Keith Morales – An Xperience Interview

Written by on February 2, 2025

Keith Morales – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

PHOTO: Front: Alay Medina (Director), Left to Right : Andre Cowan (Program Aide), Keith Morales (Deputy Director), Max Seiler (Program Coordinator), Ysrael Quezada (Financial Coordinator)

RRX: So we’ve got Keith Morales on the line, and I just wanted to talk to you, man. Very happy and excited about the 2025 season that Albany’s got coming up and what you do for the city. So, that’s why we’re here today, and Happy New Year, by the way.

KM: You too, my man.

RRX: Definitely. What is your actual title?

KM: Sure. I do a lot of things, but I’m the Deputy Director. I handle logistics, programming, and basically overall operations of the office. And we’re a staff of five people.

RRX: You’ve been doing this for how many years now?

KM: With the city, almost seven years. And doing the music stuff for years before that.

RRX: Now, we all know about the events: Alive at Five, the Tulip Festival, and everything else in between. But is there anything else that you do that doesn’t really relate to the events, that maybe people don’t realize that you do?

KM: Yeah. With our office in general, the Office of Cultural Affairs, we handle things like the Martin Luther King March, which people don’t really realize we do that. We do the tree lighting for the City of Albany, we do parties at the end of the year for our volunteers. So, we don’t just do concert events. We do a Cash for Coats drive, which raises over $30,000 a year, and we basically buy brand new coats for thousands of kids in Albany who may not be able to afford them, their families might not be able to afford it. There are a lot of things we do, and then we support the Mayor’s Office in any way we can with random, various events where there are press conferences and things like that throughout the year.

RRX: OK, so there is definitely more to it than meets the eye. Any favorite events that you have that you’re a part of?

KM: Tulip Festival is amazing. It’s a blur because it’s such a big event. I like the Trick or Trot (Pumpkin Run) 5K, which is a newer event. It’s been going on for the last three years, and it’s basically a Halloween-themed race that we moved to Washington Park. Everyone gets dressed up in various Halloween costumes, and they race, they run, or they walk. That’s the cool thing about it; you don’t have to just run it. It’s your family. You can bring a stroller, dress your kid up in a costume, and walk through that event. I think that’s probably my favorite because it’s unique and it’s a little different. Alive at Five, obviously. That’s my favorite concert event because I see people like you guys every week, and I just love the music. It’s different genres every week and different people come to the shows. I guess my third favorite would be the Jazz Festival because I really like what we’ve been doing with it.

RRX: Last year at Tulip Fest was just a blast. Seeing so many old friends from WEQX and all of that. But at Tulip Fest, I begged you to fill me in on what you had going on for Alive at Five. And you told me to keep the secret that KRS-One was coming in. I don’t know how I kept the secret, but I was so excited, man. That was one of the best concerts of the entire year. I feel like you really set the bar high for yourself with that one.

KM: Yeah, I might have screwed myself because how do we one up that one?

RRX: When I look at hip hop, and when I look at who could have been brought to town, I feel like that was the best choice.

KM: Yeah, I agree. I mean … we’ve had Big Daddy Kane, we’ve had Doug E. Fresh, all of these guys, but that is the man. KRS-One’s energy … I’ve never seen energy like that on the Alive at Five festival stage, not in a while, you know? The way he came out roaring!

RRX: And I was so happy for Ohzhe, who opened up for him. It seemed like, at that particular point in time, he kind of took a win for the entire hip-hop community in the area. He was our guy. That was our Kendrick Lamar for the day.

KM: You’re right, because that was so unique. It wasn’t supposed to happen, it wasn’t planned. KRS-One got out of the van, and he goes, “I’m ready to go,” and we had 15 minutes until Ohzhe’s set was done. We still have to do introductions by the mayor, and we gotta do this and that. He’s like, give me the microphone, I’m going up there. And then Ohzhe saw him and was like, “Yo, what’s up KRS-One?” And then we couldn’t stop him at that point. So KRS- One just grabbed the backup mic, went up there, and all that was spontaneous, that’s the crazy part about it all.

RRX: I loved it. I didn’t score the KRS-One interview, but I said to myself, “I gotta talk to Ohzhe after this, man.” I got it all firsthand from him the very next day, and the excitement was still there. I also look at Tulip Fest, right? So, being in a band myself, I know that … if you’re a local musician and you play Tulip Fest, you’ve made it. I don’t know what has changed in the spectrum of things over the years, but it seems more possible and likely for upcoming local acts to get onto at least the Playhouse Stage. It didn’t really seem obtainable for a lot of us local musicians before. Unless, you know, you have been a staple that’s been around for 20-something years. It seems like that has changed a little bit.

KM: Yeah, we’ve definitely put an emphasis on that on purpose. Like you said, I remember going to college and going to Tulip Festival, and it’s the amount of talent that’s in Albany, and it’s not being featured. Like, why not? We have the Main Stage, let the big bands go there. There’s so much talent here, so the point of what we’ve been doing with our booking on purpose is booking up-and-coming bands as well. Give them the shot, because it’s great to see a band play there this year, and then next year, all of a sudden they’re on the PearlPalooza stage, or they’re opening for Alive at Five, or maybe they’re going on their own tour. Give them that little jumpstart. They’re supporting Albany, constantly playing all over the place, and they’re good enough to do it. There’s a lot of talent here, like I said, so why not do a 518 stage? We have 80,000 plus people walking through the park, sitting in the amphitheater, and they can sit down and see Caity Gallagher, Girl Blue, or Side-B, you know? So many different bands; Camtron5000 … you don’t know who you’re gonna see, but you’re gonna sit down and see talent, and it’s exciting.

RRX: Well cool man, it sounds like we’ve got a lot of things to look forward to in 2025. We look forward to working with you on a lot of that stuff. What else should the people know?

KM: Give a follow to Albany NY Events. We’re gonna put all of our information there. When we announce our lineup, that’s gonna be there first. We are a staff of five, so we appreciate the support. Without our volunteers, we couldn’t do it! Shout out to Alay, Andre, Ysrael, Max, and myself, who are the ones that are putting this together with our volunteers.

2025 EVENTS:

Tulip Festival – Saturday, May 10 & Sunday, May 11

Alive at Five Summer Concert Series – Thursdays: June 5, 12, 19, 26; July 10, 17

Dadfest – Sunday, June 15

Make Music Day – Saturday, June 21

Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival – Saturday, September 5

Trick or Trot Pumpkin Run 5K – Saturday, October 25

 

More from Rob Smittix…


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