Caribbean music is big — and free — in the city’s parks this summer; my City Arts column details some of the best shows. There’s also music from Africa, Turkey, Syria, Brazil — almost everywhere, as well as the good ol’ USA. I’m off to teach my NYU class about “World Music,” a nebulous concept, so can’t report all the dates and places here/now, but check out calendars for Summerstage, River-to-River Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, the BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at Brooklyn’s Metrotech Center, and any of the other presenters mentioned in the piece. Global sounds are, by definition, everywhere.
In lieu of JVC Jazz festivals
Did you miss the “festivity” of June jazz concerts in major Manhattan venues — or did you find ways of coping without them? There’s so much fine music — jazz and beyond — in nearby festive settings, many of them out-of-doors, that the absence of a 38-year-old institution doesn’t seem to have made much stir. Perhaps you didn’t even notice?Â
Here’s my most recent City Arts – NYC report on how George Wein responded to his perennial presence in New York City’s jazz summer being suspended, upcoming classic jazz alternatives in Kent, CT, Katonah NY and Tanglewood, MA — plus notes on promising “world music” events coming up free in Central Park, Battery Park, Prospect Park and the late August Charlie Parker fest, uptown and downtown.