[music]

Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. WYNC's John Schaefer is back with us now to talk about some of the live music that's beginning to return to our world. It was no coincidence that when Governor Cuomo had his reopenings news conference on Monday, he did it at Radio City musical. Radio City itself, he announced will reopen at full capacity for vaccinated audience members. On June 19, the governor relayed a bit of history about the beloved musical.

Governor Cuomo:  It was built by John Rockefeller. When? In the middle of The Depression. Why? Because we were in the middle of The Depression. And Rockefeller’s vision was let’s build something that inspires and shows hope.

Brian: Now on to some of today's music events, and venues that inspire hope with our summer tunes tour guide, John Schaefer, who as many of you knows host of WYNC's new sounds. Hey, John, welcome back to the show.

John Schaefer: Hi, Brian, how you doing?

Brian: Good. I'll remind people we had you on back in March to talk about music starting up again but now it's really starting up. What changed in just the past couple of months in terms of the kinds of things that are being announced?

John Schaefer: Well, with the outdoors, outdoor events have just sprung up all over the tri-state area. What's unusual, Brian, is that, when we spoke in March, you asked me about some of the summer destination places like Tanglewood in the Berkshires or SPAC up in Saratoga. At the time, they were planning to take some of the things that have been canceled in 2020, and move them to the summer of 2021 but Tanglewood, which is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will, in fact, have a Boston Symphony Orchestra series in their outdoor shed but their popular music series has been put on hold again. Many of those events have now been moved to next summer, to summer of 2022. It's still a very fluid situation but here in New York, if you want to go outside and hear live music this summer, you will have many, many options.

Brian: Let's get to some specifics. There are old bands and new bands touring and playing so maybe some of our listeners will recognize this sound.

[music]

Yes, people will you recognize that song? It's Saturday in the park by the band Chicago, I read that they were the first American band to ever chart albums in the Billboard Top 40 in five consecutive decades. What I didn't know, John, is that they still exist.

[laughter]

Chicago in New York?

John Schaefer: Well close, New Jersey. They're performing at the PNC Bank Art Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, which, beginning in July, is doing a whole series of old-timers. Steely Dan, Steve Winwood, the Dave Matthews Band, and yes, Chicago, and I'm afraid it's not a Saturday but a Thursday night July 15 that there'll be at the PNC Bank Art Center.

Brian: Why not? Okay, another clip. This is by the artist Ari Lennox, care have set this up?

John Schaefer: Yes, Celebrate Brooklyn made news earlier this week when they announced that celebrate Brooklyn would in fact return to the Prospect Park bandshell. They didn't have a lot in the way of specifics to offer, except that they're opening on July 31, which will be free, will feature the R&B singer Ari Lennox.

Brian: Here it is.

[music]

We have to stop but I'm enjoying this more than I should enjoy the Chicago clip. Ari Lennox singing BMO from her debut album, Shea Butter, and like the album name suggests very smooth, she's playing, like you said, at Celebrate Brooklyn on July 31. Celebrate Brooklyn, as many of our listeners know, is an outdoor venue and a longtime summer festival here. How are they going to do Celebrate Brooklyn this year? Any social distancing or it doesn't matter because it's outdoors, do you know yet?

John Schaefer: It does matter and they haven't quite figured out the social distancing thing yet, which is part of the reason that they haven't announced the full lineup. It's Ari Lennox on July 31. Although it's not on their website, the rock band Glass Animals will be playing on August 31 at Celebrate Brooklyn. You do have to RSVP, which you never had to do before for these free events. You just showed up, had to stand online, but you could get in.

We're seeing this a lot, where even outdoor free events will require a call ahead or to reserve a ticket. For example, Bryant Park is doing a series of live free events, but they are ticketed. They have the New York Philharmonic performing at Bryant Park from June 9 through the 12th and then on July 16, a very different orchestra is going to be playing at Bryant Park and that is the Spanish Harlem Orchestra who play a salsa known as salsa Dora, hard salsa.

Brian: Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Son De Corazon.

[music]

I love this. I love all the horns together, and with the vocals. Bryant Park, there've been a lot of concerts over the years in Bryant Park, can you just walk in, or do you need tickets there? How does that work?

John Schaefer: It will be ticketed, so they're free, but you can't just walk in because they have to have some crowd control. As I said earlier, there's a lot of opportunity, a lot of options for people who want to see live music outdoors but for the people presenting it, there are lots of hoops that they have to jump through to make sure that everybody stays safe.

Brian: Here's another oldie folks recognize this?

[music]

We're just going to cancel the rest of the show and have a listening party. To Funkadelic, John, what do you want to say about that clip and where they'll be playing?

John Schaefer: George Clinton and both bands Parliament and Funkadelic is two linked ensembles are playing at summer stage, formerly known as Central Park summer stage on Sunday, June 27th. They will be doing two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Although it is part of summer stage, it's actually a co-presentation with the Blue Note, the famous jazz club, which is also reopening next month in June. You'll actually be able to go indoors to the Blue Note beginning on June 15th when the pianist Robert Glasper and his genre blind band begin playing indoors at the Blue Note. They are also doing a couple of outdoor events with summer stage including the George Clinton one.

Brian: Fun. Let's finish out with a little bit of classical. This is a little bit of Vivaldi's The Goldfinch.

[music]

Sometimes I think of Vivaldi as like a rock guitarist before there was rock guitar. Think about this being played on electric guitar, and it kicks.

John Schaefer: Well, I think he had birdsong in mind because he put the flute front and center in that piece and of course called it The Goldfinch. This piece is part of a whole program of Byrd inspired classical music that will be played by the Knights, and it'll be played, Brian, on Governors Island, which is a wonderful place to be on a beautiful summer's day and they will be performing on Governors Island, it's free, on June 19. Saturday, the 19th are two shows one and 3:00 PM. Getting there is half the fun. It's a very short but very scenic ferry ride and the ferry if you take it before noon, is also free.

Brian: I thought Andrew Yang was going to build a casino there, but that's another show.

John Schaefer: [laughs] No comment.

Brian: Is there ticketing required for the Governor's Island event?

John Schaefer: I don't believe they have the ability to set up a ticketing. I don't think so but it is something that there are two, you have two shots at seeing them, at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. It's a big space. I think they'll just be doing as much social distancing as they can.

Brian: Folks, if you've never been to Governors Island, it's great, as John said, the ferry ride itself, just to get there is nice. I've gotten running there, I've gone biking there the view from Governors Island, oh, my God, of the city. There's a little music preview folks with things reopening in various careful ways. John Schaefer is host of WNYC's new sounds. John, go up by turning this Vivaldi up for a few seconds, and thanks a lot.

John Schaefer: Thank you, Brian.

[music]

 

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