee Hooker at the legendary Gerde’s Folk City in 1961. New York Times reviewer Robert Shelton wrote a terrific review of Dylan at Folk City in 1961 that led to Dylan’s contract with Columbia Records.

Dylan’s first album was recorded quickly with cover songs including Dylan performing Dave Van Ronk’s distinctive version of House Of The Rising Sun. One day they were walking in the Village and Van Ronk said, “I think I’m going to record my version of House Of The Rising Sun.” Dylan’s response was, “Oh I’m sorry Dave, I just recorded your version on my album.”

Van Ronk felt he couldn’t record or play the song for some time because everyone would think it was Dylan’s. Dylan would have the same experience later when The Animals released their version in 1964. He stopped playing it live because everyone thought it was an Animals song.

This is one my favorite songs. I collect recordings of it. My oldest is a 1925 recording by blues legend Texas Alexander. His recordings are precious relics of early 20th century African-American culture in the rural southwestern United States.

Snow is our narrator introducing us to Greenwich Village in the 60’s and to a song written by Canadian singer/songwriter Ian Tyson … Sometime Soon. Tyson originally performed it on Ian & Sylvia’s album Northern Lights (1964). Judy Collins’ version introduced it to wider audiences on her album Who Knows Where The Time Goes (1968). Another of my favorites.

Bella Hicks’ Sometime Soon gives us a powerful hauntingly heartbreaking sweet sad song. The audience erupts in applause. Another of my favorites. Something special is happening here. This isn’t just any singer. There’s quite an actor here too. Definitely a highlight.

Bella Hicks performing Lawrence Cohen’s classic song Hallelujah (courtesy photo).

Snow says, “ Bella Hicks exemplifies the beauty of the human spirit. She is the kindest of souls. An example of how to be a good person and a fine artist. How to be hopeful for a life through the arts.”

Barbra Streisand got her start singing in Greenwich Village clubs such as the Bon Soir, a small, mostly underground nightclub. Her album Live From Bon Soir recorded in 1962 wasn’t released until 2022. Her song He Touched Me is from her album My Name Is Barbra, Two…(1965).

Center stage, Carolyn Mignini gives us a consummate performance of He Touched Me. Carolyn Mignini is a Drama Desk Award nominee. Rex Reed called her “a radiantly talented singer” who “electrified Broadway”. Mignini debuted in the original Fiddler on the Roof (1964) on Broadway. This is an actress with chops. Think Broadway, Off Broadway, theatre, film and television. In 2025 she starred in the world premiere of The Reservoir by Jake Brasch at the Geffen Theatre. She has this audience in the palm of her hand.

Snow gives a nod to Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan and his 1964 album and song, The Times They Are a Changin’. I’m aware Dylan first performed it live at Carnegie Hall in 1963.

Enter Marcus Petitt who gives us a soulful and charismatic version of The Times They Are A Changin’. What a range he has. It’s gripping and magnetic. It’s a cappella except for John Snow joining in after the first verse, working away on his upright bass complimenting it and adding tremendous depth. Snow playing the subtext, acting out his angst at the current state of the world we are living in now. The audience is spellbound.

Snow gives a nod to Nina Simone who was 29 when she first performed at the Village Gate in 1961. Her album Live At The Village Gate was released in 1962.

India Carney is commanding and stylish giving us Nina Simone’s beautiful, jazzy, and lush Just In Time. Sweet stuff. There’s much to be said about Snow’s musical arrangements for this evening.

Carney has performed at the Apollo Theater, Madison Square Garden, and the Rose Bowl.

Snow makes a nod to John Coltrane who performed at the Village Vanguard in 1961, and released the album John Coltrane Live At The Village Gate (1962). Coltrane’s album My Favorite Things was released in 1961. In 1957 Coltrane and Thelonious Monk first performed together in the Village at the landmark Five Spot Cafe, marking a crucial period for both artists and jazz history.

The band breaks into a version of Coltrane’s My Favorite Things from the musical My Fair Lady. Ben Flocks saxophone takes the lead. It’s time for the band to stretch out. They are all coming into their own. The talented Nathan Heldman is all over the keyboards. Jake Noveck owns the guitar. Snow on upright bass and drummer Adam Starkopf are killing it as the rhythm section. Snow is out of breath and sweating. I love intimate performances.

