Art Garfunkel makes a Simon-less trip to Plaza Live
Art Garfunkel knows what people want to ask him. “You may say, ‘Do you ever think you’ll work with Paul Simon again?’” said the singer on the phone from New York. “It’s a popular question.”
One half of the legendary duo Simon & Garfunkel, the New York native has put together a solo tour, hitting Orlando’s Plaza Live on Sunday, Feb. 24 (7:30 p.m., 425 N. Bumby Ave., $46-$57, plazaliveorlando.org). The concert features original songs, standards and some hits from the folk group that made him famous.
“For the whole first half of my life, Paul and I worked very hard to generate curiosity about us, interest in us,” said Garfunkel, 77. “It would be coy if after we gained all that interest and popularity, we now turned our backs on it.”
The new show, however, is about letting people get to know him. He has subtitled the show In Close Up. “I want to be personal,” he said. “I want the audience to finally know who Art Garfunkel is. They know I’m a singer, I think. They know I sang harmonies for Paul Simon. Some of them might know I acted in movies.”
Being close to his audience “means fear” to Garfunkel. “It means real exposure.”
Part of the impetus behind this show was losing his voice in 2010. “I worked very hard to rest it, to train it, to tease it back and get on stage and face the pain of being vulnerable,” he said. “By 2013, I was singing again. There it was in full.”
In addition to the singing, Garfunkel wants to share another side of his talents. “I want people to know that I’m literary,” he said. “I’ve been writing all these years.” As such, he will read selections of “prose poems” as he calls them from his memoir, “What Is It All But Luminous: Notes From an Underground Man.” (He calls them prose poems because he believes “people hate the word poetry. It intimidates
them.”)
Underground is one way Garfunkel defines himself. “I don’t speak up too often,” he said. “I believe in quiet. I observe and I’m very philosophical, like my papa. But I don’t announce my findings. I just live with my observations inside.”
Though he isn’t afraid to share, as noted by the fact that he has a website dedicated to posting the titles of every book he’s read. “When you finish a book, why not remember it by just writing it down?” said Garfunkel.
Ultimately, Garfunkel is upbeat about putting himself out there as a solo artist in this show. “You would be surprised how uncynical I am,” said Garfunkel. “I love this show. I’m 23 years old when I step on stage.”
And as for whether or not he’ll work with Paul Simon again? “The answer all through these years from me has been, ‘Who knows?’” he said. “We never know the future. Now, in the last few months, I’ve changed. And the answer is, ‘I doubt it.’”