Friends Eden and David on the banner of the Midsummer Nights Swing website!
Lincoln Center this morning released the line up for the 2010 season of Midsummer Nights Swing, their summer celebration of music and dance. Taking place from June 27 to July 17, it looks like a fun, eclectic mix of music and dance styles. Lots of standout nights for me:
June 29: Battle of Bands with George Gee and Bill Elliot Swing Orchestras!- July 6: The New Orleans Moonshiners — 1st time out of Louisiana!
- July 8: Bhangra dancing with DJ Rekha and Red Baraat
- July 10: Wycliffe Gordon Sextet
- July 17: Tribute to Illinois Jaquet by the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, with a dance contest in honor of Frankie Manning!
Looks like a really strong season that has a bit of something for everyone. Can't wait!
See midsummernightswing.org for more info. The complete press release follows after the jump…
LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES MIDSUMMER
NIGHT SWING
JUNE 29 – JULY 17,
2010
Highlights
Include:
Afrobeat
star Femi Kuti & Positive
Force;
New York
Debuts of narcotango from
Argentina, The Time Jumpers from Nashville,
New Orleans’
Moonshiners, and Salsa Band La-33 from Columbia;
First Night
of South Asian Dance Music
with Bhangra DJ Rehka and Red
Baraat;
Tribute to
Illinois Jacquet and 2nd Annual
Ambassador Prize Dance Contest in Memory of the Great Frankie Manning on
July
17th
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE –
Tickets are on sale now for Lincoln Center’s 22nd season of Midsummer
Night Swing which will take
place every Tuesday through Saturday, June 29—July 17 (except July 13,
which
will be replaced with a night of dancing on Monday, July 12th). The
program will take place in Swing’s
home, Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, on West 62nd
Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
Midsummer Night
Swing is
15 dazzling nights of dancing to the world’s most popular dance bands.
There will also be a Kids’ Day at Midsummer Night Swing
sponsored
by Target®, when children of all ages can learn the latest steps,
for free,
from top dance teacher Pierre Dulaine.
The
2010 season of Midsummer Night Swing
represents the 17th year of generous support for social
dancing at
Lincoln
Center by Daisy and Paul
Soros.
According to Lincoln
Center’s Director of Public Programming,
Bill Bragin, “The series offers an array of dance music styles including
salsa,
swing, disco, and tango. For the
first time this summer we are presenting a night of bhangra, the
frenetic, hypnotic dance
music from India by way of
London and New York. Famed DJ Rekha will spin bhangra
and Bollywood beats with her
special guest Red Baraat for a dance party like no other on July 8th.
Another highlight will be an
appearance by Femi Kuti & Positive Force on July 12th.
Kuti, the son of Fela Anikulapo Kuti of
FELA! on Broadway fame, extends the
tradition with his contemporary Afrobeat sound.”
Midsummer Night
Swing’s
evenings of dance are ticketed events.
Each evening begins with a dance lesson at 6:30 pm for all levels
with
some of New
York’s foremost instructors. Lessons are included in the
price of admission. Live music and dancing is at 7:30 pm until 10 pm.
All events take place on an
elevated dance floor in Damrosch Park.
Midsummer
Night Swing
is made possible in part by grants from Daisy and Paul
Soros
and Charina Endowment
Fund.
Tickets and
passes are on
sale now. Multi-evening Swing Passes are priced at $90 for six
nights, and $160 for the full season.
Tickets for individual evening events are $17.
The Swing
box office is located in the lobby
of Avery Fisher Hall, Broadway and 65th Street. Tickets for
individual events and passes can be purchased in advance or on the night
of the
event at a box office in Damrosch Park. All major credit
cards will be
accepted. Tickets and passes can
also be purchased through CenterCharge, 212-721-6500, or by logging on
to www.MidsummerNightSwing.org.
Twitter users can sign up to follow
Midsummer Night Swing @lc_swing for ongoing news and
updates.
Rain
Policy Midsummer Night Swing makes every effort
to present each event of the season, as long as unpredictable weather
allows.
Performance cancellations due to inclement weather will not be announced
until
8:30 pm on show night. In the case of cancellation, ticket holders are
entitled
to exchange for another performance or a refund. Pass holders are not
entitled
to a refund. If a performance has begun and is cancelled after 8:30 pm,
exchanges or refunds are not offered.
