NYC NOW - July 21, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

New York City’s congestion pricing plan is facing another challenge. A new record label based in the city is providing a platform for differently-abled artists. And we speak with drummer and songwriter George Brown about the formation of the band Kool & The Gang nearly 60 years ago.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm David First for WNYC. Congestion pricing is facing a new challenge. Officials in New Jersey are suing the federal government to stop New York City's plan to charge motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. The new fees are expected to go into effect as early as next year. Representative Bill Peskrell is a Democrat from New Jersey, he says the plan puts the burden of shoring up the MTA's finances on the Garden State. The Empire State looks across the river, and what they see is not a great state of nine million souls.

They see $9 million signs. The lawsuit argues the federal government rubber-stamped in environmental review, ignoring congestion pricing's impact on North Jersey residents already dealing with traffic and pollution. The Federal Highway Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stay tuned. There's more after the break.

A new record label based in New York City is providing a platform for differently-abled artists. Its first release is out Friday. WNYC's precious fondron has more. When Daniel Trush was 12 going on 13, he started experiencing back-to-back headaches. His father, Ken Trush, thought nothing of it until one day. We were watching play basketball, and he took a shot. He held his head, and he started running towards me, and he just collapsed. The unthinkable had happened. Daniel had five brain aneurysms and was in a coma for 30 days.

The doctors did not expect him to survive. On the second night, they woke me up at the hospital, and they said, get your wife to say goodbye. And I played music when he was in a coma, and I sang to him when he was in a coma. Daniel did actually survive. Now 39, he says his connection to music helped him relearn how to walk and talk and strengthen his memory.

That's why in 2006, the family started Daniel's Music Foundation, a center where disabled people can learn how to play instruments and bond over their love for music. Music therapy felt isolating for Daniel, so he wanted to be social and surrounded by people, and he wanted the same for others too. We wanted to make Daniel's music foundation more group-oriented

so that people could be with other people on their own age, their own ability level. Now, to mark Disability Pride Month, the Foundation is launching a new record label with Media Distribution Company, The Orchard. It's called Just Call Me By My Name. And in addition to Daniel, the label has signed artists

selected from the Danny Awards, a yearly competition the Foundation hosts. Daniel says there's a message behind the label's name. Focus on the person, not the disability. Don't call me a brain aneurysm survivor or a stroke victim. Just call me Daniel, Dan, Danny, or Dan the men from Manhattan. Orchard co-founder Richard Goderer has been in the music business for decades. He says executives are familiar with successful blind artists like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

He hopes, just call me by my name, will encourage the music industry and audiences to be more inclusive of all artists. People in wheelchairs, people with autism, people that have things that on the face of it, you would think might limit their opportunities in life. But they don't look at it that way. But Goddura says the main focus of Just Call Me by My Name is putting out great music. I give you 50 million reasons why we should open our hearts and our minds to a community. For 50 years, Kool in the Gang has ruled dance floors and record charts with hits like Jungle Boogie, Ladies' Night, and Celebration. The band actually got started closer to 60 years ago when brothers Robert Bell, known as Cool, and Ronald Bell, formed the Jazziacs in Jersey City with their friends and neighbors in 1964. Drummer and songwriter George Brown was there from the start.

He spoke with my colleague Michael Hill, ahead of the group's headlighting performance Saturday night in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. You just published a memoir, Too Hot, Cool in the Gang, and me. You tell the story of growing up in Jersey City during the 1950s and a home where life could be rough, but you found music early on. How did you realize that music would be your calling?

I guess music found me. I mean, I've always loved music, but I've always been somewhat of an infamy. And since I was a child, I dreamt the music. So music would be going through my brain while I was sleeping. So I heard all this music. And at some point, I decided to do something with it. So at my church, the Church of Incarnation, I asked a pastor if I could play piano.

No, I didn't play piano. I am self-taught. So I would go in and try to hack out these melodies I heard with my poetry. As time went on, I began to get better and better. It was just perseverance. Later on, I, you know, wasn't a full-fledged pianist, but I got the music down, the chord changes, as they say, and had songs.

Lots of kids get together and form bands in school. as we know and put in plenty of hard work, but few go on to six-decade careers in global fame. What was it about this particular group of friends that you think made it work? I had a strong desire to create music. So we have the same mindset, same type music, same way to go about composing, same neighborhood, all that good stuff. So it just, it's just a happy. you know, in that way. And it does happen.

You look at the Beatles, all the Rolling Stones, groups like Journey. So good friends, getting together to write good music. At least we thought it was good music. How did you discover your gift for writing songs?

Because I was a poet. You know, I wrote a lot of poetry. And sitting down, and teaching myself how to play the piano. I mean, they both work, and they worked very well. And now decades after you form Cool and the Gang, there's a new album out. You're still working with Robert Coolbell, and most of the other members have been in the group for a few decades now. You're headlining a big outdoor show tomorrow night in Flushing Meadows, Corona Park.

What keeps the experience fresh for you? The audience. the energy of the audience performing that keeps it fresh. I've been speaking with George Brown of the legendary group Cool in the Game. Ms. Brown, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. I appreciate it.

A little bit of Cool in the Gang and Jungle Boogie. That was my colleague Michael Hill in conversation with drummer and songwriter George Brown. Thanks for listening to NYC see now from WNYC, I'm David First. Catch us every weekday three times a day. We'll be back next week.