Music: The Sounds of Simon

"Ten thousand people, maybe more," goes the line in The Sounds of Silence. Make that many, many more. An estimated 750,000, in fact, equivalent to the entire population of Baltimore, all crammed into a single patch of New York City's Central Park. PAUL SIMON was back, a decade after his first free concert there, but this time things were different. Unlike in 1981, he didn't invite his erstwhile partner Art Garfunkel to join him. Simon, now the Midas of polycultural pop, seemed determined to banish the ghost of the folk-rock sound that made him famous. Backed by a 17-piece band, he kicked off the show (broadcast live on HBO) with the rousing samba tattoo of The Obvious Child, from his album The Rhythm of the Saints, and kept up the momentum with 2 1/2 hours of undulating, Afro-Caribbean-flavored music. The older songs that were included were transformed, including a reggae-tinged Bridge over Troubled Water and a percolating version of Cecilia that bore only a glancing resemblance to the original. Overall: no Art, but plenty of artistry. G.G.