The schedule for Midsummer
Night
Swing:
Tuesday, June 29
Battle of the Bands:
George Gee
Orchestra vs. The Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra Big
Band
Swing
When
the hard-driving East Coast swing of
George Gee meets the smooth swing of West Coaster Bill Elliott for the
first
time in ten years, there will be an explosion – on the dance floor!
Both orchestras swing with the best of
them, with New York-based Gee and his band specializing in the booming
swing of
Gee’s idol, Count Basie. Bill
Elliott’s swing comes from his love of authentic arrangements from
swing’s
golden era of the 1930s and early 40s, and he adds his original
compositions to
make a night of sophisticated, light-hearted music that is eminently
danceable. A throwdown by the
masters – may the best orchestra win.
Lesson: Randy
Caravella
DJ: Ryan Swift
Wednesday, June
30
narcotango Tango
Electronico
**New
York Debut**
narcotango
plays original music which melds
classic tango with modern electronic sound in an embrace as deep as any
found on
the dance floor. Group founder and
bandoneon player Carlos Libedinsky describes the music of narcotango as
exuding
the pull of a powerful addiction, like when tango dancers are exhausted
from
hours of dancing yet cannot pull apart because so powerful is their love
of the
music and the movement. Based in
its native Buenos Aires, narcotango is popular in
Europe and South America, and with its Midsummer Night Swing
appearance it is
set to seduce New
York as well.
Lesson: Eva
Carrozza
DJ: Yesim “La
Turca”
Sponsored by
Capital One
Bank
Thursday, July 1
The Time Jumpers
Western Swing
**New
York Debut**
Nashville is home to great
musicians
and that list has to include the Western swing band The Time Jumpers.
Made up of some of the best session
players in Nashville, the Grammy-nominated Time Jumpers
are noted for their tight arrangements, soulful singing and swinging
rhythm
section. They have played for
everyone from Vince Gill and Amy Grant to Barbra Streisand, and their
weekly
performance at The Station Inn is a Nashville institution. This marks
their first
appearance in New
York.
Lesson: John
Knapp and
Meredith Stead
DJ: Meredith
Ochs
Friday, July 2
Orchestre
Septentrional
d’Haiti Compas
Now enjoying
their
62nd year, Orchestre Septentrional is Haiti’s oldest
big band orchestra – a feat in a country not known for having long
lasting
institutions, political, musical or otherwise. The group plays Haitian compas,
music with merengue influences combined with Vodou
ritual rhythms and Cuban beats.
Their music never fails to bring their countrymen to the dance
floor, and
its frequent touring has made them firm friends throughout North America
as well.
Lesson: Peniel
Guerrier
DJ: Neva Wartell
Saturday, July 3
La-33 Salsa Colombiana
**New
York Debut**
While New York
City has long been the center of the salsa
universe, Columbia now rivals the Big Apple for salsa
dominance. La-33 (“trente y tres”),
from Bogotá, are stars in the Latin and world music press, and standouts
in the
dance clubs as well. They play a
red-hot, young and funky salsa, with gritty trombones and excellent
vocals. Stars in their native country, they plan
on taking New
York by tempestad.
Lesson: Steppin’
Out
Studios
DJ: DJ
Turmix
Tuesday, July 6
New
Orleans Moonshiners
New
Orleans Jazz, Swing
**New
York Debut**
Not only is it
their first
time in New York, this Swing engagement is the Moonshiners
first gig outside of Louisiana. Playing traditional New
Orleans jazz and small
band swing, the tight-knit unit of twenty-somethings channel the spirit
of Louis
Armstrong and Anthony Bechet while lifting their listeners feet up off
the floor
to dance.
Lesson: Paolo “P
Lindy”
Lanna
DJ: Tomo Tanaka
Wednesday, July
7
JC Hopkins
Biggish Band
with
special guests Joey Arias, Justin Bond,
and Lea DeLaria
Big
Band Swing
JC Hopkins
Biggish Band has
been a fixture in the downtown New York club
and burlesque world for ten years, showcasing Hopkins’ inventive
original tunes along with
classic big band numbers. The
Biggish Band also showcases some of the best vocalists around – its
roster has
included Norah Jones and Rufus Wainwright.
