Lee Fields & The Expressions at Brooklyn Steel

Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2019 free show lineup: Jeff Tweedy, Lee Fields, H.E.R., more

Lee Fields & The Expressions at Brooklyn Steel
Lee Fields @ Brooklyn Steel (more by Kenneth Bachor)

The 2019 lineup of the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival has been announced, including a mix of live music, dance, film, comedy and more. This year includes shows with Jeff Tweedy on July 26 with Helen GilletH.E.R. and Samm Henshaw on August 9; comedian Roy Wood Jr and friends on August 3; and the annual season-ending Americana Festival on August 10 & 11 with Patty Griffin, Yola and more to be announced.

There’s also “Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul” on July 27, featuring Lee Fields & the Expressions, Black Pumas and guest vocalists Jonny Benavidez, Eric Burton, Kam Franklin, Johnny Hernandez, Ruben Ramos, and Paul Schalda.

There’s also: NPR Music’s “Turning the Tables Live: The Motherlode” on July 31, celebrating eight iconic female artists whose work shaped the path of popular music, with performances by Rhiannon Giddens, Xiomara Laugart, Ledisi, Amina Claudine Myers, Cleo Reed, Valerie Simpson, Charenée Wade, and Lizz Wright; a screening of classic Liza Minnelli concert film Liza With a Z with a dance performance by Caleb Teicher & Company (August 2); latin fusion band La Santa Cecilia performing the music of Pixar’s Coco (July 25), and more.

Check out the full Lincoln Center Out of Doors lineup and schedule below.

LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS – 2019 LINEUP/SCHEDULE

Wednesday, July 24 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Soul at the Center
Legacy: Lalah Hathaway sings Donny Hathaway
The Illustrious Blacks
Ellis Haizlip was the visionary creator of the public television show SOUL!, a variety-talk show featuring African American artistry, community, and culture that was also a platform for political expression and the fight for social justice. In 1972, Haizlip, together with Lincoln Center, coproduced Soul at the Center, a groundbreaking celebration of jazz, gospel, and rhythm and blues with artists such as Nina Simone, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ike & Tina Turner, and Labelle. A milestone event, it was the first extended presentation of Black culture and art at Lincoln Center. This year, Lincoln Center Out of Doors pays respect to Haizlip—the subject of the 2018 documentary Mr. SOUL!—and his contribution to the arts by dedicating opening night to him with a celebration of Soul at the Center. Joining us is five-time Grammy Award–winner Lalah Hathaway performing classic songs by her father, the legendary Donny Hathaway, who was part of the original Soul at the Center. Queer pop duo The Illustrious Blacks start off the night on a high note with their disco-infused Afrofuturist funk.
Presented in association with Okayplayer’s 20th Anniversary

Thursday, July 25 at 7:00 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Disney/Pixar’s Coco
La Santa Cecilia
Named for the patron saint of music, effervescent Latin fusion band La Santa Cecilia is fronted by the charismatic Marisol Hernandez (a.k.a. La Marisoul), who “sings like the love child of Janis Joplin and Celia Cruz” (Los Angeles Times). She’s joined by accordionist and requintero José “Pepe” Carlos, bass player Alex Bendaña and percussionist Miguel “Oso” Ramirez. Seamlessly integrating cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero, tango, jazz, rock, klezmer, and any other musical genre that crosses their path, the Grammy-winning band’s smart songs are vibrant reflections of Los Angeles’s intriguing tapestry of cultures. Following the performance will be a screening of Disney/Pixar’s Coco.
Presented in association with Film at Lincoln Center

Friday, July 26 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Jeff Tweedy
Helen Gillet
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and his introspective lyrics have come to represent the simple truths of American life in all its soulful, insecure glory. A prolific songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Tweedy has enjoyed a storied career that earned him a Grammy for Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born. The poetic rocker—deemed “equal parts Walt Whitman and Richard Brautigan” by SPIN—is now stepping into the solo spotlight after embarking on an exceptionally creative year. He released WARMER, the companion LP to his acclaimed 2018 solo album WARM, this April to rave reviews, and published an illuminating best-selling memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) in late 2018.

Jazz-based cellist, singer, composer, and improviser Helen Gillet opens the evening with an eclectic mix of contemporary jazz, blues, and classical styles. From French chansons to Velvet Underground covers, Gillet “plays every note on fire,” instilling her unique sensibilities into a wide breadth of musical genres (Medium.com).

