Considerable Summer Concerts

Posted by Benjamin New

Music Editor at Duly Consider,
Music Producer-Performer

"I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips."
~Violette Leduc, Mad in Pursuit

Yes friends, summer is upon us. The cruel winter has waned, and the golden warmth of the sun once again lights the faces of the faithful. Belly tops, flip flops, the cool of shade, Azure skies, lemonade, sandy shorelines, late nights, tiki bars, ice creams, sweet dreams, Bathing suits, sleeping in, ...I love summer and I love summer concerts.
In June, the summer looks like a long endless road road stretching out into infinity with no view of the autumnal cannibals or winter's icy fingers of death. In June, Summer is forever.

We have a few recommendations here for your summer listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Seun Kuti & Egypt '80 from Nigeria

Seun Kuti has been performing on stage ever since the tender age of 9. He began his musical career as a backup singer in Egypt 80, one of Nigeria's best loved Afrobeat groups. the band had been fronted by Fela, Seun's father. Perceived as Afrobeat royalty, who largely dominated Lagos's popular music scene since the early 1970s, this is a prestigious and widely respected band. Seun started teaching himself to play saxophone when he was eight, which is also when he started taking piano lessons. Yet in the band with his father he sang but did not play, adding his child's voice to the chorus of backup singers that also included his mother. In Afrobeat music, Fela would perform the call and the backup singers would respond.
Fela died in 1997, Seun, then just fifteen, Stepped into his father's leadership role in the band. Since then, he has proudly become the focal point of a band that his father had forged into one of Africa's most legendary ensembles. For Seun, picking up where his father left off is an act of building upon Fela's legacy, rather than trying to escape it. Seun has said he and his father were close, and Fela's death at the age of 58 hit the teenager hard."If I'm in my father's shadow then it doesn't trouble me- He was a very great man. But of course every artist wants to define themselves." Sean said in an interview with Philip Wamba in Planete-Aurora.

Readers of my Considerable Sounds column at Duly Consider.com will likely enjoy the unique mix of African cultural dancing, Jazz, Funk, and African irresistible rhythm. combined with universally understood political critique like "African Problems" a song about corruption, "Many things" about the mixing of politics and the media, "Mosquito song" about Malaria caused by corruption. He also sings songs by Baba Ani like "Na Oil" about stolen oil money or "African soldiers" by Showboy about the political use of soldiers. Despite the themes, the music is quite uplifting and and spiritual. Highly recommended!

Live In Dakar


1988 Summer Tour Schedule

Jun 14 2008 8:00P
Festival Mundial / Tillburg HOLLAND Tillburg HOLLAND
Jun 20 2008 8:00P
LOS ANGELES, GRAND PERFORMANCES LOS ANGELES, California
Jun 21 2008 8:00P
LOS ANGELES, EL REY THEATE LOS ANGELES, California
Jun 22 2008 8:00P
SAN FRANCISCO, STERN GROVE SAN FRANCISCO,
Jun 25 2008 8:00P
VANCOUVER JAZZ VANCOUVER
Jun 27 2008 8:00P
VICTORIA JAZZ FESTIVAL VICTORIA
Jun 28 2008 8:00P
SEATTLE Moore SEATTLE, Washington
Jun 30 2008 8:00P
CHICAGO, HOUSE OF BLUES CHICAGO, Illinois
Jul 2 2008 8:00P
TORONTO, HARBOURFRONT TORONTO
Jul 2 2008 8:00P
LONDON ONTARIO, Sunfest LONDON, Ontario
Jul 4 2008 8:00P
Comerica Cityfest’ DETROIT, Michigan
Jul 5 2008 8:00P
PHILADELPHIA World Café PHILADELPHIA
Jul 6 2008 8:00P
NEW YORK CENTRAL PARK NEW YORK CENTRAL PARK
Jul 7 2008 8:00P
WASHINGTON, D.C, 930 CLU WASHINGTON, Washington DC
Jul 10 2008 8:00P
OTTAWA BLUES OTTAWA
Jul 11 2008 8:00P
QUEBEC D’ETE QUEBEC D’ETE, Quebec
Jul 12 2008 8:00P
WINNIPEG, FOLK FESTIVAL WINNIPEG, FOLK FESTIVAL
Jul 13 2008 8:00P
MONTREAL MONTREAL, Quebec
Jul 17 2008 8:00P
Festival de Casablanca / Marocco Casablablanca
Jul 19 2008 8:00P
Festival Pohoda / Slovaquia Festival Pohoda / Slovaquia
Jul 20 2008 8:00P
Festival LOVEBOX / London UK London UK, London and South East
Jul 23 2008 8:00P
Redway, CA Mateel Community Center Redway
Jul 24 2008 8:00P
Paleo / Switzerland NYON
Jul 26 2008 8:00P
Globaltica World Culture Festival -Gdynia / Poland Gdynia
Aug 1 2008 8:00P
Festival africa Bidon / Bidon FRANCE bidon
Aug 3 2008 8:00P
Festival Bi Shill / Casstle –UK Casstle
Aug 7 2008 8:00P
Festival Sakifo / La Réunion (FRENCH TERRITORY ININDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS) La Réunion, TOM

Seun's myspace page has a few audio samples and more information.