For Swing the Biggish Band’s
vocalist Champian Fulton and singer/hoofer Dewitt Fleming Jr. will be
joined by
three buccaneers of bohemia in a night of song and dance: performance
artist
Joey Arias, singer-songwriter and Tony Award-winner Justin Bond, and
comedienne/
jazz singer extraordinaire Lea DeLaria.
Lesson: Solomon
&
Lemmington
DJ: Jennifer
Shortway
Thursday, July 8
DJ Rekha (of Basement
Bhangra) with
special guest Red Baraat Bhangra
Note:
one
band set at 8pm
The
hypnotic
club music based on Punjabi folk music – bhangra – has become a
DJ-driven music
in the US, largely due to the work of DJ
Rehka, the “Ambassador of Bhangra” (New
York Times). Rehka’s Basement
Bhangra party is legendary for its mix of native beats and Bollywood
disco,
infused with elements of hip-hop and Jamaican dancehall. Her
special guest on
July
8th will be Red Baraat, the pre-eminent dhol ‘n’ brass band
in the
US. Red Baraat plays a raucous blend
of bhangra and brass funk that makes
for a powerful live sound and explosive fun on the dance
floor.
Lesson: Reena
Shah
DJ: DJ
Rehka
Friday, July 9
Tony Swing Merengue
Born
Juan Antonio Morales, Tony Swing is a veteran in the world of Dominican
merengue. He fronted many of the best internationally-known merengue
bands,
including Oro Solido and Pochy y su Cocoband, for more than ten years
before
turning to a film career and solo projects. After several
years away from the scene,
Swing is back with a new CD, a new band and the same lightening-quick
dance
sound that his fans adore.
Lesson:
Melanie La Patin and Tony Meredith
DJ: William
Otero
Saturday, July
10
Wycliffe Gordon
Sextet
Swing, Jazz
Wycliffe Gordon
is a
trombonist/composer/conductor/
straight-ahead
jazz both as a soloist and as a leader of the Wycliffe Gordon Sextet.
Formerly a member of the Wynton Marsalis
Septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Gordon is equally at home
playing
in concert halls and bringing a red hot stomp to swing the dance floor.
Lesson: Simone
Coonrod
DJ: Andrew
D’Angelo
Monday, July
12
Femi Kuti &
Positive
Force Afrobeat, Afro
House
Femi Kuti’s late
father,
Fela Anikulapo Fela of Broadway FELA!
fame, is credited with inventing the hypnotic Nigerian funk style known
as
Afrobeat. But while the son learned
from the father, Femi Kuti and his band, Positive Force, have taken the
genre
further by mixing Afrobeat with contemporary soul-jazz nuances. Kuti’s
Lagos nightclub, Shrine, is an incubator for
both this infectious music as well as for the fractious political
atmosphere out
of which this music is born.
Lesson: Maija Garcia,
associate
choreographer of FELA!
DJ: Sahr Ngaujah,
from the cast
of FELA!
Tuesday, July 13
DARK
Wednesday,
July
14
Catherine Russell
and Cat
& the Hounds Swing Band Jazz, Small
Band Swing, Blues
Catherine Russell is a
jazz and blues singer with a
voice that is dusky, feminine and soulful.
The daughter of Louis Armstrong’s longtime musical director, Luis
Russell, and outstanding bassist and vocalist Carline Ray, her talent
can stand
comparison to her prodigiously-gifted forebears.
Russell has
performed with
such noted artists as Cyndi Lauper, Steely Dan and David Bowie. Her
first two CDs – Cat and Sentimental Streak – won
accolades from
sources as diverse as The Wall Street
Journal and France’s Prix du Jazz Vocal
2008. Her newest CD, Inside This Heart of Mine,
was just
released.
Lesson: Joe
Palmer
DJ: Phast
Phreddie the
Boogaloo Omnibus
Sponsored by
Capital One
Bank
Thursday, July 15
Losers Lounge:
“Ladies
Night” Disco
The Losers Lounge
is a
collective of some of New
York’s best musicians and singers who perform the great
songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
According to The New York
Times, they “honor pop stars from these eras and validate the zeal
of music
fans.” When Losers Lounge performed
a night of disco-era classics two years ago at Swing the dancers
hustled themselves
into the ground. Honoring the great
women of disco – Donna Summer, Vicki Sue Robinson, Sister Sledge, Martha
Wash,
et al. – is guaranteed to bring on a boogie marathon.