Friday and Saturday, July 26–27 at 9:30 pm
Lincoln Center Plazas
Shine a Light
From obscure corners of Lincoln Center’s plazas, luminous figures emerge and coalesce into a meandering procession. Created by Processional Arts Workshop, whose giant puppet works lead New York’s Village Halloween Parade, this site-specific, ambulatory performance evokes the simple but potent act of making light.

Saturday & Sunday, July 27 & 28
La Casita
Poetry: Dakota Camacho, Rashidah Ismaili, Enriqueta Lunez, Haki R Madhubuti, Willie Perdomo, Julian Randall, Peggy Robles, Sonia Sanchez, Matthew Shenoda, and Yolanda Wisher
Music: Chief Joseph Chatoyer Garifuna Folkoric Ballet, Kelsey Pyro, Lone Piñon, Nina Dilet & Mysphitz, and Raye Zaragoza
MC: Baba Israel
Saturday, July 27 1:00 pm Hearst Plaza
Sunday, July 28 2:30 pm Teatro Pregones (Bronx)
Through poetry, music, and stories, a powerful community of artist-activists give voice to the everyday heroes working to uphold and extend LGBTQ, women’s, civil, immigrant, and human rights.
La Casita is curated by Melody Capote, Caribbean Cultural Center; Lillian Cho, consultant; C. Daniel Dawson, arts and media consultant; LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, writer, vocalist, sound artist and curator; Cady Gierke, Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian; Claudia Norman, Claudia Norman Management; and Rich Villar.
American Sign Language interpretation provided

Saturday, July 27 at 7:00 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul
with guest vocalists Jonny Benavidez, Eric Burton, Kam Franklin, Johnny Hernandez, Ruben Ramos, and Paul Schalda
under the musical direction of Adrian Quesada
Lee Fields & the Expressions
Black Pumas
San Antonio comes to Out of Doors at this evening of Chicano soul. The brainchild of writer-producer-musician Adrian Quesada, Look at My Soul celebrates the musical contributions of Chicano soul singers and session musicians in the 1950s and ‘60s, including Tejano trailblazers Johnny Hernandez and Ruben Ramos, who will join Quesada and the band onstage. Long overlooked by mainstream music history, these gems reveal a rich mix of influences: blues, Latin jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as traditional Mexican music like norteño and mariachi. Lively takes on classic tunes will have you on your feet as living legends—and unsung musical heroes—celebrate the unique sound of Texas.

Fresh off their coronation as Best New Band at the 2019 Austin Music Awards, Austin-based psychedelic soul band the Black Pumas open the night, with singer-songwriter Eric Burton and Quesada on guitar. Following their funky bold sound is soul veteran and Daptone artist Lee Fields. A veritable living legend, Fields has been performing for 50 years and now—along with his longtime band the Expressions—stands at the forefront of the soul revival with a new album, It Rains Love.

Sunday, July 28 at 7:00 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Caribbean Cultural Center Las Caras Lindas de Mi Gente Negra featuring Moncho Rivera, Cita Rodriguez & Su Banda, Carlito Padron & Su Banda, and Bombazo Dance Company
Join the Caribbean Cultural Center as they celebrate the legacy of African influences on Puerto Rico’s rich musical history. Featuring performances by Moncho Rivera, Cita Rodriguez & Su Banda, Carlito Padron & Su Banda, and the Bombazo Dance Company, this evening honors Puerto Rican musical icons Tite Curet Alonso, Ismael Rivera, and Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez for highlighting the cultural contributions and struggles of African descendants worldwide.
Presented in association with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

Sunday, July 28
Heritage Sunday
1:00 pm Hearst Plaza
Made in NYC 2.0: Next Generation Traditions featuring Redobles de Cultura, Sri Lankan Dance Academy of New York, Michael Winograd & the Honorable Mentshen, and Inkarayku
Building off of last year’s Made in NYC Heritage Sunday program, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) with an all-star lineup of artists, Made in NYC 2.0 calls upon next-generation practitioners inheriting the city’s soundscape with increasingly New York–formed traditions and stories. From celebrated legacy artists to those who are just bursting onto the scene, these musical stories and talents are in fact “made in NYC”—and it is that New York City story that makes them, and CTMD’s work, so significant.
Presented in association with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Center for Art, Tradition and Cultural Heritage

