IMPRESARIO: The Weekender — Summer Solstice Edition
You wanted your freakin’ summer, and now you’ve got it. Here are five ways to kick the next three sweltering months off right …
• The more or less official Summer Solstice celebration — at least that’s the name of it — is at the Kimmel Center (pictured, in case you haven’t left that Chesco compound in a very, very long time) starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Fifteen hours of everything from classical music to a drag show to face painting to Guitar Hero to a storytelling competition hosted by Yours Truly at 10 p.m. in the Rendell Room. (I’ll be booking over from the 6 p.m. cabaret I am performing in at L’Etage, so don’t expect me to be too charming.) If you decide to pull the all-nighter, make sure you bring a hand drum for the drum circle at dawn, not to mention a little Visine. The whole night will cost you a mere $10, which works out to 67 cents per hour, leaving plenty of money left over for a greasy 7 a.m. diner breakfast at the Midtown on Sunday.
• Always a favorite of mine, the 5th Annual West Oak Lane Jazz & Arts Festival starts today and runs through Sunday. It’s called a jazz festival, but with heavy-hitting R&B acts like the O’Jays (People all over the world, join hands …), WAR (Cisco Kid was a friend of mi-ine …), Ashford & Simpson (And now it’s solid, solid as a rock …), and Mandrill (oh, I have no idea) headlining, they might want to rethink the title. There are a ton of other performers, and most shows, including all of the aforementioned ones, are free.
• For the kids (not the actual kids, but the “kids”), there’s the 2nd Annual Popped! Music Festival, taking place at the Trocadero, World Cafe Live, and outdoors at Drexel (33rd and Market). You’ll want to be a part of it if any of the following names mean anything to you: Gogol Bordello, Vampire Weekend, Daniel Johnston, the Capitol Years, Slick Rick, and Mates of State. If these don’t ring a bell, I suggest you hop on iTunes and update the old iPod. Post-haste.
• This doesn’t really have a lick to do with summer, but go see Souvenir at the Wilma, starring Delco native and Tony nominee Ann Crumb (daughter of avant garde composer George Crumb). It’s actually Media Theatre’s production of the show, which I saw there some months ago, and it was fantastic. Souvenir tells the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a Wilkes-Barre native who, in the early 20th century, decided she wanted to be an opera singer. Problem was, she couldn’t hold a note. Unfortunately for her friends and the rest of the world, she was very wealthy. Wealthy enough to record albums, get herself center stage at Carnegie Hall, and become famous. It’s a both hilarious and heartbreaking tale, and it’s around for only two weeks.
• And finally, we may not have scored the 2012 Olympics, but we do have the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Team Trials at the Wachovia Center all weekend. Check out our Q&A with Beijing-hopeful and Camden native Sean Golden.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Re: West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival.
For you to have “no idea” about MANDRILL’S significant musical contributions is indicative of how this group of extraordinary multi-instrumentalists have been overlooked and shows a serious deficiency that needs to be addressed. Their “seamless blend of Latin, Caribbean and jazz flavors has made them one of soul music’s most impressive collectives, even earning them the cover of Wax Poetics magazine Issue 24” (Colin Dilnot, UK music writer and consultant). “Fencewalk”, “Ape is High”, “Mango Meat”, “Can You Get It”, “House of Wood” and more recently “Sunshine” from their love ballads CD are only a few of the hits that have earned them their status as one of the more talented, diversified and electrifying groups in the United States. After more than three decades it is high time they were recognized as such and their inclusion in the Hall of Fame should be a no-brainer. Go to their website at http://www.mandrillis.com and get familiar with their signature horns, guitar, drums and sensual vocals – you will not be disappointed and just might learn a thing or two.