Saturday, June 24, 2023
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm (Doors open 5:00 pm)
SummerStage, Central Park
Rumsey Playfield, Manhattan, 10021
In Association with Blue Note Jazz Festival
The storied downtown jazz label Blue Note will bring together multiple generations of jazz innovators in Central Park. Headlining is bassist, composer, and jazz fusion pioneer Stanley Clarke with his 4Ever band, renowned for his unique percussive electric bass playing style; the five-time GRAMMY winner was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2022. GRAMMY winner Kenny Garrett is a post-bop saxophonist, flutist, and composer who cut his teeth as a youth in the Duke Ellington Orchestra and shined as a member of Miles Davis’ band in the late 80s-early 90s; he too, is a newly minted NEA Jazz Master. Brandee Younger is arguably contemporary jazz’s most formidable harpist. The GRAMMY-nominated composer, curator, and NYU professor seamlessly injects the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked. They’re supported by DJ Logic, a Bronx-born nu-jazz turntablist.
This show will feature a special performance in collaboration with Works & Process. As part of this partnership, this season at SummerStage Ladies of Hip-Hop will perform at various shows. Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective (LDC) is an all-female intergenerational dance collective that creates dance works illuminating the strength, power and diversity of women in Hip-Hop. This performance is supported by NY Music Month. NY Music Month is an initiative of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
SpeakMyMind is commissioned by Works & Process and is supported from studio-to-stage in Works & Process Bubble and LaunchPAD “Process as Destination” residencies at Bethany Arts Community (2021, 2022 and 2023), Catskill Mountain Foundation (2022), and Millay Arts (2023). Iterative performances have taken place at Dancers Responding to AIDS Hudson Valley Dance Festival, Guggenheim Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The work will premiere at Works & Process at the Guggenheim during the 2023-2024 season.
Photo: Titus Ogilvie-Laing