There are still many FREE things to do in the BIG CITY OF DREAMS...NYC that is...
Central Park SummerStage..
Saturday, July 11, 2009 | 3pm
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Eric Bobo
FREE!
Sunday, July 12, 2009 | 3pm
Family Day!
DJ Lance Rock & Brobee (of Yo Gabba Gabba!)
Surprise Guest TBA
Iza Trapani
Sleeping Beauty puppet show
FREE!
Monday, July 13, 2009 | 8pm
The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Featuring Paulo Szot
The Metropolitan Opera launches its free Summer Recital Series with a special performance of opera arias and popular songs headlined by the Tony Award-winning baritone Paulo Szot and featuring Lisette Oropesa (soprano), Alek Shrader (tenor), and Vlad Iftinca (piano).
FREE!
Saturday, July 18, 2009 | 3pm
Q-Tip
Chester French
Little Dragon
Benji B
FREE!
Sunday, July 19, 2009 | 3pm
Alpha Blondy & The Solar System
Lee "Scratch" Perry & Dubblestandart
Subatomic Sound System
FREE!
Friday, July 24, 2009 | 7pm
Bettye Lavette
Budos Band
Felix Hernandez Rhythm Revue
FREE!
Saturday, July 25, 2009 | 3pm
Jerry Rivera and special guests
N'Klabe
FREE!
Sunday, July 26, 2009 | 3pm
Ginuwine
Joe
Chico DeBarge
FREE!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | 7-10 p.m.
Explosions in the Sky
A benefit concert to support the full season of free programs at Central Park SummerStage.
Buy Your Central Park SummerStage Benefit Tickets
Friday, July 31, 2009 | 8pm
Dance
RIOULT
Germaul Barnes/Viewsic Expressions
FREE!
Saturday, August 1, 2009 | 7pm
M. Ward
Mike Watt & Nels Cline +
FREE!
Sunday, August 2, 2009 | 7pm
CineFest Brasil
If I Were You 2 (Se eu fosse você 2) directed by Daniel Filho
Silvia Machete
FREE!
Monday, August 3, 2009 | 8pm
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté
FREE!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 | 7pm
I Am Cuba directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
The Pedrito Martinez Project
FREE!
Thursday, August 6, 2009 | 7:30pm
Asbury Shorts: An Evening of the World's Best Short Films
Mingus Dynasty Quintet
FREE!
Friday, August 7, 2009 | 8pm
Dance
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
nathantrice/RITUALS dance theater
FREE!
Saturday, August 8, 2009 | 3pm
Boys Noize
FREE!
Sunday, August 9, 2009 | 3pm
Jazmine Sullivan
Chrisette Michele
Jon B
FREE!
Friday, August 14th and Saturday, August 15th, 2009 | 8pm
Dance
Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company
with musical guest Martha Wainwright
A very special evening of dance and music that will feature a world-premiere by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, set to new music by Martha Wainwright, both commissioned by City Parks Foundation.
FREE!
Sunday, August 16, 2009 | 3pm
Central Park SummerStage draws to a close with a special performance to be announced on May 20.
FREE!
PROSPECT PARK BANDSHELL!Friday July 10
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Bud Light Latin Music Series
Celebrate Brooklyn & LAMC present
Los Amigos Invisibles | Aterciopelados
A double shot of unfiltered South American pleasure in which the great Venezuelan party band LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES, a lusty outfit that combines a “love of disco and funk with their reverence for oldfashioned Latin dances like the mambo and bossa-nova,” (NY Post) locks horns with Columbian national heroes ATERCIOPELADOS. Proficient in everything from punk to electro-lounge to jangly Latin folk rock, the velvety ones (English translation, for all you gringos) have an uncanny ability “to take north-of-theborder musical styles...and breathe new life into them." (Time)
Saturday July 11
Doors: 3:00pm | Show: 4:00pm
Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert
A Very Special Family Show With They Might Be Giants
Reader: Claudia Marshall of WFUV
Brooklyn’s own legendary alternative rockers THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS have made some astonishingly good kids’ albums, most recently the 2009 Best Children's Album Grammy Winner Here Come the 123s, becoming in the process “the ultimate fan- and now family-friendly rock act.” (Billboard) They return to the Bandshell to headline our annual Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert, which also features readings of Keats’ classic stories by WFUV’s Claudia Marshall. Special appearance by Livable Streets Education's big purple friend ZoZo!
