Episode 109: The Statuary Story with Ted Chubb

Written By Nathalie Kalbach

About This Episode

We explore how a century-old religious statue workshop transformed into one of Jersey City's most intimate jazz venues while maintaining its creative spirit. Ted Chubb shares how The Statuary brings world-class musicians and neighbors together in a unique home setting.

Meet Ted Chubb

Ted Chubb is a trumpeter, educator, and co-owner of The Statuary with his wife Rachel. A Jersey City resident for 17 years, Ted teaches at Princeton University and has performed with jazz luminaries across the globe. His passion for making jazz accessible led him to transform their historic Heights home into a venue where audiences and musicians connect without barriers.

Connect with Ted Chubb and The Statuary:

Key Insights

  • The Jersey Statuary operated as a Catholic statue-making workshop for nearly 80 years before being transformed into a residence in 2005

  • Ted and Rachel host 10-12 performances annually in their intimate space that seats about 40 people

  • World-class jazz artists who normally play major venues perform in this living room setting, creating unique connections with audiences

  • Previous owners Walter and Margot Parks began the tradition of hosting concerts, which Ted and Rachel have expanded

  • The building still contains original statues and artifacts from its previous life, honoring its creative heritage

  • Outdoor summer performances in the courtyard often draw in curious passersby who might never otherwise experience live jazz

  • The Statuary receives support from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund

Visual Documentation

From making catholic statues to living space and jazz venue- photo courtesy of Ted Chubb/The Statuary

Related Resources

Explore Further

Coming soon on substack - my new article "Crafting Moments: The Statuary’s Creative Legacy" - Subscribe so you do not miss the articles that go along with my podcast interviews.

Coming Up Next

My next guests are Anne Wallace and Kim Correro. We will speak about their work connecting with urban nature through poetry, plants and their podcast, the Wild Story.

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Full Transcript

Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the conversation's content and meaning.

Nat Kalbach: Welcome to Nat's Sidewalk Stories. I'm Nat Kalbach, an artist and storyteller exploring the places, people, and hidden histories that make our neighborhoods vibrant. Today I'm talking with Ted Chubb, who is a world-class trumpeter and also the co-owner of the Statuary in the Jersey City Heights. What began as a century-old workshop crafting religious statues has transformed into an intimate jazz venue under Ted and his wife Rachel's stewardship. This transformation perfectly embodies Jersey City's rich cultural legacy, honoring immigrant craft traditions while creating something new.

What fascinates me about Ted's approach is how the Statuary breaks down barriers between musicians and audiences. From NEA Masters performing in their living room to impromptu gatherings with passersby, the venue creates a rare kind of community connection that's increasingly hard to find. In our conversation, we explore Jersey City's evolving jazz scene, the joys and challenges of opening your home to the community, and how intimate places like the Statuary might just be the future of keeping jazz accessible to new audiences.

Hey, I'm super excited to have Ted Chubb today. He is the co-founder of the Statuary in the Heights, and I just want to say hello to Ted and have him introduce himself and tell a little bit about himself.

Ted Chubb: Hi Nat. Thanks for having me on. My name's Ted Chubb. I am a Jersey City resident for the last 17 years, I think I've lived here with my wife Rachel. I'm a musician. I've been based in Jersey City all that time. I'm also a jazz educator. I worked at an organization called Jazz House Kids that I left recently, but helped build that from a local organization to an internationally respected education organization.

I teach at Princeton University, jazz trumpet and small ensembles. And in the last four or five years I've gotten really into presenting music and curating music. I really believe in the power of jazz and what it can do for our community and what it means to our country and who we are as people.

Through my work as a jazz educator, we've done really well at creating musicians, but we haven't done great at creating audiences. A big thing for me is to find new, accessible points or places where we can expose more people to this music so that they can share the joy and the connecting nature of the music.

The Statuary - I'm actually not the original founder. I want to make sure I clarify that particularly because this is all about history and the city and the fabric. The Statuary was originally founded by Walter Parks and Margot Parks. I think they bought the building in 2003-2004, and turned it into a livable space from what was actually a Catholic statue maker's workshop. Literally they put the floors down and really turned this from an industrial building. They lived for about 20 years and they started having concerts here, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago.

