The Knicks fall back after Jalen Brunson swishes a 30-footer and the crowd is ready to explode.
An organ releases the musical notes and the crowd follows, yelling “DEE-FENSE! … DEE-FENSE!”
The chant gets rhythmically louder in the world’s most famous arena — and who is responsible?
That would be Westchester’s own Ray Castoldi, the Madison Square Garden organist for the Knicks and Rangers since 1989.
Nestled on his perch near 7th Avenue, up by the Rangers’ banners, Castoldi is a maestro of the Roland AT900 organ, keeping the fans engaged.
“I started playing the piano when I was 8,” said Castoldi a few hours before Knicks Game 2, which became the first-round playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks, 107-106. “That’s my first instrument and I was playing classical music. In my teenage years, I started getting into jazz and rock music, playing on the Hammond organ.”
Now he’s the conductor for almost 20,000 Knick and Ranger fans, each team with different vibes.
“Ranger fans are wilder during the regular season,” Castoldi said. “They’re always doing their chant: ‘Let’s Go Rangers.’ They get louder in the playoffs, but they’re already at a good level. I find that Knicks fans go from zero to 100 in the regular season. When you get to the playoffs with the Knicks, the atmosphere totally changes up. I’ve never seen things go from a simmer to a boil so quick. The Knicks fans hang on every possession in the playoffs, which is hard to do for regular season basketball.”
Castoldi has the pulse of the Garden because, musically, he knows the crowd.
“I’ll play some old, old songs,” explained Castoldi, the Garden’s music director for 35 years. “Great American songbook stuff, Gershwin and all that, but also the Beatles and the Stones. I find, especially at the Knicks, I like hip-hop songs on the organ because it just sounds so different. It’s such a change of pace to hear some hip-hop riff. Some of them work really well. There’s a good melodic component.”
When a hip-hop star is in the building, does he drop their beats? “If I get notified [they’re] here, yes, absolutely, yes,” he exclaimed.
Back in the day, sports teams all had legendary organists. The Mets had Jane Jarvis while the Yankees had Castoldi’s mentor Eddie Layton, whom he met at the Garden.
“Everything I learned, I stole from Eddie Layton, and you can print that,” he said with a loving chuckle. Layton used to play at the Garden, and he invited Castoldi up to his sanctuary when you could still smoke in the arena.
“There were burn marks all over the organ,” he recalled. “I just sat there and listened to him play and talk and tell stories, and watched his technique.”
Castoldi has made his mark in this town as the only organist to play for the Mets, Rangers, and Knicks in the same season, starting in 1997.
If you want Castoldi’s job, he has simple advice: “Practice,” he stated, adding, “Learn all the music you can. Learn all the styles of music that are out currently, and reach back and learn the old stuff because you’ll get to play them all.”
When the Knicks’ playoff game ends and he’s heading home, what does the maestro listen to, to unwind?
Don’t be surprised.
“I listen to old jazz records and classical music,” he said. “I listen to Count Basie, John Coltrane, and Mozart.”