The Impresario’s Boogie Night

To introduce a night of disco dancing with the band the Loser’s Lounge on Friday night, Bill Bragin wore a blue polyester leisure suit, with two BlackBerrys bulging out of his pocket.A few times, he danced with his wife, Lisa Philp, the global head of philanthropic services at JPMorgan Private Bank.And he worked: checking the BlackBerrys or conferring in person with colleagues in security, production, marketing, and ticket sales (the event sold out almost immediately).It was Mr. Bragin’s fourth night as front man of Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing series, and he already had his routine down.Since January, when Mr. Bragin became director of public programming at Lincoln Center after spending seven years at Joe’s Pub, a whole bunch of his fans have been waiting to see what he would do with the two summer programs that are his chief responsibility: Midsummer Night Swing and Out of Doors.His experiences at Joe’s Pub are certainly different from the outdoor events of Lincoln Center. For one, it takes him and his wife a few more e-mails and phone calls to find each other.Once again, he’s become dependent on the weather (he used to plan the SummerStage concerts in Central Park for City Parks Foundation, and he launched the Joe’s Pub in the Park series). “I forgot what it was like to wake up at 5 in the morning and look at the sky, and if it’s gray, have your heart fall out of your chest,” Mr. Bragin said.The change in venue also dictates different programming priorities.“At Joe’s Pub, it’s one person whispering into a microphone. Here the choice of music is more utilitarian. It’s what works on a dance floor, and also what music will sound good in this large outdoor space,” Mr. Bragin said.Mr. Bragin wants to make sure the music sounds good for everybody. This year he added several delayed speakers in the public areas of the park for those who dance and listen there, rather than on the dance floor. (The dance floor, which requires a ticket, accommodates about 1,000 people; the public spaces typically draw several thousand.)Mr. Bragin has also embraced the social networking and multimedia nature of the Web, which has resulted in hundreds of submissions of photographs and videos.He’s also lured the archivist for Joe’s Pub, Michael Arthur, to a platform behind the dance floor, where he does fantastic sketches of the action, which he posts on his Web log. Mr. Bragin is also spending a good portion of time studying those on the dance floor. He shared some of his observations with this reporter: “There’s the guy who likes to dance with two women at once; he wore black to the two earlier shows this week, but tonight he has a new look,” he said.And Mr. Bragin has worked his programming magic. Nelly McKay had performed the American songbook at Lincoln Center, but she had never sung with a swing band until Mr. Bragin asked her to do so, on the first night of the series. On the second night, Mr. Bragin introduced go-go music to the series, and with it, solo instead of partner dance lessons. The choice of the Loser’s Lounge, a band he worked with at Joe’s Pub, resulted in a strong showing of their cultish fans, many of whom had never attended Midsummer Night Swing before.As Mr. Bragin walked around on disco night, longtime devotees of the series walked up to him to offer praise.“I just wanted to tell you how amazing the Chuck Brown night was,” a professor, Susan Opotow, said, referring to the go-go night.Another regular admitted he was more of a swing than a disco guy, but he was glad he had come anyway.As the band performed a lush rendition of “Ring My Bell” pumped up with horns and strings, Erana Stennett mused about Mr. Bragin’s work, which she has followed since his time at SummerStage. “He is truly an impresario,” she said. “He will go to the end of the world to find the best music.”Many of his finds on those trips will be showcased in Out of Doors, opening August 7.agordon@nysun.com

The Impresario’s Boogie Night

The Impresario’s Boogie Night

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