So many people in the community became very attached to the concerts that they were having in this area. I would come to them. They were friends of mine and I lived in the Heights as well.

In 2020 when they decided that they needed to leave Jersey City for some family reasons, all of us in the musicians community were really like, "Well, what's gonna happen with this space? What are we gonna do?" The timing was right. We had the means to do it and I had kind of had in the back of my mind like, "Wow, that would be really cool. I'd like to do something like that." I had done a lot of concert booking and promotion at my other job at Jazz House where I was one of the producers at the Montclair Jazz Festival.

When this opportunity came up, I thought, "Well, this is an idea for me to do something in my own community, in my own neighborhood." So we jumped at it. It's really turned into a whole new chapter of mine and my wife's lives, and connected us to a community that we already loved even more. To see the joy and amazement on all of my neighbors and friends and community members who I'm just getting to know, when they are really face to face in close proximity to truly world-class talent - in many ways, I think that part of my life is more important even than my trumpet playing or music making, which is still really important to me. But this feels a little bit wider and deeper.

Nat Kalbach: Wow. There's so much to unpack in what you told us. Margot and Walter must have been so relieved in a way, I bet, that you and Rachel were continuing this. And how many performances a year, roundabout?

Ted Chubb: We're doing between 10 and 12. The first year, we didn't do that many. The first year we did five, but we're near about 40 right now since 2021.

Nat Kalbach: And how many people do you fit in the space? I know in the summer you oftentimes have shows outside, which is so cool, and then inside too.

Ted Chubb: Inside, it's about 40 to 43. Outside is a bit more than that, but what's cool about outside is we have our courtyard and we have our gates open, and there are many people that are watching just from the street that are actually not inside the premises. People who just walk by. People who are maybe not conscious of the music in any way, are all of a sudden walking down the street and are like, "Whoa, what's going on here?" It has introduced a constant - it just has brought art and music into the community that people have to interface with.

Nat Kalbach: That's so cool. You and Rachel described the Statuary as a place where the line between the audience and the band ceases to exist, which I think that every jazz musician says that in general about jazz too, right? Like that's the goal.

Ted Chubb: Correct.

Nat Kalbach: Can you tell us a little bit more about this intimate connection between musicians and listeners? Why is that so important in jazz? Or is it important for music? Talk to me like a non-musician who's married to a musician.

Ted Chubb: Well, jazz is a language in a more specific way than other types of music are, and so there's a communication that's going on on stage, and when the audience can be a part of that communication, it just makes the music even more powerful because that means we're communicating back and forth to the people who are in the room.

One thing that I've really tried to achieve here at the Statuary - I mean, we are a small venue and I'm trying to book artists that aren't really playing the smaller venues anymore and so they are getting an experience as well, getting to be in a small venue with a super appreciative audience. As a musician, I wanted to create the type of place that I want to play, where I really treat the musicians really well. We feed them all, we make sure that they feel appreciated, make sure that they're paid properly, something that's not always done unfortunately.

It's this kind of intimate nature that we want everyone to feel. The band is hanging out with community after the show and in between the show. There's not this formality that normally happens if you go to a concert or even a venue in the city. That's not what's gonna happen here.

Nat Kalbach: I love that so much. I went with Jim, my husband, recently to a concert that happened at the branch of the library here on Bergen Street. It was Cyrus Chestnut, very well-known jazz pianist, and it was such an amazing concert in this community room at the library. Then we went for New Year's Eve and saw him in a jazz club in the city performing. I saw him afterwards in the crowd and I said, "I just saw you in Jersey City, and it was so wonderful." I mean, maybe 50 people and people were dancing, and he said, "That was so special. That was one of the best things I've done in a long time." So I'm assuming now that I'm hearing you as an organizer of these events in the Statuary, do you get that feedback from the musicians?

Ted Chubb: Oh, absolutely. Because we all crave that real connection and that really inspires the music the most. I do want to also take a moment to recognize what the people at the library, at the Miller Branch Library, and Daud David Williams who booked that series do. You talk about someone that fought for jazz in the community - he fought for jazz in the community for 50 years, and that series was really because of him. For a long time, that was the only series in Jersey City. He was the only one putting on concerts.

