Avenue Artists 2001 is a summer tradition on the Avenue of the Arts. The idea behind it is this: every Friday afternoon until August 17, a different artist will put on a free lunchtime open-air concert on a different corner along S. Broad Street each week. All this to drum up business for the theatres, hotels and retail stores along the Avenue.
This past Friday, a very small audience gathered on the corner of Broad & Chestnut in front of the Tower Records store to listen to Philadelphia natives
Doug Slick, Richard Orr, Jimmy Parker and Gregg Wright on trombone, clarinet, sousaphone and banjo, respectively. The music was distinctively Dixieland, a form of up-tempo music that originates in New Orleans.
It seemed, though, that the lunchtime crowd didn't quite know how to feel about looking down the barrel of an 80-year old sousaphone, a rather large instrument. Some people were looking for a hat in which to drop their spare change. Of course, there were the lunchtime rushers who were irritated at the vast reduction of passerby space on the already narrow sidewalk. But some people were indeed "shimmying on by" as the promotional flyer for the concert series suggests they should be.
Also on the roster for this summer are classical, jazz and samba performers. If you've got a half an hour or so to spare any Friday at 12:30, why not waltz or jitterbug or tango on down the Avenue.
