A Pauline About Town

NEW YORK

Simon Mulligan (1986-1991) began his musical career while still at St Paul’s, playing piano in a jazz band. He then became a concert pianist, in demand around the world but especially in the US. He moved to New York in 2003 and has lived there ever since.

MUSIC EATING

On a Zoom call he tells Atrium that the last few years have brought some big changes to his life.

Sadly, he lost his mother just before the pandemic, and his father during it. ‘I was back and forth between New York and Kent the whole time, in eerily empty airports. In a way it was good that all my performances were cancelled, it meant that I could devote myself to seeing them.’ And he used lockdown as an opportunity to livestream nightly salons – every night for 400 nights in a row – ‘I hope it cheered people up a bit, at a time when lots of people were becoming gloomy and cantankerous – I tried to offer some musical balm. Also, it gave me a chance to catalogue all my sheet music that I’ve acquired over the years.’ He also got engaged to his long-term partner Jackie and bought a house with her – ‘it’s been a pretty eventful period.’

Like all cities, New York was badly hit by the pandemic, with some people wondering if it would ever fully recover its old vitality.

But it certainly has, Simon assures us: ‘It’s lovely to see it all blossoming again.’ So, we asked for his top tips. Sadly a few jazz cubs closed during the pandemic. My old haunt Cornelia St Café has gone, which feels like the end of an era. It was set up by Robin Hirsch (1956-61), so it felt like a real home from home. But the doom and gloom shouldn’t be overstated. There are still loads of bars with live music. I’ve just formed a new jazz trio, and we’ve been playing in a very cool bar on the Lower East Side called Nu Blu – it’s a fantastic space to play. And Village Vanguard is still going strong, it’s the heart of the whole jazz scene. And Birdland, once the home of Charlie Parker, is really thriving, they’ve just built a second stage, which is more like a theatre – they do three shows a night. And Blue Note in the West Village is still a great place – I saw the guitarist Al Di Meola there the other day. The music goes on! In fact, there’s a new sense of people really appreciating live music – a bit like the revival of vinyl. In some ways, the restaurant scene is livelier than ever after COVID – lots of restaurants put seating out on the street and it’s stayed there. In fact, it’s a mixed blessing – you might find yourself dining right next to the traffic.

One of my regular performance venues over the years has been Steinway Hall, home of the famous pianos. It has never fully reopened since lockdown, but I’ve continued to work for them, doing some recordings (look out for my new Percy Grainger album). So, I know a few nice places to eat round there, on 6th Avenue. I’d recommend Un Deux Trois, on 123, West 44th street. It’s a classic French brasserie with a lovely family atmosphere, don’t miss the onion soup.

I recently discovered a nice fish restaurant called Lure, on Mercer Street in SoHo. They do a fantastic cocktail that was new to me, called The Last Word, made from a hundred-year-old recipe. Recently I took my son there, for his fifteenth birthday, and sitting at the next table was Alex Rodriguez, the baseball star, who is a sight to see in real life. Well, my son is sports mad, so I said, oh yes, I arranged that. It’s the sort of thing that happens a lot in New York, those chance sightings – and SoHo especially.

MUSEUMS

The Met is great but it’s quite an undertaking, you feel you should spend all day there. I prefer smaller museums and galleries where you feel you’ve seen the whole thing on one visit, and my favourite is the Morgan Library on Madison Avenue. It was the home of the banker J.P. Morgan – he travelled the world buying up first editions and manuscripts, including many amazing musical manuscripts. I love those old rooms with huge high ceilings, and bookshelves lining the walls. There’s a great concert hall there – part of the extension built by Renzo Piano – and I give recitals there once in a while.

The Frick Collection is also the right sort of size for me. It’s another treasure-trove home of some old squillionaire. You can get to know the paintings, feel a bit at home there, and also feel you’re getting a glimpse of the old New York. I always walk around Manhattan it’s the best way to get around – I love noticing new things, seeing how it’s changing. Recently I saw that they were demolishing the old Hotel Pennsylvania, which I know from the old Glenn Miller song Pennsylvania 6-5000 – it was a huge jazz venue in the 20s and 30s. I found out that they were auctioning off some of the fixtures, and we managed to get a chandelier for our new house! We had to haggle them down a bit!

The High-Line is a great park if you can call it a park. It’s the old overground train line, converted into a walkway with lots of gardens and some art works. You get good views of the lower Westside, and over to New Jersey. Central Park’s OK, but I prefer the little parks and squares, tucked away, that you come upon by mistake. In fact, there’s one called Mulligan Park, named after some Irish policeman – that’s obviously my favourite! And the bigger ones like Herald Square are oases of calm amid the hubbub.

If you’ve got kids, the Central Park Zoo is brilliant – there’s a petting zoo that my son used to love. There’s also a new aquarium in Brooklyn. And Times Square is still a spectacle that young folk seem to like. And if you’re over in New Jersey, the Pinball Museum is great fun.

 Morgan Library  High Line Park

WALKING EVENTS

New York loves its festivals and parades. Hallowe’en is huge, especially in Greenwich Village, and also the family neighbourhoods of Brooklyn – everyone dresses up, the streets are full of crowds.

Macy’s Parade at Thanksgiving is a big event with floats and huge inflatables – but if you’re not so keen on huge crowds I have a good tip – you can go along the day before and see them preparing it all testing out the balloons – it’s like being behind the scenes. You also get that sense just by walking around at night – you see things getting delivered, and the horses and carts of Central Park going back to their stables on 12th Avenue. Also, strange one-off things. For example, I’m a Lego fan so I was lucky to see them installing the life-size X-Wing Starfighter in Times Square one night. There’s always something unusual going on. 

 Macy's Parade