LP's Picks for Free** Summer Concerts

It has been too long. Period. I am trying to commit to updating this more frequently. Especially since a lot of good FREE concerts have already passed this season. Here is my most updated list. I've separated it out into concerts I would LOVE to go to and am putting them on thte calendar, and those that look interesting but I am on the fence on. **Mostly free! Shows with asterisks are not free.

Would Love To Go To:
June
Sunday, June 17: Groove Theory, Questlove @ Central Park Summer Stage
Wednesday, June 20: Brand Nubian @ Red Hook Park
Saturday, June 23: Santigold @ Randall's Island Park **
Saturday, June 23: Ghostface Killa @ Prospect Park
Saturday, June 23: Africa/Brass: McCoy Tyner with Charles Tolliver Big Band @ The Blue Note  (part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)**
Sunday, June 24: Alabama Shakes @ Central Park
Sunday, June 24: Buika (amazing female vocalist from Spain) @ The Highline (part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)**
Sunday, June 24: Raphael Saadiq @ Williamsburg Waterfront (this may just be a rumor, will update when I get more information)
Wednesday, June 27: Gregory Porter (Jazz vocalist) @ Madison Square Park
Thursday June 28: Meshell Ndegeocello @ The Highline (part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)**

July
Friday, July 6: Kid Cudi @ Williamsburg Waterfront (this may just be a rumor, will update when I get more information)
Tuesday, July 10: La Inda @ Rockefeller Park
Wednesday, July 11: New York Philharmonic @ Prospect Park
July 11- 14: Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) @ Central Park **
Thursday, July 12: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic @ Rockefeller Park
Wednesday, July 18: Big Daddy Kane & Marley Marl @ Queensbridge Park
Friday, July 20: Machel Montano @ Prospect Park
Friday, July 20: The Roots, Aloe Blacc, Mavis Staples, Meshell Ndegeocello @ Curtis Mayfield Tribute: Here But I'm Gone @ Lincoln Center
Saturday, July 21: Arturo Sandoval/ Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Prospect Park
Sunday, July 29: Snoop Dog (playing Doggystyle the album) @ Randall's Island (part of the Catalpa Fest)**

August
Saturday, August 4: Amadou & Mariam @ Central Park Summer Stage
Sunday, August 5: Ayiti Rasamble @ Hearst Plaza
Tuesday, August 7: Robert glaspar @ Marcus Garvey Park
Thursday, August 9: Aloe Blacc @ MetroTech (12 noon for those that work in BK or have a more flexible schedule), part of BAM's R&B Festival at MetroTech
Saturday, August 11: Carolina chocolate drops @ Central Park Summer Stage
Saturday, August 11: La Casita (music, poetry, spoken word) @ Hearst Plaza
Sunday, August 12: Eric Benet @ Central Park
Sunday, August 12: Roots of American Music Festival- Pardon our Analysis all-star gathering for Gil Scott Heron (w Aloe Blacc, Black Rock Coalition, Carl Hancock Rux and more) @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Sunday, August 12: Yerbabuena @ Marcus Garvey Park
Tuesday, August 14: Goapele @ Central Park Summer Stage
Sunday August 19: UCB Improve @ East River Park
Wednesday, August 22: Pete Rock VS DJ Premier @ East River Park
Wednesday, August 22: Al Green @ Beacon Theatre**
Saturday, August 25: Blues BBQ (Blues bands and NYC BBQ restaurants come together!!) @ Pier 84 (music free, **food is not)


September
Saturday, Sept 8: TV on the Radio @ Williamsburg Waterfront (this may just be a rumor, will update when I get more information)
Friday, Sept 28: Jay-Z @ Barclays Center**



Look interesting:
June
Friday, June 22: Keb Mo @ Prospect Park
Sunday, June 24: Comedy-- Hannibal Buress @ Red Hood Park
Thursday, June 28: Our Latin Thing, A Tribute to the Fania All Stars @ Soundview Park
Friday, June 29: Trombone Shorty@ Prospect Park

