ANNOUNCING LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS 42nd SEASON
JULY 25-AUGUST 12, 2012

100 FREE PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS ACROSS THE PLAZAS OF LINCOLN CENTER

17 World, US and NY Debuts, Premieres and Commissions, Including:
* Phil Kline's dreamcitynine - festival-long GPS-based audio app installation plus live performance
* Art meets sport this Olympics summer with Kimmo Pohjonen's Accordion Wrestling
dance theater piece featuring the accordion experimentalist and ten Finnish wrestlers
Los Irreales de Ondatrópica - Quantic and Frente Cumbiero lead an intergenerational all-star gathering of Colombian musicians
* Celebrated Turkish psych-folk icon, singer Selda Bagcan, highlights Istanbulive
* The Bad Plus: On Sacred Ground - Re-envisioning Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
* Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble - German minimal techno group's chamber orchestra
* Polyglot Theatre's Tangle - site-specific, audience-created installation and kids' "play space"

AND...
Marking the 40th Anniversary of "Soul and the Center," Lincoln Center's Landmark Festival of African-American Artists
With: * Black Rock Coalition's Pardon Our Analysis
Nile Rodgers * Lenny Williams * Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company * Otis Clay * Aloe Blacc
* Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls All-Stars * Swamp Dogg
Celebrating The Music That Shaped the Culture:
Laura Nyro, Frisner Augustin, Tite Curet Alonso, Gil Scott-Heron, Sister Songwriters, Irish American Songbook

That summary with highlights comes directly from Lincoln Center who also just posted the entire 2012 Lincoln Center Out of Doors schedule at their site.

Looking for lunchtime plans? As previously posted:

Swamp Dogg will play a free show in Brooklyn from noon-2pm at Metrotech on July 14th [TODAY], part of the ongoing BAM R&B Festival. He'll then hightail it up to Johnny D's in Somerville, MA for a show later that night, but he returns Brooklyn to play the early show at Southpaw the following night (7/15). Tickets are still available. The Revelations (featuring Tre Williams), who backed Swamp at City Winery, are also listed on the Park Slope bill (though the Metrotech show doesn't mention them).

More info in our previous post.

"If your dog sleeps on the sofa, shits on the rug, pisses on the drapes, chews up your slippers, humos your mother-in-law's leg, jumps on your new clothes, and licks your face, he's never gotten out of character. You understand what he did, you curse him while making allowances for him, but your love for him never diminishes. Commencing in 1970, I sung about sex, niggers, love, rednecks, war, peace, dead flies, home wreckers, Sly Stone, my daughters, politics, revolution, amd blood transfusions (just to name a few), and never got out of character" - [Swamp Dogg]

The statement is a great testament to Swamp Dogg's eclecticism. That grows even clearer with one viewing of the art in his discography, the above pictured "Rat On!" included.

In 2010 Swamp Dogg, aka Jerry Williams, Jr., (born 12 July 1942), played his first NYC show in over a decade ("His last local appearance had taken place at Coney Island High, an East Village rock club that closed in July 1999"). According to New York Rocker:

Swamp Dogg killed. His set was a triumph.

The unknowing and unsuspecting among us were converted for life and sent forth into the night, frothing at the mouth and babbling in tongues of ecstasy. The true believers, your faithful scribe among them, were lifted to Soul Heaven on a pair of golden fried chicken wings (with choice of grits, black-eyed peas, or collard greens).

Swamp Dogg (lead vocals and electric piano) was backed capably and sympathetically by The Revelations of Brooklyn NY. I believe the personnel for this gig was Wes Mingus (guitar), Borahm Lee (keyboards), Josh Werner (bass) and Gintas Janusonis (drums) plus a three-man horn section.

If you missed it, July 2011 brings four more chances to catch the "the soul genius that time forgot." Two of those East Coast shows are in NYC, and one is even free.

Swamp Dogg will play a free show in Brooklyn from noon-2pm at Metrotech on July 14th, part of the ongoing BAM R&B Festival (which hosts the Port-au-Prince-based band RAM today, July 7th). He'll then hightail it up to Johnny D's in Somerville, MA for a show later that night, but he returns Brooklyn to play the early show at Southpaw the following night (7/15). Tickets are still available. The Revelations (featuring Tre Williams), who backed Swamp at City Winery, are also listed on the Park Slope bill (though the Metrotech show doesn't mention them).

All tour dates and some video below.

Continue reading "Swamp Dogg is coming (four east coast dates, 2 NYC shows)"

BAM presents the 17th annual R&B Festival at MetroTech. The festival is a free outdoor concert series featuring shows every Thursday from noon-2 PM, June 2 through August 4 at MetroTech Commons in Brooklyn. Awesome if you work right there. The fest kicks off this Thursday (6/2) with George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic. Full lineup below.

Continue reading "BAM R&B Festival at Metrotech 2011 lineup (free summer shows, Thursdays at noon)"