Marvelous Music of NY: Musical History of the City
Our 4 hour NYC Highlights tour by private vehicle focuses on this city’s rich musical heritage. Open your ears and engage your eyes as you listen and learn about New York’s incredible musical heritage. The tour kicks off with Frank Sinatra’s anthem New York, New York. As we pass Lincoln Center, enjoy the serenade of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite. At Strawberry Fields in Central Park we share the importance of the Beatles and John Lennon’s songwriting legacy.
LUNY! Guide Matt Apter at legendary Jazz club
The Village Vanguard
Dig the development of Jazz and Bebop uptown in Harlem with hot numbers by Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. As we pass by the World Famous Apollo Theater, James Brown belts over the bus’s loudspeakers. Groove to Salsa and Cha Cha by Tito Puente as we skip past East Harlem. No New York musical conversation is complete without riffs on rap, hip-hop, graffiti culture and break-dancing, while listening to beats by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
The World Famous Apollo, in Harlem
Farther downtown in Greenwich Village we hear Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell’s Folk anthems. On the Bowery, specifically the former location of CBGBs – where Punk Rock was born, featuring Talking Heads, Blondie, Television and The Ramones. For a more detailed tour of NYC’s Punk Rock history, check out our HEY HO! LET’S GO! Punk Rock on the Bowery Pub Crawl tour.
Maybe if you’re lucky, LUNY! guide Megan will dance for your group!
Alternately, we can do the entire tour by foot in 3 hours, starting with Central Park’s famous Strawberry Fields, before heading downtown:
From there, we go down to the charming, stylish streets of Greenwich Village where inside and around the bucolic Washington Square, nearly half a century of American music was born, from the early bohemian Jazz clubs, to places where Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and Paul Simon were revolutionizing Folk and Rock music and less than ten years ago, Lady Gaga was getting booed off stage for her wild performance-art antics
From there, it’s down to the East Village where Punk Rock was born on the Bowery! In the 1970’s, New York was a city burning with passion for sex, drugs and a new louder, faster, harsher, drunker version of Rock music called Punk. CBGB’s the club where this music revolution was born is now New York’s most stylish Punk memorabilia shop.
Gallery
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The legendary Apollo – where James Brown, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald and more performed.
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Matt Apter at the Legendary Village Vanguard
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Celebrate the life of John Lennon at Strawberry Fields
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See Lincoln Center, hotspot for classical, jazz, opera and ballet.
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John Lennon in NYC
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The Apollo Theater in Harlem
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Greenwich Village’s Bleecker Street