Thursday July 16
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Mexico Tourism Series
Kronos Quartet | Luminescent Orchestrii
For more than 35 years KRONOS QUARTET has pushed, made fun of, made irrelevant, and pretty much pulverized the standard notion of the string quartet, assembling in the process “a body of work unparalleled in its range and scope of expression.” (NPR) Their repertoire runs the gamut from Bartók to Charles Mingus to Jimi Hendrix, and their collaborators have been as diverse as Philip Glass, Asha Bhosle, and Nine Inch Nails. They share the Bandshell stage with the frenzied and slightly diabolical LUMINESCENT ORCHESTRII, a Gypsy punk string ensemble that “plays renditions of Appalachian and Gypsy tunes that run from lively and infectious to deeply melancholy.” (Time Out NY)
Friday July 17
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
American Express Roots Music Series
The Robert Cray Band | the Sweet Divines
The five time Grammy-winning Stratocaster titan ROBERT CRAY’s “soul-infused blues has become the bridge between traditional and contemporary blues;” (Rolling Stone) he remains a strong persuader, as potent as ever after three decades of recording and touring. THE SWEET DIVINES, four young ladies with a smoking band behind them, pay homage to the traveling soul revues of the 60s with an authentic sound that evokes Stax, Aretha, James Brown, and funky New Orleans. "Sign them up, and let them bring the funk to the masses!" (BBC) Friends of CB pre-performance reception sponsored by Betancourt Realty & Associates. See Friends panel for details.
Saturday July 18
Doors: 1:00pm | Show: 2:00pm – 9:00pm
American Express Roots Music Series
African Festival With King Sunny Adé | Freshly Ground | The Mandingo Ambassadors | Cheikh M’Baye & Sing Sing | Abena Koomson | Yasser Darwish
Our annual day-long festival of music, food and crafts features a lineup of bands that will keep the dancers moving from day till night, with the great KING SUNNY ADÉ of Nigeria leading the charge. The bill includes South Africa’s FRESHLY GROUND, making a rare US appearance to whip the revelers into a frenzy with its mix of indigenous African sounds and contemporary urban styles; THE MANDINGO AMBASSADORS, from NYC by way of Guinea, whose music “has been structured to make you feel good” (NY Times); wild Senegalese drum troupe CHEIKH M’BAYE & SING SING; powerful Brooklyn born Ghanaian vocalist ABENA KOOMSON; and whirling traditional Egyptian dancer YASSER DARWISH.
Thursday July 23
Doors: 7:00pm | Show: 8:00pm
Dance
Stephen Petronio Company
“One of the few contemporary dancer makers who have created an instantly recognizable style,” (NY Times) STEPHEN PETRONIO celebrates his company’s 25th Anniversary Season with the dynamic and elemental I Drink the Air Before Me, an evening length work inspired by the power of extreme weather and storms both atmospheric and internal. Petronio’s predeliction for forward thinking popular music (his dancers have moved to Rufus Wainwright and Antony in the past) is satisfied here by a score from new classical composer and crossover sensation Nico Muhly.
Friday July 24
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
American Express Roots Music Series
Buckwheat Zydeco | the Holmes Brothers
Swamp boogie accordion master BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO and his band “spit out the kind of crackling music that's been missing since the heyday of Stax Records...on stage the attack is relentless.” (Wall Street Journal) THE HOLMES BROTHERS harmony-filled blend of American roots jumps from church to the juke joint and “recalls the era when soul seceded from gospel music,” (Mother Jones) with a healthy dose of blues, funk and country thrown in. Friends of CB pre-performance reception sponsored by Warren Lewis Realty Associates. See Friends panel for details.