July
Sunday, July 8: Frankie Negron @ St. Mary's Park (BX)
Tuesday, July 10: Chubb Rock, Kurtis Blow @ Crotona Park (BX)
Wednesday, July 11: Nice & Smooth @ Crotona Park (BX)
Tuesday, July 17: UCB Improv @ Central Park Summer Stage
Wednesday, July 18: Big Daddy Kane @ Queensbridge Park
Thursday, July 12: Shemekia Copeland @ MetroTech (12 noon for those that work in BK or have a more flexible schedule), part of BAM's R&B Festival at MetroTech
Friday, July 13: Calle 13 @ Prospect Park
Tuesday, July 24: Johnny Kemp @ Springfield Park
Wednesday, July 25: Regina Carter @ Madison Square Park
Tuesday, July 31: Keith Murray & Beat Nuts @ Tappen Park (SI)

August
Wednesday, August 1: Rob Base @ Tappen Park (SI)
Thursday, August 2: Blitz the Ambassador @ MetroTech (12 noon for those that work in BK or have a more flexible schedule), part of BAM's R&B Festival at MetroTech
Sunday, August 5: Hezekiah Walker @ Central Park Summer Stage
Thursday, August 9: Jon B @ Marcus Garvey Park

Recommended Upcoming Concerts

I've put together a list of concerts coming up over the next few months that look excellent. I won't be able to go to all, so consider this my wish list. I'll keep updating as I hear of more. Next concert listing I post will feature free concerts coming up this season (many!). Stay tuned :)

Wednesday, May 2: Maya Azucena Brooklyn-based female vocalist who crosses genres
Friday, May 4: CHURCH w Mark de Clive-Lowe and Rich Medina
Saturday, May 5: 5 de Gallo Mex in the City- DJ's playing underground Texan beats, digital cumbia and world beats
Monday, May 7: Salsa Meets Jazz Benefit concert @ LPR
Monday, May 7: Small's (Re)Created: Harlem After Dark. Part of the Harlem Jazz Shrine Festival which has events May 7- 13
Tuesday, May 8: The Box That Rocks: 30 Years of Video Music Box screening and discussion with Ralph McDaniels @ BAM
Friday, May 11: Jose James @ LPR DOPE jazz/neo-soul vocalist
Friday, May 11: hip hop karaoke @ BB Kings
Friday, May 11: Black Rock Coalition Jam Rock for Tom Terell @ BAM (free)
Saturday, May 12: Wonder-Full: A Tribute to the Wonder of Stevie with DJ Spinna @ LPR
Saturday, May 12: Budos Band at the Bell House. Afro beat band.
Wednesday, May 23: Slum Village and others @ BB King
Wednesday, May 23: Lyricist Lounge 20 Yr Reunion with Black Thought, J. Period and more @ LPR
Thursday, May 24: Jean Grae playing with live ensemble @ DROM
Sat & Sun June 2-3: Roots Picnic!! In Philly, with De La Soul, Wale, Kid Kudi, and many more
Sunday, June 10: Ceu (Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)
June 12/13: Savion Glover & McCoy Tyner (Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)
Sunday, June 24: Buika @ the Highline (Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)
Thursday, June 28: Meshell Ndegeocello @ the Highline (Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)
Sunday, June 17: Groove Theory, Soulive, ?uestlove, Black Thought, Rahzel @ Central Park Summer Stage (Part of the Blue note Jazz Festival) (free)
June 21, 22, 23, 24: Africa/Brass McCoy Tyner. (Part of the Blue note Jazz Festival)
Wednesday, June 27: Ledesi w Eric benet @ the Beacon Theatre.
Friday, June 29: Yasin Bey (formerly Mos Def) @ the Apollo (Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival)

July 6-8: Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Mary J Blidge, Aretha Franklin, Ledisi, Estelle, Kevin Hart, Charlie Wilson, Goapele, Kirk Franklin, Marsha Ambrosius, The Robert Glasper Experiment, The Stylistics, Vivian Green, Yolanda Adams and many more...

Saturday, August 4: Summer Spirit Festival w Erykah Badu, Common, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Chuck Brown, Estelle (In Maryland)

Song(s) of the Day 4/22/2012

Two of my favorite songs from this album...though I love almost all of them. Concert review to come!
Cinnamon Tree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv4uby-aGKo

Cinnamon tree...
Please rub off on me
So i carry a little of your auburn hue
for spice when days are dull or weary
you bend your boughs towards me
times when I need someone to turn to
you share your flavor, ease my misery
you give of that you are
and just keep on growing
your fragrance lives in all who know you
...
It still amazes me
I just think of one stirring conversation
with you my cup is filled with new infusions
and like your honesty
in the midst of all the sweetened chatter
your earthy taste stands real perspective

And Jazz Ain't Nothin But Soul with the DOPE interpolation of Earth, Wind and Fire's Can't Hide Love (link below as well!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=impV8naape0

EW&F Can't Hide Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr0ekZlcM8E&feature=related

Song of the Day 4/16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ul-cZyuYq4

Mean chorus. Can be read as positive though. We can all go our own way. Not a bad thing.

