Daniel Caesar woke up one Sunday in August and fired off a tweet:
gonna sing a few acoustic songs in trinity bellwoods this afternoon. 2:30 PM. :) pic.twitter.com/bSKjn79vPb
— Daniel Caesar (@DANNYixxi) August 7, 2016
Then, that afternoon, he tweeted his coordinates:
43.648342, -79.414804
— Daniel Caesar (@DANNYixxi) August 7, 2016
By 2:30, he had a crowd of people gathered around him on a bench at Trinity Bellwoods park, ready to hang on the Toronto hometown boy's every word as he strummed and sang.
For those who made it on short notice, it was by all accounts a treat to hear his velvet-voiced folk/R&B in its natural habitat (his Pilgrim's Paradise EP even starts with 30 seconds of ambient Trinity Bellwoods field recordings). For others, like me, who didn't get the tweets until they showed up in "While you were away..." two and a half hours later, it was crushing. Sure, there were some clips floating around on Instagram, but that's hardly the intimate acoustic performance it surely was.
Now, that FOMO is slightly alleviated. Days before he reduces another crowd to a puddle of mush at Manifesto this upcoming weekend, Daniel Caesar has uploaded the full "Trinity Bellwoods Acoustic Park Sessions," professionally recorded for your viewing pleasure.
As a handful of people shuffle sit cross legged in stunned, Caesar plays five songs off his EPs, plus a cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," because it was probably either that or "Imagine."
Watch it and weep, because he would too.
No exaggeration I remember crying myself to sleep on that bench in Bellwoods. Now I play there and people listen. Life is actually a movie
— Daniel Caesar (@DANNYixxi) August 8, 2016
Director: Karena Evans
D.O.P: Christina Ienna, Karena Evans & Prateek George
Editor: Karena Evans
Photography: Keavan Yazdani
Styling: Keavan Yazdani
Audio Recording: Jordan Evans
Mixing & Mastering: Jordan Evans
Shot on location at Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto.
'Pilgrim's Paradise' available on iTunes:
http://smarturl.it/PilgrimsParadise
There’s finally video of Daniel Caesar’s surprise performance at Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods park by Richard Trapunski | Chart Attack.
