2016-2021 Chronology

 

What Is It All But Luminous: 

Notes From An Underground Man Released

On September 26, 2017, Knopf Doubleday published in hardcover Garfunkel's memoir What Is It All But Luminous: Notes From An Underground Man. Penguin Random House subsequently published it in softcover and audiobook in 2019. Here are a few critic reviews:

 "Poetic musings on a life well-lived—one that is still moving forward, always creating, always luminous. This isn't your typical autobiography. Garfunkel's history is told in flowing prose, bounding from present to past, far from a linear rags-to-riches story." —Bookreporter 

"It's hard to imagine any single word that would accurately describe this book . . . an entertaining volume that's more fun to read than a conventional memoir might have been." —The Wall Street Journal 

"A charming book of prose and poetry printed in a digitalized version of his handwriting . . . witty, candid, and wildly imaginative . . . A highly intelligent man trying to make sense of his extraordinary life." —Associated Press 

From the golden-haired, curly-headed half of Simon & Garfunkel, a memoir (of sorts)—moving, lyrical impressions, interspersed throughout a narrative, punctuated by poetry, musings, lists of resonant books loved and admired, revealing a life and the making of a musician, that show us, as well, the evolution of a man, a portrait of a life-long friendship and of a collaboration that became the most successful singing duo in the roiling age that embraced, and was defined by, their pathfinding folk-rock music.

 In What Is It All but Luminous, Art Garfunkel writes about growing up in the 1940s and ‘50s (son of a traveling salesman, listening as his father played Enrico Caruso records), a middle-class Jewish boy, living in a redbrick semi-attached house on Jewel Avenue in Kew Gardens, Queens.

Art writes of meeting Paul Simon, the kid who made Art laugh (they met at their graduation play, Alice in Wonderland; Paul was the White Rabbit; Art, the Cheshire Cat). Of their being twelve at the birth of rock’n’roll (“it was rhythm and blues. It was black. I was captured and so was Paul”), of a demo of their song, Hey Schoolgirl for seven dollars and the actual record (with Paul’s father on bass) going to #40 on the charts.

Art writes about their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, ruling the pop charts from the age of sixteen, about not being a natural performer but more a thinker, an underground man. 

He writes of the hit songs; touring; about being an actor working with directors Mike Nichols (“the greatest of them all”), about choosing music over a PhD in mathematics. And he writes about his long-unfolding split with Paul, and how and why it evolved, and after; learning to perform on his own . . . and about being a husband, a father and much more.

 “What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man” is a charming book of prose and poetry printed in a digitalized version of his handwriting. In it, he reveals his thoughts and feelings about his turbulent life.  

Art’s thoughts on retirement

“Retiring means you turn off your motor. No! We need our motor to stay alive,” he said. “The healthiest thing I do is getting on stage and getting scared. You’re always nervous and there’s always fear when you face an audience. What if it doesn’t happen tonight? What if by the third song they’re silent and it’s a disaster? … This sends the blood circulating and you feel quite alive. “When I hit the stage and the show starts, I get very happy now.”

Performing Live Shows

From 2016 through 2019, Art continued to tour with approximately 200 shows; including the United States, Belgium, France, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Italy and Japan. The show is called “In Close-Up.” He’s backed by Dave MacKay and laterPaul Beard on keyboards and Tab Laven on guitar.

In 2018 and 2019 Art was on a tour with his son in Germany. Thus, father and son sang in front of enthusiastic fans in many cities like Dresden, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin or Hamburg.

Due to COVID-19, all performances scheduled for 2020 and beyond were canceled.

Father & Son

In September 2021, Art Garfunkel Jr. released his first CD entitled, Wie Du (Just like You - A homage to my father). All tracks come from the Simon & Garfunkel catalog or Art Garfunkel's solo career. Dad (new vocals) joins Jr. on El Condor Pasa, Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water. The other songs are sung in German with guest artists.

Art is proud to have joined Arthur Jr. on three tunes from his new album, Wie Du (Just like You - A homage to my father). Here's their duet on Sounds of Silence.