Tom McDermott
The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme (FCCOL) has announced that News Orleans musicians Tom McDermott and Ned Sublette will perform a free public concert at 6 p.m., Saturday, April 6, in the FCCOL Meetinghouse, to benefit the church’s Immigration Assistance Fund. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.; seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
The concert will be followed by a free pizza dinner held in the Fellowship Hall supplied by the Pizza Corner restaurant in New Britain, which is owned and operated by Malik Naveed bin Rehman and Zahida Altaf, two local residents who sought sanctuary at FCCOL and later received a temporary stay of deportation allowing them to pursue their efforts to obtain legal status in the U.S.
Admission to both the concert and dinner is free, but donations will be welcomed during a free will offering. All proceeds from the evening will go towards funding the church’s efforts to help immigrants like Malik and Zahida, and the Torres family from Waterbury.
Earlier this year, the church announced it was working with immigration experts to return Glenda Cardena Caballero to her husband Miguel Torres while her deportation case winds its way through the immigration appeals process. Last August, Miguel and their two children Nathaly (11) and Keneth (7) – all of whom are U.S. citizens – watched helplessly as Glenda was taken from them by ICE, placed on an airplane and deported to Honduras.
Glenda had been in the US since 2005; she had complied with all of ICE’s directives; and her case was under appeal in the court system. Despite following immigration rules and regulations, ICE agents deported her suddenly and arbitrarily, leaving her family bereft and heartbroken.
The church’s goal is to bring Glenda home to her family in the U.S. while her case continues to wind its way through the appeals process.
McDermott is an internationally recognized pianist and composer, and a fixture in the world of New Orleans music. His work was featured in the HBO series “Treme” – where he played himself several times throughout the series. He has released 17 albums, including 90 original songs – in styles ranging from jazz to Brazilian choro, to ragtime, to swing, to classical compositions.
Mcdermott has played Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, most states in America and a couple dozen countries abroad. He’s been reviewed a half-dozen times by the “New York Times,” as well as the “Wall Street Journal,” “Rolling Stone” and other media; and has lectured at Harvard on New Orleans, American music and his unique house.
Sublette is an American composer, musician, record producer and author. His books include “The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans” and “The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square.” His most recent book, published with his wife Constance, is “The American Slave Coast,” which documents the slave-breeding industry that flourished in the 19th century US. Musically, he is known for fusing country-western and afro-Caribbean styles in his albums “Cowboy Rumba” (which reached Number 1 on the World Music Charts Europe) and “Kiss You Down South.”
His music label, Qbadisc, releases Cuban music in the US. In 2006, Willie Nelson released Sublette’s song “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other” in the wake of the success of “Brokeback Mountain.” For the past several years, Sublette has organized and led “Postmambo” tours of Cuba and Haiti, exploring the intersections of music, dance and ritual, and how those expressions have shaped our world.
