We are delighted for you to be our first audience
since we got together again.
You know, we-- we haven't been able to play together
for a long, long time, and this is the time,
so, please, you know, forgive our errors.
We have a little bit of rough edges.
♪♪ [clarinet]
♪♪ [clarinet continues]
[no audible dialog]
♪♪ [clarinet continues]
Bradford Sharp. This is my first movie.
My very first one. We're shooting on film. Kinda nervous.
Uh, it's untitled.
And just remember, everybody, just be natural,
be realistic, be in the moment.
Are you excited to play after time away?
Uh, yeah. I'm really excited.
I am also very curious about where we're playing,
because knowing Rodrigo, it's probably pretty interesting.
Bradford: What do you love about the oboe?
Hailey: What do I love about the oboe?
I don't really know what I love about the oboe anymore,
except that I know that I do love it.
You know that the oboe actually, like, symbolizes
the sound of love and--
Not like romantic love, but I think love in general.
- Okay, Warren Boyd. - Yeah?
Here. This one's for you. All the way to the back.
- Huh. [laughs] - And, uh, Union Bob.
Have you played this? I did it in Sweden and it's, uh--
- I don't know. Yeah. - It's pretty, um--
- It's kind of crazy. - It's crazy?
- Yeah. - This is the first time you've played together
in quite some time. I'm curious to know what you--
what you feel like right now?
Well, I can't wait. I mean-- Huh.
I-- I've been dying for the last four months, or however long it's been.
I'm happy that I get to, um--
to sub, and... right now it feels good.
How long will your film be?
You know, right now I don't like to talk about
my work when it's happening,
uh, but I just want to be with you guys.
It could be-- It's really up to you guys how long it is.
Bradford: What instrument are you the most jealous of?
What instrument am I the most jealous of?
Like what you'd like to have the skill playing.
Um, Dee Dee. [chuckles] I'm j-- For him. The percussion.
Bradford: What does it take to be a good percussionist?
You really have to love what time can do.
You know, you can either play it on the beat,
behind the beat, in front of the beat.
And what's interesting is all different conductors
want time placed differently.
Bob: What, we're here?
This is where we're going?
Yo. We're going to jail.
No, no.
[chatter]
All right, let's get off the bus real quick.
I'm not even surprised.
What the hell?
So, guys, we're gonna get onto that bus that is over there,
the white one, and we're in a bit of a hurry, okay?
So none of your usual, you know, thingies,
ten-minute break and everything.
Bradford: Okay, you guys heard the maestro.
Very fast, please, guys.
Let's get down low here, I want to get down low.
Dee Dee: The Maestro, totally unpredictable.
I had no idea where we were gonna go.
And then when Bob saw the sign to Rikers,
I thought, [chuckles] oh, right.
Why didn't I realize this to begin with?
I mean, a classic Rodrigo move, right?
Gloria: Rodrigo had just returned to us,
and this was his idea.
I thought it was unconventional,
but that's very much Rodrigo, and that's why I love him.
So I thought, well, let's give it a shot.
I wanted to encourage Rodrigo
because he had just come back,
so I thought let's-- let's give it a shot.
Has a orchestra of this size--
Don't film me. Actually, do film me
in case I want it for later just to have--
I don't know if I'm gonna be--
What kind of documentary this is gonna be yet,
if I'm gonna be off camera or on camera,
so we get one of both, each.
Maybe we get one of each.
Better to have extra fabric in the legs and then take the pants in,
you know what I'm sayin'?
Um, has an orchestra of this size ever, uh, played, uh,
in this facility before?
- No, this is the first time-- - Not of this size.
This is the first time we've had an orchestra,
um, perform for the inmate population
in, uh, Rikers Island.
♪♪
Woman: Okay, ladies and gentlemen,
you have now reached Rikers Island security check point.
Uh, once you get off the bus,
you will be given further instructions
on, uh, clearing the security check point. Okay?
♪♪
Man: All right, people, listen up.
Penal law 305.25 is a D felony.
Anyone caught with contraband will get arrested.
We do not discriminate here in Rikers Island.
No cell phones, no tobacco, no electronic equipment.
[no audible dialog]
♪♪
Dee Dee: I didn't know where we were going,
and, uh, frankly, I didn't care.
I trusted it was gonna be some musical experience,
and I was cool with that.
♪♪
Cynthia: We walked up and there's--
You know, there's Manhattan, the skyline,
and-- and then there's the fencing.
It was kind of a-- It had a weird beauty to it.
[orchestra tuning up]
Rodrigo: To listen to music
is definitely, uh-- is a right.
You know? Um, and to make music, therefore, but--
Is to listen to this type of music, I think, it is a right.
I think it is something that, uh--
that anyone should be allowed to
because the thing that gives you peace,
even if peace is not allowed
into-- into your world.
Music is the biggest, uh, common denominator.
We're looking for reasons why to
keep on playing as an orchestra.
Bradford: [whispering] Go up to the skyline, then come back,
but make it look like you still care about what he's saying.