What they had there - it goes past it just being music. It's a cultural expression. He's really tied to the Black community in Jersey City and promoting Black artists and making sure that people in that community have a chance to hear their premier artists. I just have the highest level of respect for what he's done there because it's exactly the type of thing that I'm aspiring to.

Jazz always has been and will continue to be grassroots because it has to be. Art that is tied to people or that is culturally significant - it always stays even when it's very successful, just above the grassroots level, because even when it's wildly successful, it's not that far away from the DIY model. There's someone that's having to work in that way to make it happen, even at some of our biggest institutions that are just staffed very thin. It's a few people that believe in a mission that want to make this happen.

It's that way even at places like Jazz at Lincoln Center or SF Jazz or some of these major institutions. It's still thin because the music is a cultural art form and our society has a hard time finding that it's not a commercial entity, it's not a commercial goal, it's not a capitalistic goal. It's something broader and bigger than that. What they were doing at the library is a perfect example of what I'm trying to achieve here in this neighborhood of Jersey City Heights.

Nat Kalbach: What was the initial response from the neighborhood when - I know that Margot and Walter were first hosting performances - were the people around, the neighbors, already attuned to it because they had done it?

Ted Chubb: Yes. Generally, it was like, "Thank God someone's going to keep this going." That's what it felt like. What we book here is a little bit different now. We're predominantly booking jazz or Latin music, things that have a tie to the jazz world. That wasn't exactly what they were doing before. But people were very thankful to see it come back and that someone had taken it on.

I have not received any critical feedback from any neighbors in any way. We try really hard to make sure that we are respectful of the timing and not going too late. In general, I think Jersey City is a pretty open place. If you create something interesting, if you create a vibe, people are kind of like, "Hey, that's kind of cool." They're kind of up for it.

The audience was pretty much right there, almost immediately. The neighborhood has been behind it. There's a buzz in the neighborhood about it, whether everyone comes to the shows or not. People are happy that it's there generally, and I think that speaks to who we are as a city.

Nat Kalbach: How would you describe Jersey City's jazz scene? Is it unique compared to other cities that you have experienced or performed in?

Ted Chubb: Well, there's a uniqueness in a couple different ways, but first I would say that for the first 10 years that I lived here, there weren't actually that many places where jazz was happening in Jersey City. A couple people would have some gigs. The library series was going on. Even Winard Harper, who has this Moore's Lounge thing that's become very central to what we are as a scene now in Jersey City - that wasn't really going on then. There wasn't a lot of jazz happening.

Bryan Beninghove, who runs the Jersey City Jazz Festival, he had some gigs. He would hustle up some gigs and so I would go sit in on those. Finally, the Brightside started having a jam session on Mondays. But there really wasn't a lot.

Over the past, I don't know, 8 to 12 years now with the Jersey City Jazz Festival making inroads and just getting more people to understand that there are a lot of people living here, you've seen it become more popular in restaurants, in bars. Winard Harper, who's really one of the great drummers of our time and who I play in his band - he has a Friday night session that has become a meeting point for musicians, not just from Jersey City, but across North Jersey. Even musicians from New York will come to that session because of who he is. It really will pull incredible talent and community members from the Monticello area.

What's unique about Jersey City, in general, is it has this connection to New York City talent but still a small-town feel in that you know a lot of people. It's kind of has like a protected little shell where we do our own thing. However, we're still a part of this bigger thing that's happening that's global. So you get some amazing artists that live here that play all over the world, but they also participate locally.

A great example is someone like Winard Harper. He's lived in Jersey City for 30+ years and has been a stalwart here. Another person is an amazing pianist, one of the great pianists of the world, David Kikoski. He lives in the Heights. He's played with who's who of jazz for the last 25 years. He's played here at the Statuary three times, I think.

There's a way to have both worlds, which I think is harder in New York. I think it's even harder in Brooklyn. I think that because it's so big - Jersey City allows you to have both these two worlds. And I think that's very unique.

I grew up in the Midwest, in Ohio, and you do have some cities that will have some nice scenes out there. But it's pretty small and the number of great musicians is limited. There are still great musicians in all those places, and it was a great place for me to grow up and cut my teeth when I was living in Columbus, Ohio. But you don't have this thing that's just naturally connected to this mecca of the music, like Jersey City has. Best of both worlds.

Nat Kalbach: It makes so much sense because everyone is drawn as a musician to New York City. You're branching out and then you have that small town feel, as you said.

Ted Chubb: That's what's great about it - it's not New York City. It's part of how we've kept an identity that's separate. And I do think that it's allowed it to be a little grittier and a little more open. There is still some place for community members to get out there and do things and it be accessible to make something happen on your own. That's more difficult if you're living in Manhattan.

Nat Kalbach: Like the Statuary, right? I mean, that's a perfect example of what you're doing. I want to come back to that in a moment, but I want to ask you a question. Jazz can sometimes feel intimidating to newcomers. You mentioned that there are people who come by when you have the performances in the yard and they dance on the street. Do you think that the home setting of the Statutory is actually changing people's relationship with jazz? I mean, I don't know how many people are not already jazz connoisseurs, but you would know better. Is that changing their relationship with jazz and does having it at your home open the music to audiences who might otherwise not go to a traditional jazz club?

Ted Chubb: Yes. And I think that's a great observation and it's one that I might not have thought of to the degree that it is happening. For instance, I think that there are a lot of people that come to many of our concerts that don't listen to jazz on a daily basis in their lives, but they come here because they know that they're going to hear something special, something really unique, something that kind of blows their mind - like, "I've never heard this before."

One thing I try to do as I curate is that each concert is wildly different from the last one. We just had a great alto saxophonist named Rudresh Mahanthappa here. He's on the forefront of alto saxophone playing and composition in the jazz world today. It's a little bit more edgy and it challenges the audience, but the audience was there for it. They were ready. They were eating it up.

Even sometimes myself, I have to be careful to not keep everything common denominator. Because that gets boring, and people are ready for more than that. My thing is I have to create an environment that's open and interesting and makes them, and presents the music in an engaging way that's fun, but also is respectful to the art. I want people to feel like they're going to a party. But I also want it to feel like the music is being received with the respectfulness that it should be received. It's this balancing act between these two things that I think is really important. And that's why I think the lay person might be more ready to come to a place like this.

They also don't have to pay for the tunnel and the train. Most of our folks are coming from within Jersey City and are not parking here. They're walking or taking public transport because that's how we get around Jersey City. Many of the artists that we have here - they're playing in the city at the top clubs, but our covers are double, and then there's all the other costs on top of that.

I'm trying to take out some of the barriers to expose people to different things so that they'll take a chance on something. I don't want to take a chance on something if I'm going to pay a lot of money. I want to know that I'm gonna like it first.

Nat Kalbach: Right. But it's also like it's in your neighborhood, you're like, "Oh, these are my neighbors. And this is a place I walk by all the time." I'm curious, like you're curious to explore that, right?

Ted Chubb: And even sometimes I'll have some folks that are just completely confused by what they're walking by. And I'll go out, I'll stand outside at the door and I just invite them in. I say, "Just come in and just listen to a song. Just check out a song." Because they're like, "What is this?" And maybe that's enough for them. They don't need the whole experience, and I don't ask them to put in a donation for that. I'm just like, "Check it out now and maybe come back another time."

Nat Kalbach: That's awesome. Again, I want to emphasize that you're opening your home, right? Like you're literally -

Ted Chubb: I live here. I live here.

Nat Kalbach: Exactly. So how do you two navigate that intersection? What are some challenges and unexpected joys that come from literally opening your home to the community?

Ted Chubb: Well, it does make it more personal. I think that the people who come here, we develop closer relationships with them because they are coming to my home and I try to make sure that I meet everybody who comes in. Many of them, I get to know their names. Not all of them, but I try.

We've also had to set up some protocols around privacy, and there is some thought around where the band is situated. No one can get up to our personal space that comes into one of our shows. However, they will see our kitchen. And they will use our personal restroom and our bathroom. We only have one. We have to do some specific things prior to the day to make sure that it's kind of neutral for everybody when they come in.

Sometimes people come in and say, "But where do you live?" And I say, "Well, I live here. You're in the space that I live in right now," and they can't see it. That's part of just some setup logistics that we do on the day to make it feel like you're not just in someone's home.

The building in general is an untraditional home. It's basically two floors that are both loft spaces that are open. Upstairs is definitely more of our personal space, and the downstairs is basically my rehearsal studio and office and then our kitchen. It's already a space that's used for music-making all of the time anyway.

Nat Kalbach: Also, the kitchen is the place where all people want to gather anyway at a good party, right?

Ted Chubb: But most people don't have an entire room in their home dedicated as a rehearsal space. So just that in general is a little bit different.

Nat Kalbach: You said, "In a time where so much of the world is trying to divide us from one another, I believe music is of the highest importance." In terms of the Statuary bringing together people from different backgrounds who might otherwise not connect, are there any particular moments that stand out to you? Like a story?

Ted Chubb: I would say that, number one, it's really important for me to present - I'll talk first about the artists we're bringing in, because I think that's a big part of this story for me - to showcase artists of all generations, both celebrated artists and people who I think are amazing but are maybe less known or less recognized.

For instance, we've had NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart here several times. Someone of that caliber that's played with Herbie Hancock, that's played with Jimmy Smith, that's played with some of the biggest names ever to do this - he was really a historical figure playing in a living room for people, and then they're outside having a beer with him on the break while they're waiting for tacos. That's an amazing thing for those people. Maybe they think that they have an idea of what he means to the music, but I actually think they can't quite grasp how special that moment is.

We had a couple years ago the great Houston Person who is a soul jazz legend. I think he's 90 years old at this point. The place was packed with people just receiving such a positive energy from him, such an uplifting energy when he plays. The joy that brings is pretty amazing.

We make sure that we have a diverse artist offering from backgrounds, but also that we have female headliners. And I have to say that ladies come out to support these female artists and are like in it - they're in the front row, they are ready to receive it. They are like, "This is amazing. I'm here." I might not have understood how direct an effect that has. But here I definitely see that because I only have 40 seats or so, and I see a difference in who comes to each show.

We have our regulars that come and sit in the front row every single time. But then there's a kind of push and pull and sway to a lot of the other shows. I think it's really important that we are booking artists from all different backgrounds, ages, genders, so that different communities are drawn into hear that artist. When you have variety, you see that in the audience as well. And then when you have variety in the audience, then you're seeing people making connections and friendships with each other that are maybe uncommon in other spaces. Because like I was saying, it's not a concert environment, it's a party environment.

Nat Kalbach: I know that you did the Jazz House Kids, right? Do you have younger audiences - I mean like kids or teenagers? Is that an audience, or is that not the mission or goal of what you're doing right now?

Ted Chubb: We're open to all ages and I've had some of my former students come who are in high school or in their early twenties and so forth. I definitely have used the Statuary to give opportunities to some of them to perform who are really making their way on the scene.

Right now we're doing about 10 to 12 shows, and those are pretty featured shows funded by a grant that I thankfully get from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund. The next step of growth that I would like to see, and I haven't figured this out yet, is to do a second show per month that is focused on a younger demographic of artist. That's another night of opening my home. It's another night of producing a show. I don't have grant funding for that.

Nat Kalbach: So another opening means you are not performing somewhere else where you are actually making money.

Ted Chubb: Yeah, making money.

Nat Kalbach: Exactly, which we all still need to do even though we love giving back to the community, of course.

Ted Chubb: But that is the next avenue that I'd like to see us grow as a community. Maybe it's like a featured set or two within a jam session so that it could become more of a meeting point. That's kind of in the works.

Nat Kalbach: That's so cool. And it goes with everything you do - education, young people. That makes total sense as a future vision. I want to come back for one second to the Statuary itself. You mentioned briefly at the beginning that it was Catholic statues?

Ted Chubb: Yeah, for 80 years or so, this was operated as a Catholic statue-making workshop. I think even to older generations, they know this building as that. When Walter and Margo purchased this place, it was a raw space. I have to give him a lot of credit for seeing the vision for this.

Part of the story of the Statuary is Walter purchased it and received a good price on it because the owner knew it was gonna be going to a musician and would be used as an artistic space. Part of how it was passed on to Rachel and I in the manner that it was, was that it would stay an artistic space. Because Walter was pretty clear with me - he had offers that were well above what we could do for it, and it probably would've just been turned into a condo building, or maybe demolished and just completely turned into something else.

But we very much did want to continue what this was and what it meant, expand upon it and move it forward and give it another chapter. So there is this kind of continuation with the building that's over a hundred years old of having art made in it.

Nat Kalbach: I love that.

Ted Chubb: And I have statues still here. I'm looking at one right now. [Shows statue] I have one in my window right here. There's one on top of my piano that's like three and a half feet tall that we use in the stage setup for the shows. I've got a box of broken angel hands and heads and things like that in my laundry room that were just leftovers that Walter found when he was renovating the space.

Nat Kalbach: Would you have some photos for me that I can put in the show notes?

Ted Chubb: Sure. Oh yeah, yeah.

Nat Kalbach: I love the tradition that the artistic tradition is continuing with the building. That is amazing. My last question for you is: if you could spend an afternoon with anyone from Jersey City's past, who would it be? Which corner would you choose as your meeting spot, and what question would you ask them?

Ted Chubb: I thought about this a lot as I was preparing for this, and I'm gonna cheat a little bit on this answer. I'm gonna cheat a little bit because I'm gonna answer for Hudson County, and this person was born in Hoboken, but did live in Jersey City and his first daughter was born in Jersey City.

I am an absolute avid Frank Sinatra fan, and I think that Hoboken has this idea - they have some places where he was born and they have a statue, but Frank Sinatra is one of the biggest cultural icons of the 20th century. He shaped popular music. And although it was reformatted to a popular kind of sound, its underpinnings were in big band jazz. He was a huge jazz fan. He saw himself as a jazz singer, and the pinnacle of what he thought was his art form was the records he made for Capitol Records that were backed by the Count Basie Orchestra with Quincy Jones arrangements and conducting.

When you think about those three things - Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Count Basie - they kind of set the standard for American popular music in the early sixties moving forward. So for me, I would take any chance - when I think about anyone I would want to talk with or have a few whiskeys with at the end of a gig, Frank Sinatra would definitely be that person. It is kind of interesting that he grew up a half a mile from where I live, and he did live in Jersey City, and his daughter Nancy Sinatra was born in Jersey City.

It's interesting - I used to live on Ogden Avenue, and there's a building on Ogden and Franklin Street that has this old sign that says "Roxy," and it's an abandoned building. But somewhere I saw a playbill that Frank Sinatra had performed there for some benefit. It's like in my neighborhood.

I don't know exactly what I would ask him. But I think it would be something about how he was able to connect to audiences, and how - because that's something that I'm very aware of as a trumpet player and as an instrumentalist. How can I break down the barrier that I don't have lyrics? How can I connect to the average person? Audiences were drawn to him. So how did he think about that? How did he put that inside how he made records, how did he think about that in his delivery of singing a song? That would be definitely the person that I'd talk to.

Do I have a particular place that I would want to hang out? I would love to do it here at the Statuary, obviously, just because I think that it's an amazing thing that we're doing here. I feel really passionate about and really proud to be a part of this continuation of what's going on. To think that this building was here when he lived here or grew up here in Hudson County - like I said, a stone's throw, his first home not even a half a mile from where I live. So I think that's my answer there.

Nat Kalbach: I can see him being in your kitchen, having a little drink on the rocks, and just listening to the music, chatting with people. I can totally see that. I love that.

Ted Chubb: Yeah, because there are some late night musician hangs after the show is well over that happen here. Having him - that would be an amazing experience, although I have found when I have been around people that I hold in such high regard, I have a hard time.

Nat Kalbach: I know that one. That's always like, "Oh no, what do I say?"

Ted Chubb: I met Wayne Shorter once, and this is like one of - in my view, this is like Jazz's Picasso, who is from Newark, New Jersey, went to Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey. I think people are just starting to understand what he really means to American art, as a wider thing than just jazz, because sometimes jazz artists get pigeonholed as just jazz artists, but what we're doing is really reflexive of American culture, particularly the innovators of this music, and that reflected the times that they lived in.

America's Picasso, someone like Wayne Shorter is from Newark, and I got a chance to meet him one time and all I could do is thank him for his music and tell him how much it had touched my life. I had no other words. I couldn't keep the conversation going in any way. And I totally had the opportunity to do so, but he's also a man of very few words, so it went nowhere.

I wasn't that young - I was probably 32 then or something. This was probably 12 years ago. I should have asked him something not musical to be able to keep a conversation going, because I don't know that there's any way to connect with someone that is operating up here and I'm operating down here. Just to be able to connect with him as a human more, I could have come up with some better ways to do that. I think I'm better at that now. But then I was just too struck. I couldn't even speak basically.

Nat Kalbach: It's hard when we meet our heroes. That's really hard. Ted, this is coming out in July. Where can people find information about upcoming performances? Is there something in the summer that's special?

Ted Chubb: I have a website. It's a little outdated, but I'm trying to get better at that. I'm trying to - we can only climb so many mountains. But my Instagram page I keep up and I put all of my dates on my Instagram page.

I am playing - actually this is coming out in July - I have a gig for another community organization on July 30th. I am playing the music at the Fountain Series in Lincoln Park, and it would be great since this is coming out in July for folks to come to that series. It's another great organization that is community-based that has, just for the love of music and community, been putting out and creating concerts for a number of years. It's really an amazing organization. If you have not been to the concerts, there's this enormous fountain there that looks like it's out of Rome that's lit beautifully. It's a really gorgeous series, and it's free.

Nat Kalbach: I will definitely be there. It's in my neighborhood, and I agree that Mira and Gaye Dunston do such an amazing job with that series. Thank you for mentioning that, Ted.

Ted Chubb: And the Statuary - the best place to know about our shows at the Statuary is to follow us on Instagram. If you send us a DM, we will add you to our mailing list. You can also find our email on our Google page that's connected to the Statuary on Google Maps. You can email us at thestatuaryofjerseycity@gmail.com. If you're not on social media, I respect you highly, and you can send us an email and we'll add you to our mailing list so that you can be in the know and come to our shows.

I want to thank you, Natalie, for doing this. I think the concept is really cool, and I think these stories are really important to be told. I love the scope of it, that all things are community-oriented from all these different angles that you're looking at. So thanks so much for having me on. It was really nice to be included in this first series and good luck with many more to come, hopefully.

Nat Kalbach: Thank you so much Ted, and thank you so much for all that you and Rachel do for us here in the city and this amazing place at the Statuary and the music that you bring to us.

Thank you Ted, for sharing the story of the Statuary with us today. What strikes me most about this conversation is the beautiful continuity of creative purpose in this space. From crafting religious statues to creating transcendent musical moments all within the same brick walls.

In a city that's constantly changing, places like the Statuary remind us that the most meaningful transformations honor what came before while opening new possibilities. I love how Ted and Rachel have created a space where world-class musicians and neighbors from down the street can connect in ways that wouldn't happen in traditional venues. If you are in Jersey City this summer, be sure to catch Ted performing at the Fountain Series in Lincoln Park on July 30th. It's a free concert in one of our city's most beautiful settings, and of course, follow the Statuary on Instagram to learn about upcoming performances in their intimate space.

My next guests are Anne Wallace and Kim Correro, and I will be speaking with them about their work connecting with urban nature through poetry, plants and their podcast, the Wild Story. Thank you for listening to Nat's Sidewalk Stories. I'm your host, Nat Kalbach.

Join me next time as we continue exploring the people and places that make our communities unique. Our theme music is How You Amaze Me, composed by Jim Kalbach and performed by Jim Kalbach, Bryan Beninghove, Charlie Siegler, and Pat Van Dyke. You can find show notes, more information about my guests, and related content at my Substack at natkalbach.com.

Until next time, keep exploring your sidewalk stories.

Nathalie Kalbach
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Episode 108: The Resourceful Artist with Irene Christodoulakis