RED BANK: STREETLIFE GIGS AVAILABLE
It’s not quite the mainstage at the Basie, but the sidewalks of downtown Red Bank offer a platform for singers, musicians and other entertainers to share their talents in the open air this summer. More →
RED BANK: BASIE ADDS TO FOOTPRINT
The Basie acquired this onetime residence in the professional office zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Less than two years after completing a $25 million expansion, the Count Basie Center for the Arts has added to its Red Bank real estate holdings.
But the nonprofit theater has no plans to seek an exemption from property taxes on the newly acquired site, a spokesman told redbankgreen.
RED BANK: BOSS SHOWS UP FOR WORK
Bruce Springsteen arriving at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank Friday.
RED BANK: HOLIDAY CHEER & ‘BUCKS’ IN KICKOFF
The 30th edition of a dazzling Red Bank event, and the first of one helping local businesses compete, kick off the Christmas season Friday and Saturday.
Here’s what you need to know. More →
RED BANK: SECRET STAR OF THE PARADE?
Ok, we could be dead wrong about this, but it seems to us at redbankgreen that there may be an entertainment superstar who enjoyed Red Bank’s Halloween Parade and was able to blend into the crowd in costume.
RED BANK: PUTH TO HEAD $20M BASIE DRIVE
Charlie Puth with Count Basie Center president and CEO Adam Philipson at the kickoff of Puth’s ‘One Night Only’ tour in Red Bank Sunday night.
Press release
Pop music star Charlie Puth has been named honorary chair of the Count Basie Center for the Arts‘ ‘Forever For Everyone’ endowment campaign, the Red Bank venue announced Sunday.
The aim of the drive is to raise $20 million to fund hundreds of scholarships in perpetuity for students interested in studying the performing arts at the Count Basie Center Academy, the nonprofit organization said in an announcement.
RED BANK: PORCHFEST ROCKS TOWN
Sunshine, cool weather, beach chairs, bikes and guitars… Red Bank’s first-ever Porchfest music festival “went off as flawlessly as it could” Sunday, said lone mayoral candidate Billy Portman.
The five-hour festival, which Portman organized with HABcore executive Marta Quinn as a fundraiser for the housing nonprofit, put more than 80 musical acts on 22 porches, lawns and driveways across the borough. Each drew an audience, some in the hundreds.
Traveling around to the various porches, yards and driveways, “I just watched it grow as the hours got later,” Portman told redbankgreen.
The event was nonpolitical, Portman said, though “it is completely aligned with what I hope to do more of as a mayor, and that is bring people together, and focus more on our similarities, and less on our differences.” He also hopes to make Porchfest as an annual occurrence, he said.
redbankgreen stopped in at all 22 venues. Here’s some of what we saw; click photos to enlarge.
RED BANK: PORCHFEST TO FILL EARS & HEARTS
An interactive map for the event displays the lineup of acts at each location; click on circled numbers to view. Below, Carlotta Schmidt is among the scheduled artists. (Photo from YouTube. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
It was not that long ago that Red Bank was a place of large-scale, outdoor music festivals. One needn’t be ancient to recall the sprawling, weekend-long Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Festival in Marine Park each summer, or the spring-and-fall festivals in the White Street parking lot, both of which went dark this year.
But this Sunday, live, open-air concerts come roaring back to the borough in a new, decentralized model that’s been road-tested elsewhere: Porchfest, a five-hour eargasm of 70 acts spread across town on 21 residential porches, plus 11 more acts at a previously scheduled music fest behind a dentist’s office.
RED BANK: STOMPIN’ THRU THE WEEKEND
We kick off this first weekend of autumn, 2022 with the debut of ‘Stomp Your Blues Away,’ a post-pandemic paean to Red Bank by Omega Train.
“When I take my body down to old Red Bank’s downtown,” goes the song, “my pain don’t hurt me anymore.”
Well, that’s music to Red Bank’s restaurants and shops this next-to-final weekend of the Broadwalk outdoor dining plaza. Visitors will also find lots of added attractions, including a Kids’ Takeover from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday; StreetLife music performances Saturday night; and bands at three bars: Red Tank Brewing, Jamian’s and Triumph Brewing.
And the weather looks ideal for stomping… or maybe just strolling. Both Friday and Saturday will be warm and sunny, with early-fall temperatures in the evening, according to the National Weather Service. Sunday’s outlook isn’t look bad, either: partly sunny, with a 30-percent chance of rain after 2 p.m.
Check out the extended forecast below. More →
RED BANK: BARGAINS TO FILL SIDEWALKS
It’s a summer tradition that for 67 summers past has helped sustain local business: the Red Bank Sidewalk Sale. And it returns for a three-day run starting August 19.
RED BANK: EX-STUDENT LEADS CONSERVATORY
Students perform outside the Monmouth Conservatory’s home on Chestnut Street in 2019. Laura Petillo, below. (Click to enlarge.)
Press release
The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank has named violinist and longtime strings instructor Laura Petillo as Manager of Music Programs at its Academy of the Arts and the Count Basie Center’s Monmouth Conservatory of Music.