...I think we're gonna find something here,
which I don't know what it's gonna be,
but it's only doing it that we're gonna find out
the real reason why we're here.
Bradford: Nice.
As all things good, it is gonna be reciprocate.
They're gonna give it back to us,
and they're gonna give us, um...
a way of, um--
You know, a-a reason of why to-to--
to do what we do.
Bradford: Are you nervous?
Yeah. [chuckles]
Yeah, kind of...
nervous, but at the same time,
it's gonna be perhaps one of the...
best audiences we're ever gonna have.
Rodrigo: Well, what we're gonna play today
is little pieces from the same composer.
He fought in the second World War,
when he was taken prisoner.
And most of his most important prominent works,
come when the time that he was in the prison camp.
In the beginning, I didn't know what was going on,
but then I saw the orchestra, and I said,
I don't like that kind of stuff.
So I just sat down, and for the first time in my life,
I enjoyed it because it's something--
something I experienced for the first time in my life.
I never experienced something like that.
Never heard, really, music like that.
Even though I lived in New York my whole life,
never went to no concert like that, nothin',
so it was an experience.
I just closed my eyes and I was letting the instruments
just come to me,
and I just felt free like that, you know?
It was just-- It was just...
a different type of feeling.
Like you could say I was in, like, a trance.
Like, I was here physically, but emotionally and spiritually,
like, I was, you know, gone.
♪♪
[music ends]
[applause]
Okay.
So, Messiaen, he used all his senses
when he was imprisoned to escape.
He believed that, uh-- that the music gives the power to fly.
He loved birds,
and amongst them was the nightingale.
[speaking Spanish]
Okay, well, he wrote a piece for the nightingale.
This is a bird that sings at night only.
So basically, this bird you cannot see,
but you can listen.
A little bit like God.
♪♪ [clarinet]
♪♪
[music ends]
[applause]
Ondes Martenot interview, take one.
Bradford: It's pronounced...
Woman: "Ond Marten-oh."
The last name Martenot was the name of the inventor?
That's right, the engineer who built it.
What does Ondes mean?
Ondes means wave.
So wave and then his name.
Yeah, his wave.
♪♪[eerie]
I always imagined that I would play this instrument in a jail.
- Really? - Yes, because it was...
born out of such a utopic vision,
and then it's the one sound that Messiaen took with him
when he went to prison.
♪♪
[music ends]
[applause]
Messiaen was very sure that at the end, love conquered all,
and that hope was there.
He wrote this piece straight after he came out of prison.
So here's the ending.
♪♪
[music ends]
[applause, cheering]
See, I-- I always-- I always wanted to go to see an orchestra,
a symphony orchestra. I mean, to take my girl out and black tie and everything.
It's my first time being there in an orchestra,
and it was-- it was an experience.
And it was, uh, nice. It was a beautiful experience.
I've never before saw an orchestra play
until yesterday.
And it was magnificent, man.
I can't describe it, it was like...
my hair is rising up.
Rodrigo: It was incredibly memorable
to see how they would, like, close their eyes,
and they would just listen to the music.
It was incredible. It was--
That's gonna stay with me, watching them
listen to the music, and letting themselves go.
It-- I just-- I could zone now.
Just see my-- It just makes me think about my family.
Peace of mind, you know?
Tranquility, I could just really fall asleep to it,
have good dreams to it.
Just peaceful, basically, for real.
You know, I had my mind in a lot of different places.
Some-- Like, sometimes I went dark,
sometimes I went happy.
Life, death. Freedom.
The feelings that got dark was positive. You know?
Nothing was negative about that experience.
I found myself smiling a lot,
and I found myself lost,
you know, just hearing a lot of the sound.
You know, it's just hard to just let yourself go
the way you really want to, but, yeah,
it bring a lot of feeling and, you know,
and, yeah, it-- I-- I was in touch with myself.
This is gonna be a one time in a lifetime thing, right?
Wonderful. Beautiful.
I enjoyed it.
Beautiful.
Inmate: It took me away from where I'm at, definitely did.
You know, it-- it made me think a lot,
and as the birds were flying, it was a very beautiful day.
Even when I went out to the yard today,
I went out earlier, you know,
I went around and did my little work out,
and I seen, I said, wow, everything is gone,
like, yesterday, everything was there,
and then today everything's just gone just like that.
I said, wow, but I could still imagine,
like, seeing everything in my head.
Everything was just there yesterday,
and-- and it was so-- so--
The vibe was just so brilliant. It's great.
♪♪
Rodrigo: When we share these very intense experiences,
and I think what-- what's interesting is that
the family aspect came together
by the fact that all of our different experiences
were being played at that time.
We had no time to prepare.
Um, we rehearsed very little.
So when we got our experiences of not being with each other
so in that sense, it's like a family reunion.
♪♪
Gloria: I feel at peace again.
that we're-- finally have things humming the way it should be again,
and we're-- we have-- we're whole,
and we have a future.
♪♪
a future.