We had Martin Rivas on our schedule for weeks for a 9pm show last night. When I woke up yesterday, I had an email from David Fallo (sent to all of his followers, I’m not particularly special). He was promoting a show he would be a part of that was (unfortunately) opposite Martin’s.
We love David (he’s a superb viola player) and don’t get to see him enough. So, just having a chance to see him would have caused us to rethink our plans (we see Martin all the time, for good reasons, obviously). Still, it was more about how much David was gushing about the headliner that he was supporting:
In case I forgot to tell a couple of you on here, being onstage with Nisha has been one of the highlights of my career. She’s a soulful mix of pop and jazz, but also creates her own genre.
… (I’m stripping out stuff that might sound too much like hype!)
I cannot lobby you hard enough. Come out if you can. It’ll be a great night
If you know David, you’ll know how unusual it is to get such a hard sell.
Nisha Asnani is the Nisha he mentions above. Ironically, we had seen her sing backup on two numbers five months ago when she supported Mighty Kate. She did a lovely job and I noted it. Still, I didn’t even realize that night that Nisha is a headliner (singer/songwriter) on her own.
She was headlining at the 92Y Tribeca which we’d never been to before. I purchased tickets online and we were all set.
Nisha split her show into two sets. During the first, she sat at the grand piano and sang (without playing). She was backed by a full band and two female singers.
However I describe her voice/style/songs, I won’t do them justice. Read her bio, listen to the music streaming on the ReverbNation site linked to her name and decide for yourself. Here’s what I’ll say. No two songs sounded alike, other than the unifying beauty of her voice, the beautiful arrangements and the quality of the band and backup singers.
So, in addition to singing stunningly well, she’s an excellent songwriter, in every sense of the word. She can be super serious (e.g., On an On, a gospel-style number), as well as cheeky and fun (e.g., T-shirt).
Speaking of T-shirt (currently the last song listed on the ReverbNation site), she closed the first set with that song. She showed off her stage presence by performing a small skit with the evening’s host (more on him later) before working up to the song itself.
Between sets, the host entertained us with a free-style rap. Five minutes later Nisha returned. She changed her outfit and just about everything else in the second set.
She played the grand piano on every (or nearly every) number. She opened it with just a cello accompanying her (I’ll mention everyone who was on stage shortly). That was followed by bringing out the rest of the string quartet (which included David Fallo). The band returned along with the backup singers. That made for 10 people on stage for most of the second set.
Nisha is quite accomplished on the piano, which makes it all the more impressive that she can sit at one without playing it for the first set in the show. Clearly, she can enchant all by herself, just singing and playing the piano. Thankfully, she gave us that much more to enjoy and marvel at!
When the set was over, Nisha received an instantaneous standing ovation. Unlike most standing ovations, the crowd started chanting (loudly) “Encore, Encore, Encore…” (obviously, repeating it). For too many reasons, we really needed to run, so we left while that was going on (trust me, if I didn’t have to leave, I would have loved to hear Nisha sing all night!).
As we reached the door, one of the many nice people who work at the 92Y made a point of letting us know that she’d be coming back out for at least one more number. We thanked him for caring enough to tell us, but explained that we really had to run. I imagine it was spectacular.
I can assure you that if it’s possible, Nisha’s future shows will be “can’t miss” for me. That she’s accessible at a place as beautiful and intimate as the 92Y Tribeca is both a blessing and a travesty all at the same time. As David said in his email (in the part I skipped):
I honestly look forward to the time when she does headline Carnegie.
Me too, even though I won’t be as close as I was last night. Since I brought up the venue, let me say that the sound system and sound engineer were flawless. With 10 people on stage, all making joyful noises, you could pick out any sound you desired and concentrate on it and enjoy it, or let it all soak in at once, easily. A rare treat!
On to the incredible people who supported Nisha, in my usual left-to-right on the stage order:
Ande Alvarez singing backup vocals. Beautiful job, including a perky/bubbly personality.
Pauline Pisano singing backup vocals. Beautiful job as well. There were a very few times when Ande sang with Nisha and Pauline didn’t, but for the most part, it was 3-part harmony.
Steve Bargonetti on acoustic guitar. Steve fully deserves a post of his own, I’ll never do justice to how impressed I was/am with him and his play. Here’s my feeble attempt to honor him.