Snow makes another nod to Judy Collins who introduced many of us to Canadian poet turned singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen with her version of his song Suzanne. Collins urged Cohen to write and perform his songs.

Judy Collins album In My Life (1965) is a pivotal album for me personally. One of my desert island albums. She introduced me to the music of Peter Brooks’s theatrical masterpiece Marat/Sade, my favorite play. To Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel, Brecht and Weill’s Pirate Jenny, Richard Farina, and Randy Newman. Along with versions of songs I love by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Donovan. Cohen wouldn’t release Suzanne until his album Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967). Did I mention this song is one of my favorites.

Sitting on the apron of the stage with Jake Noveck’s acoustic guitar behind her, Carolyn Mignini gives us an intimate, alluring, poetic, angelic, even sensual version of Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne. A highlight. By now I know this is a very special evening. There’s even a shout from the audience, “Bravo!”

Snow reads a Leonard Cohen poem, Prayer for the Messiah from his first book of poetry Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956). The line that echoes is: “ O send out the raven ahead of the dove.” A contrast of war and peace. A contrast of suffering and hope. It establishes themes Cohen would explore throughout his career, blending spiritual yearning with darker, more complex imagery.

Bella Hicks returns with Leonard Cohen’s masterpiece Hallelujah from his album Various Positions (1984). It took Cohen ten years to write this song. It was not a commercial success until it was recorded by Jeff Buckley, and John Cale. Andrea Bocceli, k. d. lang, Rufus Wainwright and Cohen himself made it a classic. It’s tough to pull off but Hicks makes it her own. With a beautiful sax solo by Ben Flocks. I am not alone in the audience in my appreciation for this performance. Hicks has pipes.

Snow tells us about the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in 1967. A gathering place and safe haven for the LGBQ community. Until the police raid it in 1969 pinning people to the ground, demanding ID. It draws a crowd that erupts into a violent uprising. One year later, Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970 was the first Gay Pride Celebration in the country. Snow asks, “How can people carry so much hate?”

Enter Taubert Nadalini center stage singing the Age of Aquarius from the musical Hair. Hicks and Mignini join in as do the rest of the cast, Chen, Mignini, Petit and Carney. There is a wonderful transition into Let The Sunshine In as a chorus comes in through the aisles singing along. The audience clapping and singing along with them.

Greenwich Village was the birth of Off Off Broadway Theatre, Cafe Cino, Judson Poets Theatre, The Open Theatre, La Mama Experimental Theatre, The Living Theatre, and more. The Village was also the creative, cultural, and geographic birthplace of the Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s musical Hair featuring music by Galt MacDonald. Hair premiered in 1967, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater on Lafayette Street in the East Village.

Snow asks, “When will society accept and love people for who they are?” He thanks everyone for attending.

He makes a nod to Greenwich Village’s legendary folksinger Peter Seeger who believed that singing together was a fundamental tool for survival and social change. For Seeger, singing together bridges divides and fosters a connection to humanity that words alone cannot achieve. He adapted the 1900’s hymn We Shall Overcome to make it singable by large groups. Among other things, it became an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

As the cast breaks into We Shall Overcome, the audience one by one stand and join in singing and clapping their hands to the beat until the entire audience is on their feet. That’s an ending.

Congratulations to Snow and his talented collaborators. His arrangements of the music for the band and singers take us to that very time and place of these wonderful songs and artists in a new way. And perhaps, most importantly, they give us a ray of hope.

John Snow returns to the Odyssey Theatre with The Poetry in Music on February 21, at 8 pm. One night only. This is not to be missed. Add it to your calendars.

On Wednesday evenings at 9:30 pm you can catch Snow and Friends performing live jazz at the new Bar Jubilee next to the Whiskey on the Sunset Strip.

The 200 seat Renberg Theatre is a part of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Center that is an integral part of the Los Angeles LBGT Center which provides a space for LGBTQ+ arts, performances, and community events, with proceeds supporting the Center's services for people with HIV/AIDS and other programs.