RED BANK: PORTMAN READY FOR MAYOR’S MIC
Billy Portman in a scene from the 1994 short film ‘No Time,’ directed by Darren Aronofsky. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After his mic-drop win in the Red Bank Democratic primary last month, Billy Portman enters the general election campaign as – in all likelihood – the first mayoral candidate in borough history with an IMDB listing and a “filthy” rap record on his résumé.
It turns out the 53-year-old building contractor/cover-band singer has had a long involvement in comedy and films, too.
RED BANK: BASIE TO HOST JAZZ CAMP
Press release
In another example of creative partnerships designed to empower students through the performing arts, the Gia Maione Prima Foundation will sponsor a free music camp in partnership with the Count Basie Center for the Arts and Red Bank’s Jazz Arts Project.
RED BANK: SPRING FOOD FEST CANCELLED
A shot from the 2015 edition of the event. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank won’t be hosting the annual International Beer, Wine & Food Festival scheduled for May 15 because of “left-over Covid issues,” the event’s organizer said Tuesday.
RED BANK: APARTMENT REVIEW TO RESUME
An elevation showing the Monmouth Street side of the proposed mixed-used project. (Rendering by SOME Architects. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
More than two years after the developer hit the pause button, the Red Bank zoning board’s review of a plan for apartments on Monmouth Street is slated to resume next week.
The proposal is listed at the end of a packed agenda that includes a clinic expansion, a new medical office and requests for commercial signage.
RED BANK: 5K RACE, SYMPHONY TO RETURN
After being mothballed for two years by the COVID-19 pandemic, two events that bring in thousands of visitors to Red Bank are slated to return this summer.
The Red Bank Classic 5K and the New Jersey Symphony concert in Marine Park are among events filling up a calendar wiped clean in 2020 and only partly refilled in 2021.
RED BANK: BASIE, PHOENIX TO MERGE
Phoenix Productions’ home at 56 Chestnut Street was painted over with a two-story mural last month. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
Press release from the Count Basie Center for the Arts
The Count Basie Center for the Arts and Red Bank-based Phoenix Productions intend to merge, allowing the community theatre company to officially become part of the organization which has hosted its productions for more than 30 years, the two nonprofits announced Tuesday.
RED BANK: PHOENIX HOME GETS A MURAL
The nonprofit theater company Phoenix Productions is getting a hard-to-miss new look for its Red Bank home.
The two-story, full-width mural on the facade of the performing arts center at 59 Chestnut Street was approved by the borough council in November. The building’s neighbor out back, the Monmouth Conservatory of Music, also sports a full-facade mural.
Early reviews are welcome in the comments. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: HOLIDAY EXPRESS ROLLS AGAIN
Bundled up against the cold, hundreds of stoked-for-the-season revelers cheered the return of Holiday Express to downtown Red Bank Friday night.
A partial stage-lighting outage was the only bit of rust as the Tim McLoone-led orchestra played its 28th annual show on Broad Street, after skipping 2020 for the pandemic.
As in the past, the concert and downtown light-up followed a dance performance at the borough train station and Santa parade to the concert stage.
Check out redbankgreen‘s photos below to see if you recognize anyone. (Photos by Trish Russoniello and John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: BUNDLE UP FOR HOLIDAY EXPRESS
After a pandemic year off, the high-energy Holiday Express concert and Town Light-Up is slated to return to downtown Red Bank Friday night.
Attendees will want to bundle up for what looks to be a seasonally appropriate chilly and breezy event.
RED BANK: GUITARS, TOYS & TABLES CHURN IN
Relic Music owner Mike Nicosia with one of the Dunable guitars his shop carries. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Amid a booming market for six-stringed instruments, a boutique retailer of electric guitars has opened in downtown Red Bank.
Also in this edition of Retail Churn: a new combo toy and sports memorabilia shop, and a Ukrainian maker of custom tables and jewelry making its United States landfall, both on Broad Street.
RED BANK: THOUSANDS PACK OYSTERFEST
Sunny and cool weather provided ideal conditions for the return of the Red Bank RiverCenter-hosted Guinness Oyster Festival Sunday.
After a missed year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s 11th edition saw fewer local restaurants owing to staffing shortages. But thousands of attendees packed the White Street parking lot, waited patiently in lines for food and drinks, and partied with friends in front of two stages as in the past.
Were you there? Look for yourself and your friends in redbankgreen‘s beaucoup photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: SUN TO SHINE ON OYSTERFEST
Likely to be the biggest bash Red Bank has seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Guinness Oyster Festival is set to return for a skipped-year 11th edition Sunday.
Here’s some helpful information for those planning to attend, including a lookahead at the forecast.
SHREWSBURY: MAN CHARGED AS EMBEZZLER
A Shrewsbury man formerly employed by D’Angelico Guitars of America has been charged with embezzling more than $750,000 from the company and burning through much of it gambling online, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday.
RED BANK & FAIR HAVEN: SALE DAYS BEGIN
Shoppers found bargains, and some relief from the heat, under a sale tent on White Street as Red Bank’s 67th annual Sidewalk Sale got underway Friday.
Fair Haven is also hosting one.