The Payphone Project caught up with Natalia Paruz, the New York City street musician known as The Saw Lady, as she was performing in the Times Square subway station a couple of months ago.
For over a decade Ms. Paruz has championed the revival of the musical saw, an ancient instrument which enjoyed popularity from about 300 years ago through to the early 20th century before falling out of favor around World War II. Read more about the history of the Musical Saw at Natalia’s web site: What Is the Musical Saw? Keep up with Natalia’s subway busker adventures at her Subway Music Blog, and be among her thousands of followers on Twitter.
For a number of years now I have used payphones to capture sounds of NYC’s subway buskers. Somehow it eluded me that the famously talented Saw Lady was among those sharing their musical gifts with transients passing through the city’s underground transit corridors.
Compared to other subway musical acts the musical saw instrument emits a relatively small sound. On account of this I thought the payphone’s handset microphone (not exactly a dynamic audio capture device) would be unable to distinctly capture the music amid the surrounding ambiance of everyday subway traffic.
I was happy to find that the sound of the musical saw came through just fine, albeit with not as full a sound as other instruments or ensembles. This type of listening experience might not be for everyone. Some will hear more static and interference than music. Others like myself find that the muffled, tinny sound of music filtered through the landline gives it a veil of mystery, even enchantment. The mysterious and at times theremin-like timbre of the musical saw adds to the aural intrigue.
Listen in as the sound of The Saw Lady’s music intermingles with bustling noise of the subway station, piercing the space as it reaches out through the grey, monochrome sound of the landline.
Here are some of my other favorite captures of subway musicians heard through nearby payphones: