Look into the loud, sometimes dangerous lives of five of NYC’s most popular subway buskers.
The Saw Lady
Aka: Natalia Paruz, 40
Favorite station: 42nd Street (N, Q, R, W)
Signature sound: Eerie
In the summer of 1997, Paruz was a ballerina who sold merchandise at Broadway theaters when she decided to play her saw for pedestrians during a lunch break.
“After 10 minutes [of busking], there was as much money in the box as I was making at work that day,” Paruz, 40, said.
Things were great until a few months later, when snow began to fall and no one wanted to stop for music. So she took her act to a Times Square subway platform.
When she played her first notes and heard the soaring acoustics, she thought, “ ‘I’m never going back upstairs!’ ”
Two years in, things were going well enough for Paruz to quit her job and focus on music full time. Now, she’s arguably the most famous professional saw player in the world, having performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and appeared on MTV and in commercials. She lives in Astoria with her composer husband and two cats.
Despite all her success, Paruz still works the subway three times a week, playing three-hour sets along the N and Q lines; she does admit that the gig isn’t as lucrative as it once was because “nobody carries cash anymore.”
A few months ago, however, she was approached on the subway by a man who wanted to book her for a gig that turned out to be an LG phone commercial. “It’s like a perpetual audition,” Paruz said of busking in such a public place. “You never know who might be on the subway.”
Melissa Elledge
Age: 37
Favorite station: Second Avenue (F)
Signature sound: Rock ’n’ roll accordion
This East Village resident started playing on the subway for a simple reason: rent money. Elledge, a classically trained pianist, only knew four songs on the accordion before venturing to the Second Avenue F Station in 2009. She made $33 in three hours.
Busking can be dangerous, however. She’s been punched, had her money stolen and a year and a half ago a man pointed a gun at her head. “Nobody [on the platform] did anything,” said Elledge. (The man was convicted for possession of a deadly weapon.) “I started having panic attacks, and it has affected how much I can go down there.”
But she still plays a couple of times a week, in addition to bartending.
“Sometimes when I get down on busking, I look at all the videos [people have posted] of me on Instagram and YouTube . . . It lifts my spirits.” So does her most valued buck — dropped into her donation box last year by her “hero,” composer Philip Glass.
Alice Tan Ridley
Age: 64
Favorite station: 42nd Street (7)
Signature sound: R&B
Ridley has headlined B.B. King’s, competed on “America’s Got Talent” and sung the national anthem at Yankee Stadium. She’s performed everywhere from Iraq and Germany. But the 64-year-old Harlem resident’s favorite venue is still the Times Square 7 platform, where she’s been belting out soul and R&B three to four times a week for more than 30 years.
“Most people don’t like their jobs,” Ridley said. “They just want to go home, so for them to pass by me singing ‘Purple Rain,’ it just makes their day.”
She grew up in Lumpkin, Ga., the 10th child in a family of 11, and moved to New York City after graduating high school, joining her brother, a singer and guitar player. One day, she was riding the train home from her day care job when she heard her sibling’s voice at one of the stops.
“I followed it, and as I walked toward him, I started singing [backup],” she said. The crowd went crazy. “They hugged me!”
For a while, Ridley worked at the Department of Education during the day and performed underground at night. She got married and had two kids — including Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) — but after the marriage dissolved, she didn’t have energy for both jobs. She kept the singing gig, pulling in between $100 and $300 per three-to-four-hour session. One time, a woman asked her to sing Gladys Knight and then dropped a $100 bill into her box.
And although she has a record out and a busy touring schedule, Ridley can’t imagine quitting the train.
“I feel like [my singing] is a gift, and it’s a gift I can’t keep to myself,” she said. “I have to share it with people.”
Too Many Zooz
Baritone sax: Lou Pellegrino, 26; trumpet: Matt Doe, 24; drums: David “Sludge” Parks, ”I’d rather not say my age”
Favorite station: Union Square (L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6)
Signature sound: Raucous jazz-funk
These three first got together at the Union Square subway station four years ago. Now, they play with Beyoncé.
But the trio — who call their funky jazz “brass house” — still find time amid their crazy tour and recording schedule to return to their underground stage three or four times a month.
“Playing on the subway gives you a platform you can’t get anywhere else in the world,” said Doe, 24. “You’re performing for all different ages, genders, backgrounds — it’s the most diverse crowd. Plus, you’re getting immediate feedback.”
Too Many Zooz can attract large crowds, thanks to the band’s cacophonous sound and Pellegrino’s signature moves.
“I always liked dancing and acting crazy, but when I was younger my teachers told me not to [do it],” said Pellegrino, 26, who lives in Philly. (Parks lives in The Bronx, and Doe resides in Boston.) “But in the subway, people like when I moved.”
In 2016, Beyoncé’s manager asked them to contribute to a track on her “Lemonade” album. They eventually met Queen Bey herself at the Country Music Association Awards, where they accompanied her and the Dixie Chicks. “That was crazy,” Pellegrino said.
The only thing that’s left on their bucket list? A Grammy.
“We know it’s going to happen one day,” Pellegrino said. “But we hope it happens soon.”
Geechee Dan
Aka: Mitchell Hughes, 76
Favorite stations: 42nd Street (A, C, E); Sixth Avenue (L)
Signature sound: Classic soul
This Harlem crooner grew up in South Carolina, picking tobacco and singing in church. (“Geechee” refers to people of his Gullah heritage.) He moved to New York at 24, performing at the Cotton Club. He has worked as a janitor, and once met a young Michael Jackson while gigging at the Apollo Theater.
But Hughes didn’t go underground until 2000. He had seen some guys drumming on buckets at a station and wasn’t too impressed. “I just sang hard and loud for four hours and drowned them out,” he recalled.
He performs seven nights a week underground, singing favorites by Otis Redding and Al Green, among others. He said that if he can make $100 a night, he’s “doing all right.”
And although he’s now a great-great-grandfather, Hughes still has some roar left in him: “One time, a teenage boy took $5 out of [my] bucket, so I took his skateboard. He didn’t think an old man would fight back.”