Album Review: illadelph/matic

I downloaded this album for free from okayplayer.com but might have paid for it if given the option. Especially being someone who does not own a whole lot of Nas.

This album is a collaboration between Nas and The Roots with a few other guests. They each do some of their own work, and a few songs recorded live together.

The album does a few things.It puts Nas up against Black Thought and much as I love The Roots, I found myself coming down quite easily on Nas' side. It left me fascinated with Nas, and led me to look up each track to see what album it came off of, if any. Nas is a master story teller. I listened to the whole album on a run and usually my mind wanders as I run but Nas' lyrics would snap me back to attention when he came on. I love Black Thought and think he has a great flow and is thoughtful, but next to Nas his content is all over the place. He can move from bragging about his skill to relationship issues all in one verse, while Nas is really giving us an episode of either his life or someone else's. Nas' lyrics are like amazing short stories that don't make it to the pages of New Yorker but could hang with the best of their memoir, political commentary, or fiction. Black Thought's rhymes are like the poems, beautiful and thought provoking, but not always a story that takes me with it.

There are two live tracks with The Roots playing Nas' beats and rhyming, and make me ACHE wishing I had been at that concert !!! Nas is like!!!! There is something very special that makes my blood pump faster when you have real instruments playing the hard hitting Nas beats.

The Roots tracks were remixed and (at least the tracks I was already familiar with) had a different flavor and feel.Some worked for me, some I loved and some I'm still not sure of. The remix of "You Got Me" has the hook in Spanish, features a new singer and a translation that gives the independent and free feeling of the original a needy tinge that I resent for some reason. Maybe because I so adore hearing both Jill and Erykah singing it.

I listened all the way through the album once and on the second time realized that Nas' first track is "No Idea's Original". "no idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun, it's never what you do but how it's done. " That really ties the album together for me. No original tracks but it's done new, and satisfying. That being said, before I could even finish putting my ideas together and on paper about this album, I bought the next and my attention had shifted. So it's not original, but it is creative and satisfying, but not intensely so. Its making a dish you know how to make with your eyes closed and then tossing in a different ingredient to see how it comes out. But just one new ingredient, and one that we already know we like the flavor of. It's comforting because its what we know, done a little differently, and it works. On to Esperanza! Or Jose James.

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/mick-boogie-illadelphmatic-the-madden-sessions-nas-x-the-roots-superbowl-2012mixtape.html

Concert of the Day

Nneka at Gramercy Theatre
http://thegramercytheatre.com/event/00004829E9E7C24C
Would like to be here tonight, but will miss it. Will look for some youtube footage.

Song of the Day 3-21

This song has been on repeat on youtube all day...now finally home and downloading the entire album after the lighheartedness and positive messages made my work go by faster and the sheer talent made me stop and read more about Esperanza Spaulding. Hope to post an album review soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5d3VDrcjOo

Song of the Day 3-9-12

Possibly my favorite Dilla track...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s732BigTxZk

Don't sell yourself to fall in love...

f$%k this rap sh!t I listen to classical...

The beginning...but not really

I don't know when loving music became a part of my identity. As a child, teenager and young adult I think that the love always existed, but it was not until a few years ago that I realized that my love for music was a big part of who I was, who I am.

Anyways, that is neither here nor there. I love music, it is a large part of who I am. I spend a good portion of my free time listening to music, trying to find new music, thinking about themes across music, across genres of music, trying to learn about the history of music, and going to concerts. And here, what I will try to do is document some of those learnings, experiences. Allow myself the time and luxury to think through and really develop my own thoughts, opinions, theories, learning and share that with whoever wants to take the time to read. I'll post a song that I'm particularly feeling, maybe album reviews, concert reviews, concerts I wish I could go to, any any of my learnings, thoughts etc. And we'll see how it goes!

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.
-Ray Charles