Lesson: Maria
Torres
DJ: Belinda
Becker
Friday, July
16
La Excelencia Salsa Dura
New
York’s
new La Excelencia plays
sizzling salsa dura, as raw and tough as the city it calls home. The
voices are loud, the percussion
louder, the horns loudest of all.
Their lyrics are about the struggle of life in the city. La
Excelencia is, according to Latin
Beat magazine, “the real thing”, music to be celebrated, listened
to, danced
to.
Lesson: Carlos
Koenig
DJ: DJ
Andreas
Saturday, July 17
Harlem
Renaissance
Orchestra with
special guest Frank Wess: “A Tribute to Illinois Jacquet” Big Band
Swing
Jump to the big
band sound
of the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, a group that was formed more than
twenty
years ago to revive the great sounds from the big band era. The
band recognizes the masters of the
big band sound: Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel
Hampton and
many others, and plays their music like it was yesterday. The
band’s special guest will be Frank
Wess, the great saxophonist, flutist and NEA Jazz Master who has played
with
Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Clark Terry, and, at age 88, is still going
strong.
Lesson: Margaret
Batiuchok
DJ: Larry
Kang
On the 17th
there will also be the 2nd Annual Ambassador’s Prize dance
contest,
honoring the late Frankie Manning, lindy hopper
extraordinaire.
Special Events for Midsummer Night Swing
2010:
Saturday, July 17
from 3:00
to 4:30pm
Kids’ Day at
Midsummer
Night Swing
Free
Ballroom, Tango,
Swing for
kids
Kids can get in
on the act
with a special afternoon session (ideal for the entire family) with the
famed
dance teacher Pierre Dulaine, featured in the documentary “Mad Hot
Ballroom.” He’ll get youngsters off
on the right foot, teaching them the basics of ballroom, tango and
swing.
Sponsored by
Target®
Boogie
Nights! Special Event July
15
In
conjunction with Midsummer Night
Swing, the Young Patrons of Lincoln Center (YPLC) host an annual
outdoor
bash in Damrosch
Park. Designed for young professionals in
their twenties through early forties, YPLC’s Boogie Nights!
includes an open bar of
specialty cocktails and gourmet hors d’oeuvres from neighborhood
restaurants.
Guests will raise a toast to summer at the home of Fashion Week, and
experience
one of the hottest social events in the city. For more
information and tickets visit
LincolnCenter.org/YPLC or email yplc@lincolncenter.org.
Midsummer Night
Swing is
made possible in part by grants from Daisy and Paul Soros and Charina
Endowment
Fund.
Additional support
for
Midsummer Night Swing 2010 is provided by Capital One, Amtrak, Zabar’s,
Great
Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.
Operation of
Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with
public funds provided by the City of New York.
Movado is an
Official
Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc.
WNBC/WNJU are
Official
Broadcast Partners of Lincoln Center, Inc.
Continental
Airlines is the
Official Airline of Lincoln Center, Inc.
MetLife is the
National
Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc.
“Summer at Lincoln
Center” is sponsored by Diet Pepsi and The
Wall Street Journal.
Midsummer Night
Swing is a
presentation of Lincoln Center
for the Performing Arts, Inc. (LPCA),
which serves three primary roles: presenter of superb artistic
programming, national leader in arts and education and community
relations, and
manager of the Lincoln Center campus. As a presenter of over 400 events
annually, LCPA’s programs include American Songbook, Great
Performers,
Lincoln Center Festival, the Mostly
Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Live
From Lincoln Center.
In addition, LCPA is leading a series of major capital
projects on
behalf of the resident organizations across the campus.
Lincoln
Center
is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with
disabilities. Braille and
large-type programs are available for selected Lincoln Center concerts.
Wheelchair seating and assisted hearing
devices are available at all concert halls and theaters. For
further information or to receive a
Lincoln
Center accessibility guide,
call 212-875-5375.
Programs
and artists subject to change.
For information
and program
updates for Midsummer Night Swing visit MidsummerNightSwing.org
or call
212-875-5766, or follow on Twitter @lc_swing for ongoing news and
updates.
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