Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage is in full swing this month, with a diverse set of shows taking place in Central Park and across New York City, including the 27th Anniversary celebration of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. For the most up-to-date scheduling and lineup for all SummerStage programming, visit www.SummerStage.org for all festival information.

On Wednesday, August 21st, SummerStage will celebrate Wendy Whelan, once called “America’s greatest contemporary ballerina” by the NY Times and newly appointed as associate artistic director of New York City Ballet. Whelan, who at age 52, became the firm woman in the company’s history to hold a permanent position within the artistic leadership, brings an excerpt of a new work-in-progress inspired by Saint-Saëns’ composition to SummerStage. She’s joined by acclaimed spoken-word artist and playwright, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who will open the show with a solo poetry performance followed by the Whelan collaboration. The evening will continue with a screening of the 2013 documentary RestlessCreature: Wendy Whelan, which follows Whelan as she struggles to recover from a potentially career-ending injury and reinvent herself as a dancer beyond the world of ballet. This free show is set to take place from 8 to 10PM. Doors open at 7PM.

From 6 to 7PM, a panel on “The Art of Transition: A Conversation of Next Steps” will be hosted by Danni Gee, SummerStage Dance Curator & former Alvin Ailey principal dancer, with celebrated dancers Alicia Graf-Mack, Desmond Richardson & Bebe Neuwirth, will take place in Central Park. Bebe Neuwirth has been dancing and singing and working in theatre, television and film for the last 40 years. Some of her credits include Broadway performances in A Chorus Line, Little Me, Dancin’, Sweet Charity (Tony Award), Damn Yankees, Addams Family, Chicago (Tony, Drama Desk, Astaire, etc. Awards), and Fosse. She has received various honors and awards including a CTFD Rolex Dance Award, a Dance Magazine Award, an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music, and is an Honorary Zeigfeld Girl and Honorary member of Local 1 (Stagehands’ Union).

Desmond Richardson is the Co-Artistic Director with master choreographer Dwight Rhoden of the internationally acclaimed Complexions Contemporary Ballet, now celebrating its 25th year. With his technical virtuosity and statuesque expressive demeanor, NY Times has hailed him as among the greatest dancers of his time. Richardson has been a principal dancer and an invited guest with many of the most prestigious companies in the world such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham, Jose Lìmon, The Frankfurt Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Swedish Opera Ballet, Mariinsky Theatre, Teatro a la Scala, The Washington Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, among others, and he was the first African American principal dancer of American Ballet Theater. Alicia Graf Mack enjoyed a distinguished career as a leading dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has also been a principal dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Ms. Graf Mack has danced as a guest performer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Beyoncé, John Legend, Andre 3000, and Alicia Keys. RSVP is required for all and is on first-come, first-served basis at rsvp@cityparksfoundation.org

City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage will kick off its annual celebration of free Jazz this month with the 27th Anniversary celebration of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. On Friday, August 23rd, the multi-media show Harlem 100 will take place in Marcus Garvey Park. Harlem 100 was created in collaboration with The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, celebrating the landmark 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem 100 will include Mwenso and the Shakes, a multicultural New York jazz group laced with minimal irony and maximum fun led by the Sierra Leone-born Mwenso; Brianna Thomas, a jazz vocalist with massive range who sings ballad standards, cabaret, Scat, and the blues, specializing in the 30s-style swing music; Vuyo Sotashe, an ascendant young South African jazz vocalist making a name for himself in the New York jazz scene and the very special guest Fred Wesley; the super-project celebration is supported by Winard Harper & his group Jeli Posse, presented by Jazzmobile, who play jazz standards and original works rooted in Caribbean rhythms and the traditions of Africa. This free show is set to take place from 7 to 9PM.

On Saturday, August 24th, Charlie Parker Jazz Festival continues in Marcus Garvey Park. Jazz scion Ravi Coltrane, the son of jazz pianist Alice Coltrane and saxophonist John Coltrane, finds himself sandwiched by a cadre of powerful and talented women on this jazz-centric bill headlined by the three-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter and jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. Bridgewater, produced in association with Jill Newman Productions, who also happens to be a Tony Award-winning stage actress and was the host of NPR’s syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater for 23 years, is joined by Quiana Lynell, the winner of the 2017 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and who trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard has called a “unique talent” in possession of “the maturity of a well-seasoned vocalist while having a forward-thinking approach to creativity”. They are joined by “Reclamation” a piece honoring Charlie Parker, commissioned in association with The Joyce and George Wein Foundation and The Jazz Gallery, featuring Queens native CamilleThurman – what NPR All Things Considered has called a “Rare Jazz Double Threat” – an award winning composer, vocalist and saxophonist whose latest project “Waiting For The Sunrise” made its debut at #2 on the Billboard Jazz Charts and was nominated for a 2019 NAACP Image Award; Nikara Warren, a Brooklyn-born vibraphonist whose latest project, Black Wall Street, is designed as an ode to excellence in Black music; and harpist Brandee Younger , a modern talent playing an ancient instrument under the influence of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. This free show is set to take place from 3 to 7PM.

On Sunday, August 25th, the festival travels back downtown to the East Village to where Parker lived, Tompkins Square Park. Carl Allen’s Art Blakey Tribute will take the stage for a free performance. Carl Allen’s jazz bonafides are indisputable-as a young drummer out of William Paterson University he earned a spot in Freddie Hubbard’s band, and would go on to play with the saxophonists George Coleman and Phil Woods (among others), and serve as the Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School. The quintet he brings to SummerStage-featuring trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, saxophonist JD Allen, pianist Eric Reed, and bassist Peter Washington-pays tribute to one of his heroes, the legendary drummer Art Blakey. Allen is joined by NEA Jazz Master and one of the most respected musicians out of the hard-bop era George Coleman and his trio, the multiple GRAMMY Award nominee pianist Fred Hersch, who has been proclaimed as “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz” by Vanity Fair, and the saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who has played with the likes of Missy Elliot, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray, the Roots, and Anita Baker. This free show is set to take place from 3 to 7PM.

Also on Sunday, August 25th, salsa singer La India will take the stage at SummerStage in Central Park. Famously “introduced” by Eddie Palimieri in “Llego La India via Eddie Palmieri,” Linda Viera Caballero quickly made a name for herself as La India, one of the biggest voices in salsa. But before Celia Cruz would dub her the “Princess of Salsa,” she got her start in the South Bronx, where she was a founding member of the Latin Freestyle group TKA, and cut a solo record with Freestyle legends John “Jellybean” Benitez and her husband “Little” Louie Vega. After “Llego La India via Eddie Palmieri,” she blossomed into salsa royalty and never looked back, going on to work with Cruz and Tito Puente, and winning Best Salsa Album Latin Grammy for her album Intensamente India Con Canciones De Juan Gabriel. She will be joined by Cuban funk dance artist Cimafunk named by Billboard as one of “10 Latin Artists to watch in 2019,” Sony Withaneye, and DJ Lucho. This free show is set to take place from 7 to 10PM. Doors open at 6PM.

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