Let's Fly Away

Let's Fly Away

New York Jazz vocalist Molly Ryan and her group (*) entertain on the uptown platform of the Second Avenue Subway station of the IND F line on the Lower East Side of Manhattan while, behind them, a vintage train of R1-9 series subway cars making up this year's Holiday Nostalgia Train is ready to depart on its journey.

But, this being New York, it's more than an event for riding on or viewing vintage subway trains. When these trains
took to the rails on the Sixth and Eighth Avenue lines of the then-new IND Subway system in the 1930's, the popular music of the day was being created by the likes of Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, and Duke Ellington.

And it's that era that is being played out on this platform and on this train, scheduled to depart for 125th Street in Harlem, as nostalgia fans show up in carefully selected period outfits to enjoy the music, dance on the platform, and board the train for its time travel beneath the streets of Manhattan on this December afternoon.

Oh, yes, on this particular outing, while modern F trains were calling at this station every few minutes, the Nostalgia Train's departure was being delayed by a track issue uptown affecting its transitioning to a non-standard route. So, Ms. Ryan's performing of Cole Porter's "Let's Fly Away" was not only an homage to when the cars making up the train were new, but perhaps also an upbeat reflection of passengers' desire to get underway.

But how could one possibly be impatient amidst the festivity and with such infectious music wafting along the platform...

©2018 Steve Ember
(*) Dan Levinson, clarinet
Vinny Raniolo, guitar
Andrew Hall, bass
http://www.mollyryan.com/