Danny Clinch — ‘Transparent’ Impressions of Art and Music

Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Charlie Gabriel with Danny Clinch / photo by Michael Kravetsky/ courtesy of Fresh Clean Media

Brooklyn Roads wanted to know how concert promoter, musician and photographer Danny Clinch came up with the idea behind the Sea.Hear.Now Festival. Clinch told Brooklyn Roads that “Tim Donnelly and I had done a very small gallery show with Music, Art and Surf Culture in 2011 and 2012. We always thought it would be cool to take it to the next level.”

He went on to say that, “We have been to many music festivals and felt we could create one that would resonate with the Jersey Shore, since we grew up there. Asbury Park has a very strong music legacy, from at least the 1930s and ’40s to the 1960s , when all the great rock bands played there. The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Led Zep, The Clash, etc. And, of course, Bruce Springsteen and that legacy here in AP. There is a very strong local music scene as we speak and we hope to add to that legacy.”

Danny Clinch and Ian O’Neill Inside The Transparent Gallery Pop-Up / © photo courtesy of B.L. Howard Productions

When we asked if the first Sea.Hear.Now. Festival  turned out as he envisioned it, Danny Clinch said that, “Honestly, it could not have been better, as far as execution of our ideas, line-up, production and leaving the beach as we found it. The weather was great, the people were respectful and the artists loved it.”

One of the “must-see” events that helped differentiate this festival from most others was Clinch’s Transparent Gallery pop-up tent that featured appearances and displays of original artwork by several of  the performers, including Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, Nicole Atkins, Ben Jaffe and Clint Maedgen of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Deer Tick’s Ian O’Neill.

Clinch also told Brooklyn Roads that the Transparent Gallery pop-up came about because he has a “brick and mortar Transparent Clinch Gallery at the Asbury Hotel. It is a gallery and a live music space, too and it has become part of the culture in AP. We wanted to re-create it at the festival and, instead of just my photograph, we decided to ask the musicians to participate.”

Danny Clinch with Clint Maedgen and Ben Jaffe of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at the Mermaid Parade/ photo by Katrina Barber/ courtesy of Fresh Clean Media

He was able to get many of the performers to participate, because, as Clinch recalled, “After many years hanging out with musicians, I realized a lot of them made physical art as well. It was wonderful to see another side of your favorite musicians — and a lot of them came through. I interviewed them and they played a song or two or three … G. Love, Jack Johnson, Brian from Front Bottoms. It was incredible.”