Mohawk Valley Spotlight: Lynne Mishalanie & Utica Monday Nite

By PJ MALIN

Like a wizard stepping out from behind a curtain, Lynne Mishalanie and her band, Jazz Garden, made a rare appearance recently on a Utica Monday Nite.
[ Resources: Utica Monday Nite Events Calendar – CyberVillage Google Map ]

Mishalanie, the founder-promoter-director-bill payer and so on, for Utica Monday Nite, normally keeps a low profile out of necessity while running the eight-week long extravaganza. But in the glowing sunset on June 8, there was Mishalanie belting out a number of tunes accompanied by her sister, her cousin and several friends who comprise Jazz Garden.

She sang a number of old standards, such as “London Town,” “Lover Man (Where Can You Be?)”, and “Come Rain or Come Shine.” But she was at her irrepressible best when she crooned to Van Morrison's “Moondance.”

Even if it wasn't October and the leaves aren't falling, she couldn't have picked a more “marvelous” night to bring a mellow crowd to King Street Plaza in front of Thornberry's Restaurant.

In addition, she unveiled one of her own compositions, “Freefall.”

“It's a little bit about the philosophy I've learned in 60 years of life,” she confided to the crowd gathered round her in easy chairs. “Why are you laughing?” she asked the crowd, half-seriously, as she began expressing her self-described “Johnny come lately” journey of discovery.

One stanza includes, “Reach for the moon and....FREEFALL!”

Mishalanie is far from falling, however. She is rather an optimist and feels she hasn’t reached her peak. Neither has UMN, although both she and her gig took some knocks from the Observer-Dispatch earlier this spring.

The newspaper questioned whether she should be taking a salary as director and producer of the summer event, while also sitting on Utica Monday Nite’s board of directors and bringing contracts to her organization, UticArt.

The Utica Common Council also became involved in the brouhaha. It passed a resolution saying that UMN could only receive city funds if they were put into an escrow account, she said. The city slashed her budget in half to $25,000 and then limited how she could spend it.

Undeterred by the criticism and the politicians’ shackles, Mishalanie shrugged her shoulders and laughed. “Now I make sure I spend no more than $12,500 at a time.”

In an interview following the show, Mishalanie indicated she isn’t necessarily fighting back. But it would take considerably more than a few thousand words in the newspaper to dampen her enthusiasm for guiding Utica Monday Nite, a celebration of visual arts, performing arts, history and heritage, now in its 13th year.

“The stories broke my heart,” she said, “but there’s so little truth to it,” preferring not to respond directly to the O-D’s or the Common Council’s attacks. “They should talk to the hundreds of people who have written to me or called me about Utica Monday Nite, and who come out to it.”

Her rosy outlook is perhaps befitting an elder stateswoman in the community who celebrates her birthday on July 14. Harking back to her original composition, she added, “I wrote Freefall to be open to whatever is next; it’s about following your heart. Don’t constrict yourself.”

Lynne Mishalanie is that restless spirit who admires the gusto of Bette Midler as an actress and singer, the wild energy of the Pointer Sisters, and the drive of the young musicians who put Motown on the map in the late 1960s.

She has been a performer for over 25 years. It started in 1973 with her sisters, Phyllis and Mary, who toured in the pop group “Ms.”

“I was a rehab counselor for New York State and Phyllis was a physical education teacher, and we decided to take the summer off,” said Mishalanie. “Phyllis played bass guitar and was a backup singer. Mary played piano and also did backup and I was the drummer and vocalist. We had a house band and performed at Orchard Hall, Lake George and Cape Cod, and traveled around for about 7 years.”

Jazz Garden consists of Phyllis, still on bass guitar and backup vocals; Al Sherline, guitar; Sharon McGuire on drums, and her cousin, Chuck Mishalanie.

“In the 1990s, I met Butch Strong at the Syracuse Jazz Festival and the Jazz Club at Armory Square,” she continued.

“When I came here, I didn’t see much music happening. When I started Utica Monday Nite, I realized that Utica was in the dead center of the state between three or four very well-known high-end resorts, Sylvan Beach, Little Falls--the canal town, Cooperstown and Lake George. A little branding with art history and it put us on the map. “

She started the event that became her passion and signature event in 1997. “The first seven years were really hard,” she said. “We got money from the Community Foundation (of Herkimer and Oneida counties) and many other sponsors.

“For awhile we were the only kid on the block. Now you've got the Irish Festival and Saranac Thursdays.”

These organizations incidentally depend on the goodness of volunteers. It’s volunteers, too, who help Mishalanie craft a well-rounded program that lasts from June 1-August 31. However, only UMN remains free to the public, which is perhaps why it draws fans each year, and not just to downtown Utica.

“Now we have Walks & Talks and the Parks & Plazas series (including the musical mix at King Street Plaza, behind the Stanley Center for the Performing Arts),” she said. There's the original “8@8 Series” at the Hanna Park Performance Stage, and the On the Move in the Cultural Corridor.

The latter highlights the “2,200 square miles of beautiful countryside,” stretching from Earlville to Osceola and Cooperstown to Old Forge, including historical tours in the neighboring communities of Rome, Sylvan Beach, Chadwicks, Clinton, Oneida, Westmoreland and Little Falls.

Whether by the glow of the sun or the light of the moon, you can bet Mishalanie’s show will go on.
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References: Utica Monday Nite Events Calendar - CyberVillage Google Map - Utica Monday Nite Website