James "Plunky" Branch on his Rosewood Avenue front porch
Since the middle of April, local jazz musician James “Plunky” Branch has turned the porch of his home on Richmond’s Rosewood Avenue into a stage. The 72-year-old saxophonist’s nightly sets are brief and typically attract a handful of neighbors and friends to hear the jazz and funk sounds he’s become known for.
He says the shows grew out of a night of applause that brought residents out of their homes to pay respect to essential workers, inspired by a similar effort in New York City. One night, after the clapping, a neighbor asked Branch to play something.
“And that's how it started,” he says. “You know, when I started, I had really zero idea that it would be any kind of a big thing, much less something that 20,000 people would watch.”
Indeed, the shows have expanded since those April nights. He started out with just his horn, adding amplification and backing tracks to later performances, along with singing. The weekend concerts that feature members of his band, Oneness, and are streamed on his Facebook page, have drawn thousands of viewers from around the world, along with children on bikes and in strollers with their parents in the grassy median that divides his street. A virtual tip jar was added for some of the shows that offsets the costs of bringing his musicians along for what he calls a “paid rehearsal.” The veteran performer concedes the extra attention caused him to alter his approach to preparing for the shows.
“Once I started streaming … it was always kind of a pressure. … Even though this looks like I'm just standing out here and I’m improvising, I put thought into it,” he says. “And so coming up with a set list, even if it was only gonna be four songs, how are they going to connect?”
There’s no question that the music continues to connect with audiences. Last week, about 20 people watched as he merged sounds from “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the song often referred to as the Black national anthem, as he walked down the sidewalk. He then held a note while walking back to his home and up several steps before ending the show.
Branch’s more avant garde sounds have reminded some of his past as an activist and an independent musician who released his own records in the 1970s. (Two projects are being re-released this summer on Strut, a UK record label.) But the sounds from his porch concerts are more likely to soothe and calm troubled minds upset by the effects of the pandemic and society’s upheaval.
“The vast majority of the time, that's my intent, to give them a reason to sigh, to breathe, to let go, to say, here’s a moment of some sort of peace or a moment of beauty, of some sort of release,” he says. “There’s something very introspective about a solo instrument playing.”
But even on the nights when it’s just Branch and his horn, he’s not alone. One neighbor has come to every show, rain or shine, despite only recently learning how to walk. Branch looks forward to visits from his 15-month-old fan and sometime accompanist. “He comes down the block with a big smile. His family comes every day. He usually has an instrument, a shaker, a tambourine, a little xylophone or plastic guitar, but he makes it special,” he says.
Neighbors gather in the median to hear Branch play.
Other neighbors have shown their support also. “There’s a little lady who lives up the street, across the street, and she came down the street one day to tell me, ‘I can't come out every day because I'm not well, but … every day I'm in my bed and by the window and I'm listening to you play. You have to keep doing this every day forever.’ ”
Branch says the shows will continue at least until the end of July. He acknowledges that part of his appeal to a somewhat captive audience is that he’s the only game in town, with nightclubs and other venues shut down.
“My neighbors on the block, who are my biggest concern, [in] that I don't want to disturb their peace, ... they have been extremely supportive and have all, for the most part, voiced very positive response to it,” he says. “They think I'm a good thing for the neighborhood. So that's good.”
One thing that happens when you’re a well-known musician who performs from home on a regular basis is that lots of people know where you live. So far, Branch says there hasn’t been a downside to that.
“Well, it hasn’t been bad, at all. Fortunately for me, for the most part, I'm fairly positively thought of in the community,” he says, laughing. “So I don't have many haters coming in [to] look me up. So far!”
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