Sustainability is about living in harmony with the planet and each other.
Two kid bands and their parents showed the way at Festival Earth in the Morristown EcoCenter on Sunday.
On paper, Amor and Art of Play look like bitter rivals.
Last year they were one band, Boys Nyte. This crowd-pleasing bunch of seventh-graders had won prizes at the Apollo Theater and Morristown’s Got Talent, and sparkled at our Third Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Festival last August.
But “musical differences” emerged not long after the festival.
Festival Earth slideshow. Please click icon below for captions:
Parents want the best for their children, and that includes how best to showcase their youngsters’ talents.
You still can get a pretty lively argument about who broke up the Beatles. The same probably holds true for Boys Nyte. What’s indisputable is that the band split along these lines:
Budding guitar hero Domenico Randazzo, a late addition to Boys Nyte, became front man of Art of Play. Ricky Webber and Ryan Skoletsky followed Domenico, leaving their Boys Nyte buddies Jaylon and Jevon Jorge.
Ryan recently rejoined the Jorge twins, who added Morristown High School freshman Arminda Flores and a new name, Amor. The quartet will embark on a seven-state “No Bully” tour this summer to promote peaceful schools.
Fast-forward to this weekend.
Art of Play was booked to play Festival Earth on Sunday.
We invited Amor to perform on Saturday.
But Amor had a gig that day. Gingerly, we asked David Jorge, the twins’ dad and manager of Amor, how he would feel about sharing the bill with Art of Play on Sunday.
If Art of Play was okay with it, David said, his band was fine with it. Morristown is a small place and these two groups are bound to cross paths again; let’s make the best of it and move forward, he reasoned.
Not wanting anyone to feel uncomfortable, we asked Domenick and Jean Randazzo, parents of Domenico and managers of Art of Play, what they thought about having Amor join the program. They ran it by parents of band members Ricky Webber, Tyler Volk and T.J. Coon.
Let Amor play, the parents agreed.
The results were electrifying.
Each band played like Sunday was the finals of American Idol.
As Amor showed off new vocalist Arminda Flores–who displayed impressive poise in only her second performance with the group–members of Art of Play watched intently from the audience.
Amor returned that respect when it was Art of Play’s turn on stage.
Domenico gave a shout-out to his former band-mate, Ryan, before launching into Never Apart, a song they had co-written. Earlier, the Randazzos had offered to share Art of Play’s stage gear with Amor as a time-saver.
Art of Play’s set list included a cover that Domenico suggested “some of you old folks will remember,” the Beatles’ Come Together.
The title pretty much summed up the afternoon. Parents from both bands hugged and complimented each other, and the players carried on like old friends–which they insist they are.
“They’re really awesome,” Jevon Jorge said after hearing Art of Play. “They’re really good. Of course we would support them. There are no hard feelings.”
“I thought they were good,” Domenico said of Amor. “I like them. They had nice harmonies. The balance between the bass and the keyboard was nice. It was a good job by the soundboard guy, too.”
Kids acting like grownups, grownups acting like kids — in the best sense of the terms.
Sounds like a blueprint for a sustainable community.
Stay tuned for more highlights from Festival Earth.
Thank you to everyone who came to Festival Earth and supported the musicians and the environmental companies.
Our thanks also to Paul Miller and Sustainable Morristown, sponsor of the weekend event. And our thanks once again to Jonathan Cloud, Chris Kogler, Lori Sandler, Bob Levy and Jack McDonald of the proposed EcoCenter for their hospitality.
Vic Ruiz did a terrific job running the audio on Sunday, with a hand from his wife Kiri and Dom Randazzo.
Our wardrobe (solar powered cooling hat) was courtesy of Ken Glynn at the GreenSmart Store.
Brian Ensminger sent some cool photos of Legato Empire.
Last but not least, our sincere thanks to the performers who made Sunday such a great time. In order of appearance, they are:
Captain Lung: Travis Fielding, Johannes Berger and Andy McNally.
Allie Fielding.
Legato Empire: E.J. Enright and Brad Keyes.
Amor: Jaylon and Jevon Jorge, Ryan Skoletsky and Arminda Flores.
Take One: Dorothea Miller, Colleen Petersen, Chloe Testa, Lindsay Freidenrich, Steven Freidenrich and Eitan Miller.
1st Ave: Julia Draper, Kathryn Rejaei, Mae Hoad, Sabrina Goot and Max Goot.
Art of Play: Domenico Randazzo, Ricky Webber, Tyler Volk and T.J. Coon.
READ MORE ABOUT FESTIVAL EARTH
READ MORE ABOUT THE PROPOSED MORRISTOWN ECOCENTER
The infamous “control-paste” strikes again! Fixed. Thanks, Carolyn. It was a fun afternoon. The bands sounded really great!
Kevin,
Great article! Great show yesterday! The picture of Jaylon and Jevin is labeled with Ricky and Domenico