Can't get enough African rhythms? Well, come on out to Central Park in NYC, because we have the free concert for you! Vieux Farka Toure, Fallou Dieng, and Kaleta & Zozo Afrobeat will be headlining on Saturday, June 28, 2008 from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Central Park SummerStage!
More details at their website.


Also free in the Central Park concert series this year is the Israeli reggae singer, Mosh Ben Ari , a Gypsy-tinged multilingual band from California called Y-Love, and a Jewish rapper breaking down the boundaries of nationality and genre, Diwon. Music knows no boundaries! No borders!



RETURN OF THE RETURN......
One of my favorite Bands is touring this Summer. This is their first extensive tour together in 30 years. Return To Forever will be making the rounds this year! A remarkable display of some of the purest undiluted musicianship one is likely to encounter in a lifetime. Most guitarists would name Al Dimeola on any short list of the world's finest purveyors of guitar technique, but that would in a sense be a mistake. It would ignore his last 8 albums, which have revealed a remarkably mature and intelligent composer and arranger. Along with fellow virtuosos Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and the band's founder Chick Corea ; the band will knock your socks off! I would expect this to be a high water mark in anyone's summer schedule. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will also be on the bill in many cities.



Tour Dates
8 (Sun) Seattle, WA - The Paramount
9 (Mon) Vancouver, BC - The Centre in Vancouver For Performing Arts
11-12 (Wed-Thu) San Francisco, CA - The Grand At The Regency Center (2 shows/night)
13 (Fri) Los Angeles, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre
14 (Sat) Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theatre
17 (Tue) St Louis, MO - Fox Theatre
18 (Wed) Omaha, NE - Holland Performing Arts Center
19 (Thu) Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
20 (Fri) Chicago, IL - The Chicago Theatre
21 (Sat) Detroit, MI - Freedom Hill Amphitheatre
22 (Sun) Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theatre
24 (Tue) Cleveland, OH - The Plain Dealer Pavilion
25 (Wed) Toronto, Canada - Sony Centre
26 (Thu) Ottawa, Canada - Ottawa Jazz Festival/Confederation Park
27 (Fri) Montreal, Canada - Pelletier Hall/Place Des Arts
28 (Sat) Saratoga Springs, NY - Freihofer's Jazz Festival

July
2 (Wed) Vilnius, Lithuania - Utenos Arena
4 (Fri) Warsaw, Poland - Congress Hall
5 (Sat) Budapest, Hungary - Budapest Arena
6 (Sun) Belgrade, Serbia - Belgrade Arena
8 (Tue) Paris, France - Olympia Hall
9 (Wed) Vienne, France - Vienne Jazz Festival
10 (Thu) Madrid, Spain - Via Jazz Festival
11 (Fri) Girona, Spain - Cap Roig Festival
12 (Sat) Lorca, Spain
13 (Sun) Valencia, Spain
16 (Wed) Neuhardenberg, Germany
18 (Fri) Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival
19 (Sat) Essen, Germany - Grugahalle
21 (Mon) London, England - Indigo2
23 (Wed) Nice, France - Nice Jazz Festival
25 (Fri) San Sebastian, Spain
30 (Wed) Miami, FL - The Fillmore Miami Beach
31 (Thu) Clearwater, FL - Ruth Eckerd Hall

August
1 (Fri) Orlando, FL - House Of Blues
2 (Sat) Atlanta, GA - Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
4 (Mon) Baltimore, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
5 (Tue) Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center For The Performing Arts - w/ Béla Fleck and The Flecktones
6 (Wed) Boston, MA - Bank Of America Pavilion - w/ Béla Fleck and The Flecktones
7 (Thu) New York, NY - United Palace

Don't miss this show!

“People take pictures of the Summer, Just in case someone thought they had missed it, And to proved that it really existed” -Ray Davies

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Postscript -To all Considerable Sounds readers, Duly Consider is on a brief publishing Hiatus (only a couple weeks) while our publisher is deeply involved in an exciting new project that demands his full attention. Because of the "shelf life" of some of the information in this article, which was originally intended for Duly Consider, I decided to put it up on my blog. Look for new articles at Duly Consider in a couple weeks.