Wednesday, July 31 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
NPR Music’s Turning the Tables Live: The Motherlode
featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Xiomara Laugart, Ledisi, Amina Claudine Myers, Cleo Reed, Valerie Simpson, Charenée Wade, and Lizz Wright
under the musical direction of Terri Lyne Carrington
Turning the Tables—the ongoing partnership between NPR Music and Lincoln Center that seeks to reframe the popular music canon to honor unacknowledged voices—returns to Out of Doors for a third season. This year, we explore the work of female artists who originated and shaped recorded music from its earliest days to the 1960s, in jazz, blues, gospel, classical, and Latinx music. Tonight’s performance, The Motherlode, celebrates the musical contributions of eight women—their names revealed at the show—whose towering contributions shaped the paths of all who followed. Selecting from the rich songbooks of these artists will be an outstanding group of contemporary performers, including Rhiannon Giddens, Xiomara Laugart, Ledisi, Amina Claudine Myers, Cleo Reed, Valerie Simpson, Charenée Wade, and Lizz Wright, under the musical direction of multiple Grammy Award–winner and two-time Turning the Tables honoree Terri Lyne Carrington.

Friday, August 2 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Liza with a “Z”
Caleb Teicher & Company
“Sing, Sing, Sing” from Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ (1978) performed by students of LaGuardia High School
Liza Minnelli fans young and old are invited to gather under the stars in Damrosch Park for a rare screening of the Emmy- and Peabody Award–winning Liza with a “Z”. Capturing a one-woman, one-night-only production Minnelli gave at the Lyceum Theater in 1972, and along with it a momentous time in cultural history, this concert film boasted superstar credits (directed by Bob Fosse, costumed by Halston, and packed with songs by Kander & Ebb).

Following in the footsteps of choreographic legend Alvin Ailey, Caleb Teicher believes that dance is for everybody—and every body. The jazz, tap, and swing wunderkind has developed a style of dance that reflects not only how Americans have danced for the last hundred years, but also how they use their bodies now. Along with his intrepid ensemble, the Bessie Award–winner presents a program that includes the spirited Lindy hop–inspired Meet Ella, set to the music of Ella Fitzgerald; Small and Tall, witty, jazz-inflected duets performed to live music; and Bzzz, featuring rousing tap choreography and the irresistible rhythms of an onstage beatboxer. Rounding out this exhilarating evening of dance is a performance of “Sing, Sing, Sing” from Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’, by students of LaGuardia High School, with original choreography by Fosse and reconstructed by Lloyd Culbreath and assisted by Alyssa Epstein.
The performance of “Sing, Sing, Sing” has been sanctioned by The Verdon Fosse Legacy.
Liza with a “Z” is presented in association with Film at Lincoln Center

Family Day
Saturday, August 3
11:00 am Hearst Plaza
Brown Rice Family
A fresh world roots band jamming towards global solidarity, Brown Rice Family provides the masses with distinctively organic global music, which encompasses reggae, hip-hop, dancehall, Afrobeat, jazz stylings, rock, Brazilian, Latin, and funk. Always growing, the band now comprises eight members hailing from all over the world—Japan, Jamaica, Haiti, Nigeria, South Africa, and the USA.

Move the Crowd: A Day of Hip-Hop and Culture
11:00 am–2:15 pm Hearst Plaza
Live graffiti by Lola Lovenotes
Brooklyn-based poet and educator Najee Omar opens this exuberant afternoon of hip-hop and culture with a powerful spoken-word performance. Then, transforming their bodies into drums, the high-energy dancers from SOLE Defined add a jolt of electricity to the traditional Broadway musical format, combining tap, step, and other forms of percussive dance with acting, singing, and multimedia projections.

New York City–based muralist and visual artist Lola Lovenotes brings her street-art skills to Hearst Plaza with live art creation throughout this fun-filled afternoon.

