Hangin' with Matis! (Yahoooo!!)

pic credit: Barbara Koltun

The PS22 Chorus got a visit yesterday from Matisyahu, the incredible reggae singer, who also turns out to be a rather incredible person! He was awesome with the kids -- laid back and spontaneous -- just our style! Check out these two absolutely BRILLIANT videos that came out of our collaboration yesterday, before the kids had a chance to perform these same songs with him live to a sold out audience at the 92nd Street Y that same night!

And what a fantastic job Leah & Messale did on the solos!! Leah is a complete revelation on this version of "One Day" (the official song of this year's Winter Olympics)! I love the bridge she shares with Matis, especially with the newly added "wiyooooooooo"s!!

And after Messale told Matis he had really been listening lots to his song "On Nature"(which the chorus only learned 1 practice before Matis arrived!), he got an invitation to join in on the verses and bridges (with the words he knew). Yeah, we know Messale could rap from his amazing work on the PS22 version of "Empire State of Mind Pt XXII" but what a great singing voice he has too! When they performed these songs tonight at the 92nd Street Y, the crowd went nuts for Messale & Leah both! Congrats to them and to the chorus (and of course to Matis & guitarist Dave) for a brilliant job! The kids & Matis got a well-deserved standing ovation after their two songs together. We're hoping to get footage of those performances soon.

And of course, leave it to Ethan to get in his obligatory sniff -- even if Jenna was apparently a little freaked out by it all....

Thanks to Ms. Lisa, Mrs. Johnson, Ms. Laurie & Barbara Kolton for the incredible pics and vids you've seen so far! Thanks also to Scott Vollweiler from Broken Record Magazine for taking and sending on even more incredible shots that you can see below!