Saturday July 25
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Kailash Kher | Electro Morocco
The South Asian superstar, Bollywood icon, and judge of Indian Idol KAILASH KHER moves “among styles without hesitation, adding elements of folk, reggae and rock to Indian pop…(he) has a voice as appealing as it is thrilling.” (Wall Street Journal) Comprised of five NYC-based Israelis, ELECTRO MOROCCO combines buzzing guitars with synths and beats to concoct a dance floor friendly mix of retro rock, Middle Eastern folk, and warped electro.
Thursday July 30
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Burning Spear | Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens
Roots reggae legend BURNING SPEAR brings his Rastafarian message of positivity back to the Bandshell for another epic performance. Last year’s vital Jah Is Real featured contributions from Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrel; Spear has never sounded better. “Four decades and still dropping knowledge: no other artist, with the possible exception of Toots Hibbert, can lay claim to being reggae’s true elder statesman.” (PopMatters) The evening begins with the righteous harmonies and church-inflected soul of NAOMI SHELTON & THE GOSPEL QUEENS.
Friday July 31
Doors: 6:00pm | Show: 7:00pm
The Royal Family: Soulive’S 10Th Anniversary Celebration With Special Guests John Scofield and Christian Scott | Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk
The exceptional jazz-funk trio SOULIVE celebrates 10 years of “simmering instrumental funk” (Entertainment Weekly) by busting out THE ROYAL FAMILY, a hard hitting conglomeration of various side projects and special guests that will come together for the jam of the summer. Ivan Neville’s DUMPSTAPHUNK, "musically hard-nosed and rooted in 1970s inner city funk,” (Offbeat)" kicks off the show with a set of New Orleans’ nastiest grooves.
Saturday August 1
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Music & Movies
Mexico Tourism Series
Dean & Britta: 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests | Crystal Stilts
Luna alumni DEAN & BRITTA perform original scores to Warhol's rarely seen short silent film portraits, which captured Factory superstars, celebrities, and anonymous teenagers in mesmerizing 4-minute shots. “The music unabashedly translates the ominous drone of early Velvet Underground songs like I’m Waiting for the Man and Venus in Furs into a more modern electronic mode reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s chic torture-chamber disco.” (NY Times) Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum, the project is like an archeological dig unearthing NYC’s 1960s art scene, complete with soundtrack. Brooklyn’s CRYSTAL STILTS, “moody-sounding f***ers who make fabulous stripped-down garage-pop,” (Pitchfork) will set the tone for the night.
Thursday August 6
Doors: 6:30pm | Show: 7:30pm
Music & Movies
Purple Rain Sing-A-Long With Escort
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of history’s greatest pop albums, and the extravagantly, hilariously whacky and over the top film it inspired (the apotheosis of both the purple one’s genius and self caricature), we invite you to don something lacey and ruffled and come get your Prince on. We’ll have lyric subtitles, but you know the words already. Brooklyn’s own live disco orchestra ESCORT plays an opening set, and will lead the sing-along festivities. Rated R. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian.
Friday August 7
Doors: 6:00pm | Show: 7:00pm
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals | Deer Tick
Fronted by the Joplin-like vocals and driving Hammond B-3 of their fearless frontwoman, GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS play “blues-based rock with glorious passion.” Hard to categorize—folk? indie rock? alt-country? Americana?—but easy to love, DEER TICK “write and play some of the most soulful, inspired music around, littered with lyrics as sharp as a shot of whiskey and rapid-fire guitar solos strong enough to blow the dust off your boots.” (Brooklyn Vegan)
Saturday August 8
Doors: 6:00pm | Show: 7:00pm
Celebrate Brooklyn & Lyricist Lounge present
Big Daddy Kane | Plus Screening of BDK: the Big Daddy Kane Story | Hosted by "The worlds #1 beatboxer" Rahzel
The Lyricist Lounge returns with a once in a lifetime night of positive hip-hop featuring Brooklyn legend BIG DADDY KANE performing with his live band, preceded by a screening of the short documentary BDK: THE BIG DADDY KANE STORY, directed by Lyricist Lounge’s own Anthony Marshall. Other special guest performers TBA!
