From left to right: Elysa Hochman, Chris Howard, and Jason Hochman
Thanks to Jason Hochman and his performing partner-slash-wife, Elysa, Sheepshead Bay now has its very own incarnation of Rodrigo y Gabriela mere feet from Emmons Avenue’s piers, harking to a blossoming music and art scene on Brooklyn’s south coast.
Brooklyn Guitar Academy opened its doors in October, specializing in Spanish flamenco and rumba, alongside a rhythmic range from classical and rock to funk and reggae. Familiar faces at local venues, the Hochman’s now offer beginner to advanced classes and private lessons from their 2770 East 16th Street location, and they have separate classes for kids, teens, and adults.
Compared to locales like Williamsburg or Park Slope, Sheepshead Bay isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with musicians and venues, but this guitar school is the latest pioneer on the vanguard of a Southern Brooklyn cultural scene.
Jason and Elysa perform Tempestad live
Jason and Elysa were already performing at cocktail hours, in restaurants, and at private parties and weddings. They were making decent money with it. Enough to inspire a a great plunge into a new career.
“Why not make my life all about guitar?” Jason says.
Like all artists in the early days of a burgeoning mecca, the Hochmans opened shop in Sheepshead Bay based on pragmatism. Reasonable rent was a deciding factor, and when Elysa recently became pregnant, the desire to be home with family pushed Jason to bail on his day job as a production artist at an advertising agency.
And so the school was born. With instructors like Jason and Elysa, who have been studying guitar since 12 “and a half” and 14, respectively, the enchanting rhythms of flamenco are sure to permeate. But their love of Latin ritmo defies a broad personal history that spans genres.
Elysa began playing popular songs from The Beatles and others before moving on to classical guitar. She studied with Melissa Morris until she was 18, then entered into a study abroad program in Spain with Jason. She later switched gears and pursued business before deciding to make music her full-time career. She recently received her MA in Music Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Jason grew up on Gen-X fare like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana before taking up funk, reggae, and afrobeat. The moment that changed his life completely, though, was borrowing his father’s car at 19 and listening to The Best of the Gypsy Kings.
While the duo continue to jam out in local haunts like Vodka Gallery, Downhouse, and Anyway Café, they’re also aggressively marketing the Brooklyn Guitar Academy and a second school they own in Manhattan (guess what that one’s called!). So far they’ve picked up a few students, some of whom travel from as far away as the Bronx, and are training a new generation of local bards to flood Sheepshead.
Care to join them? The Brooklyn Guitar Academy offers 10-week courses for $250 for both beginners and advanced guitarists, and they also offer private lesson packages. Kid and Teen classes start as low as $89, and private lessons are available for that as well. Brooklyn Guitar Academy is located at 2770 East 16th Street (off Emmons Avenue). You can contact the school at (646) 539-1390 or by e-mail.
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There was a time when this area was crawling with musicians of various stripes. Especially guitar players. I plead guilty to falling under the spell of the six string, even though I played other instruments I always preferred guitar for writing.
I wish them luck. There’s always a market for instructors who really “know” their instrument.
I wish I had been more community driven when it was more prominent! I had no idea. The closest thing I’ve seen to a music scene here is the porter in my old building singing opera at 6 in the morning.
Back in the stone age of the 1970s there were numerous musical venues here. There were coffeehouses which attracted numerous semi-professional and amateur musicians, and Emmons Avenue had some music venues as well. It was large enough back then that many of us didn’t know each other. What aided this was the laxity of enforcement of laws regarding live music in bars and other public places. And many of us played instruments because we grew up influenced by the folk music scene, where it was much easier for amateurs to play. This encouraged many of us to try it ourselves.
FYI. Comma’s do not go before and in AP style. Also, there are about 50 too many commas in this article. You need a better copyeditor.
You know that kind of comment is pretty damned rude and far more appropriate as a private email to Ned and Sam.
ok: That’s called the serial comma, and though AP doesn’t use it, we do. I think it’s a mistake that AP doesn’t use it – it makes lists a hell of a lot easier to understand and it matches the spoken cadence of sentences.
Editing is subjective. There’s a lot of controversy and opinions on the serial comma. But what matters is that the source is consistent. And we are.
In my experience, such as it has been, commas, used properly, break up content into usable bytes, which helps readers absorb information, some of it quite complex, far more easily.
I have an AP manual, and I am sure that Ned does. I am also sure that Ned has various other style manuals as well, as I do. Such books are guidelines, and writers use them or ignore them according to their own sense of comfort.
Well, I thank everyone involved for bringing us this story, grammar notwithstanding.
I feel such a sense of excitement when I read about gifted musicians like these two guitarists. The best part is they are living in Sheepshead Bay!!
As an aside, I thought I’d note that some scholars argue AP, NY Times, and other newspaper style guides reject the serial comma for no other reason then that it takes up space that they have to pay for. Luckily, we’re online and commas are free.
, , , , , , , , ,
Eat it, AP
As another aside, the plural of commas doesn’t contain any punctuation whatsoever.
Ooof, and Sam comes in to kick a guy when he’s down.
What can I say… I have no problem sinking to another’s level of petty grasping-at-straws tactics. Plus, I think Arthur made an excellent point.
Gee, as yet another aside–how can one have a plural of a plural?
I’m bad too!
I watched Jason and Elysa play in the Two Boots in Park Slope a few weeks ago. They’re pretty good.
Yeap liking this playing there is a good grove going!
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