Broadway Rhythm in NYC's Garment District: Free Subway Musician Concerts Through Oct. 22

Broadway Rhythm, the free lunchtime concert series on Midtown's Broadway plazas, is down to its last shows of the season. The Garment District Alliance presents it in partnership with MTA Arts & Design, and the performers come from MTA Music, the program that puts musicians in the subway system. Here they play above ground instead.

The concerts take place on the Broadway plazas between West 39th and 40th Streets, every Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 2pm. Admission is free. The run began on June 9 with the Dingonek Street Band, a brass group, and the lineup since then has been wide: Diverse Concert Artists, Underground Horns, The Poor Cousins, Triad Brass, Sean Grissom on Cajun cello, The Opera Collective, Salieu Suso, Hasta La Zeta and many more.

The schedule on the Alliance's page puts Chanese Elifé on the plaza today, Tuesday, October 20. Chanese Elifé is listed with a guitar. The closing show in this listing is Thursday, October 22, with Galdort Gumbo & The Righteous Cats, a five-piece band. The page also lists The Meetles on October 27 and Afrikumba Utibé Drummers on October 29, though the series dates in our listing end on October 22.

For Japanese readers, the setup will feel familiar in spirit. New York's subway platforms are known for their musicians, and this series moves some of them to a daytime outdoor stage in the Garment District, the Midtown neighborhood historically tied to the clothing trade. Each act on the Alliance's page links to its own website or social account, so it is easy to follow a performer afterward.

The Alliance describes the series as a summer concert program, with talented MTA Music artists swaying Broadway through the season. Two hours at lunchtime, outdoors, no cost.