First, while the band and backup singers were getting into position (10 minutes before Nisha hit the stage), Steve was playing some licks softly on the guitar and bantering with the singers (at one point he seemed to guide them on a number that they had a question about). From that little amount of play I turned to Lois and said “Holy cow, the guitar player is awesome!”. I’ve been to shows where that doesn’t translate to a particular set. Not this time, he was brilliant on every number.
Second, his guitar is tiny. The neck appears to be full-sized in width, so he doesn’t have to scrunch his fingers together, but in every other dimension, it’s a dwarf guitar. And yet, the sound is spectacular and he can change it to suit the style he wishes to play. Thankfully, you don’t have to imagine what I mean here.
He custom-designed the guitar with Martin, and documented it in a 10-minute video. He plays enough during the video (all the way to the end) that you can judge for yourself both the merits of the guitar and of his exceptional skills.
Amazingly, he doesn’t have his own site. Linked to his name above are his numerous Broadway credits. He’s also been in a movie (naturally). He has a Twitter account (that I now follow), but he has never tweeted and he only follows CNN (I doubt he actually checks his feed). Steve, if you read this, start tweeting! 
I need more of Steve Bargonetti in my life. I guess I’ll have to go see him in Broadway shows.
Chris Eddleton on drums. Chris did an excellent job. I usually pay way more attention to drummers than I did to Chris last night, but I was so mesmerized by Nisha and Steve that I fell down on the job. Still, I noticed enough to know that he’s very good!
Zach Abramson on electric bass. Zach was excellent on the bass throughout. You can safely ignore that, because it was hardly his biggest achievement. Zach arranged the music (for sure the string section, but probably everything else) and he seemed to be coordinating the activities on the stage before each set as well.
Considering how perfectly everything sounded, and how integral the strings were to Nisha’s sound, Zach deserves tremendous respect (which he now has from me).
Amanda Lo on violin. The entire string section was great, Amanda included. Read her bio, be impressed!
Antonia Nelson on violin. Antonia was equally impressive. She is the founder of Siren Baroque, which is why I linked her name to the About page on that site.
David Fallo on viola. You already know everything you need to know about how we feel about David. For us to change our plans on the day of a show on someone’s recommendation, that someone better be pretty special. David is.
Jessie Reagen Mann on cello. We got to hear way more of Jessie than the rest of the strings. She supported two of the four opening acts and played with Nisha alone to open the second set. She was fantastic on all sets.
What was perhaps most impressive is that she’s very pregnant. I was surprised she could bring the cello close enough to her body to get her arms on the other side of it. 
Jessie looked so familiar to me that I was sure we had seen her before. Unfortunately, I can’t find a mention of her in my blog (and I rarely leave any performers out), so I am probably wrong.
Here’s the string quartet together:
Whew. That’s it for Nisha’s incredible supporting cast.
Now to back up and describe (much more briefly) what came before Nisha.
I mentioned that there was a host (MC). His name was Advocate of Wordz. Come on folks, who gives their kid the middle name of.
He was a combination of host, comedian, poet, rapper and promoter of all of the other acts. He did a very nice job with all of those roles. I mentioned above that Nisha did a skit with him. It started with her asking him for his T-shirt, and then putting it on. He sat on stage and visually responded (playfully) to the lyrics.
There were four opening acts, each of whom performed two numbers. Three were singers and one was a poet.
The crowd was reasonably enthusiastic about each. Perhaps they really liked them, perhaps they were being polite. When I applauded, it was mostly politeness. Two of the acts were a bit painful to sit through (even though they were short!). One was OK, and one was talented/pleasant, but did nothing for me.
I could write an entire post about each, and my reaction to them, even though they were on stage for under 10-minutes per person. But, I won’t, for two reasons: 1) this is my fourth post of the day and I want to move on to other things and 2) I don’t want to turn this into a negative post, when Nisha turned the evening into such a win.
is one one of Amy’s specialties. Madison Square Garden is a small venue for Amy. We watched her sing it live (in HD) from a NASCAR event (over 100,000 people, perhaps twice that?). Still, that isn’t what occupies most of Amy’s professional life.