12:00 pm Hearst Plaza
Najee Omar

1:00 pm Hearst Plaza
VIBEZ by SOLE Defined

Presented in association with LC Kids
Move the Crowd is presented in association with Hi-ARTS

Saturday, August 3 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
An Evening of Stand-Up Comedy: Roy Wood Jr. & Guests
Comedy comes to the Bandshell through the “charismatic crankiness” of Roy Wood Jr. (Entertainment Weekly). With his wry observational humor and satiric commentary on social justice issues, Wood Jr. has entertained millions across the stage, television and radio. The “Best F#@ing News Team” correspondent and host of Comedy Central’s storytelling series “This is Not Happening” is joined by some of comedy’s brightest for this evening of stand up under the stars.
Presented in association with Regular Comedy

Sunday, August 4 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
desi:NOW
featuring G. Sidhu, Rianjali, Taizu, Rolex, Robin Dey, SA Grooves, Project Convergence, IMGE Dance, and DJ Sharad
Growing up between cultures, first and second-generation immigrants of the Indian subcontinent have been creating a space for self-expression that acknowledges their hyphenated identities as Desis outside of South Asia. Join us for an exciting and growing lineup of genre-bending creatives defining modern South Asian-American identity through the arts, including the international powerhouse Punjabi singer G. Sidhu; crystalline-voiced singer-songwriter and Television Academy honoree Rianjali; rap, R&B, and hip-hop artists Taizu, Rolex Rasathy, and Robin Dey; plus Desi and hip-hop beats from DJ Sharad and performances by IMGE Dance, SA Grooves, and Project Convergence that fuse Indian classical and traditional dance with hip-hop, tap, and more.
Presented in association with MELA Arts Connect and Figure 44 Management

Sunday, August 4
4:30 pm Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater
Related Event:
Panel Discussion: desi – Then, Now, and Future
Join the movers and shakers of the South Asian–American creative scene for a conversation on the history, challenges, victories, and future of the space.
This panel will be recorded as part of the Butter Chicken podcast.

Wednesday, August 7 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Jesús Carmona: Amator
Arooj Aftab
With his flawless footwork and ballet-infused moves, Jesús Carmona is “un fenómeno”—a phenomenon—of the flamenco world (New York Times). He brings his palpable charisma to the Damrosch Park Bandshell for a performance of his intensely beautiful Amator, a deeply personal work that draws upon his love of Spanish dance. Experience this masterful feat of electrifying choreography and improvisation, accompanied by onstage orchestration.

This evening of visceral musicality begins with Lahore-born, Brooklyn-based artist Arooj Aftab who is continuing the Sufi tradition with a style that combines Sufi-mystical poetry with the spirit of independent rock. Reworking classical Pakistani and North Indian forms, including thumri, khayal, and kafi, she creates a fascinating mix of sounds and cultures that will float through the night air with lightness and poise. Tonight, Aftab presents new music in collaboration with an exceptional ensemble featuring Maeve Gilchrist, Shahzad Ismaily, Gyan Riley and Greg Fox.

Thursday, August 8 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
OkayAfrica: Gold & Soul
Adekunle Gold & Friends
DJ Poizon Ivy
In this beat-driven double bill, OkayAfrica—the source for “all that’s hot and jumping in the new African renaissance”—fills Damrosch Park with the spirit of African soul and the rhythms of chart-topping club music. DJ Poizon Ivy, official DJ of the Dallas Mavericks and the first female mixer to grace the airwaves at her local radio station, kicks things into high gear with her irresistible Afrobeats and multicultural mixes. Then Nigerian singer-songwriter Adekunle Gold takes over the stage with his signature blend of urban high-life and pop-infused songs. Proudly weaving together Yoruba, English and Pidgin English, Gold’s soulful Afropop will keep you feeling inspired all night long.

Friday, August 9 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
MTV and Save the Music featuring
H.E.R. and
Samm Henshaw
As part of MTV Music Month and the 2019 MTV VMAs, Save the Music—a non-profit organization that has launched over 2,000 music programs within schools across the country—joins forces with two-time Grammy Award–winner and MTV PUSH artist H.E.R for an intimate performance in Damrosch Park. The night opens with U.K. soul singer Samm Henshaw alongside top student musicians from Save the Music programs.

Saturday & Sunday, August 10 & 11
The Roots of American Music Weekend
Americanafest NYC

Saturday, August 10 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Patty Griffin
Yola
Fresh off a world tour, Grammy Award–winning singer-songwriter Patty Griffin graces the Americanafest stage. The quintessential American artist lends her seasoned wisdom to a new eponymous LP—whose lead track “River” was inspired by Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” made famous by R&B singer Donny Hathaway. With her melancholy poise and pendulous jazz phrasing, she proves she is still one of folk music’s most genre-expanding artists. Opening the evening is arresting British singer Yola, whose thrilling debut album Walk Through Fire (produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach) has established her as the queen of country soul.

Sunday, August 11 at 7:30 pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
To Be Announced
Presented in association with the Americana Music Association