The Members, a kids band that formed at our MorristownGreen.com Music Fest last fall, are learning all kinds of valuable lessons from guitar ace Grover Kemble, their mentor.
High on the list: The show must go on.
Jordan Black, who shares lead vocals with Olivia Platt, was suffering from laryngitis over the weekend but managed a gutsy performance at the annual Cutler Park block party in Morristown. (Slide show below.)
Olivia came up with a big afternoon at the microphone, with strong backing from Travis Fielding on drums and Joannes Burger on keyboard.
Above is their debut of Grover’s latest infectious composition, A Day in the Sun. Our thanks to Johannes’ dad, Hans-Joerg Burger, for the video.
Cutler Park, by the way, is a pretty historic place, in a town full of historic places.
Three generations of Cutlers lived at 21 Cutler St.–now a Montessori school–in the 19th century, according to former Councilwoman Margret Brady, citing the Cam Cavanaugh book In Lights and Shadows.
In those days, the place was a working farm, complete with a house to store ice cut from nearby Speedwell Lake. The Cutlers were prominent in Democratic politics; Augustus Cutler served in Congress and his wife Julia lobbied for creation of Morristown High School and for public education of African-Americans. One of New Jersey’s last slaves, Jenny Ader, lived with the Cutlers until her death at age 106, Marge relates.
Dr. Silas Cutler married Sarah Vail, whose family built the Speedwell Iron Works, where the telegraph was developed in the 1830s, and Willow Hall, home today to the Passaic River Coalition. After Julia Cutler’s death in 1908, the Cutler farmstead was subdivided into the Cutler Park neighborhood, with streets named for Cutler family members, Marge said.
MEMBERS ONLY:
Video: Members create some buzz at Festival Earth in Morristown
Hi Tim–
Which part is not accurate?
–Kevin
Not entirely accurate, but no harm done.
Morristown probably holds the record for the number of individual neighborhoods with distinct personalities. Each different from the other and yet each special in its own way.
Cutler Park is lucky to have Grover Kemble as a mentor for this group of talented musicians. Grover is the best.
Cutler Park is a great neighborhood and I enjoy pieces like this that highlight some of the special features of the neighborhood.
Mmmm. if we could get a nice sign like the one in Cutler Park for each of the neighborhoods, people passing through, would know where they were and be reminded that people do live in all parts of Morristown….like Franklin Corners, Headquarters, Historic, Alexander Hamilton and others. Wouldn’t that be great.