The City Parks Foundation announced the SummerStage 2022 lineup on Tuesday. This year’s performing arts festival will feature 90 free and benefit concerts in 12 different parks across New York City’s five boroughs.
Fans attend a George Clinton concert at SummerStage 2021.
Shows will be held at the SummerStage flagship venue at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park; Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem; Von King Park and The Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn; Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens; Crotona Park in the Bronx; and Corporal Thompson Park in Staten Island.
The first shows in the lineup are two benefit concerts (which are not free to the public) in Central Park. Aurora presents the Gods We Can Trust tour/ Sub Urban will open the concert series on June 4. Followed by Modest Mouse and The Cribs on June 8.
Yo La Tengo performing at last year’s SummerStage.
Summerstage 2022 will kick off its free shows, also in Central Park, with an opening night concert on June 11 with jazz legend Herbie Hancock.
This year SummerStage plans to return for a six-show series at The Coney Island Amphitheater. The most notable of which is the Spread Love Hip-Hop Jam Hosted by Ralph McDaniels and DJ Scratch on August 11.
Another highlight will be the 30th Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival on Aug. 26-27 in Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park. Headliners for this year’s rendition are composer Terence Blanchard, jazz singer Jazzmeia Horn, and avant-garde saxophonist Archie Shepp.
Outside of its numerous musical offerings SummerStage 2022 will also screen the Oscar award-winning documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) for free on June 17 in Marcus Garvey Park. The documentary, produced by The Roots’ Questlove, tells the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which was held 50 years ago in the same park.
SummerStage returns with a full slate of shows this year after reducing their number of performances last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, it was cancelled altogether.
“We are so happy to be back in local neighborhood parks after a two-year hiatus” said Heather Lubov, City Parks Foundation’s Executive Director. “Parks have always been neighborhood gathering spaces, but the pandemic brought to light just how absolutely critical parks are to our city’s health.”
Photo by: Buscar Photo (www.buscarphoto.com)
This year’s lineups reflect the diversity that New York is known for. Artists performing this year will be 52% woman or non-binary and 95% of performers are BIPOC.
“Each season, SummerStage has always presented a festival full of talent as diverse and broad as the communities that host these performances in parks across all five boroughs,” said Erika Elliott, Executive Artistic Director of SummerStage. “The artists we are presenting this season not only represent their own distinct cultures but reflect the global diversity that truly matches the spirit of New York City.”
The full lineup can be found on the SummerStage 2022 website.
At an unforgettable Academy Awards ceremony, Billie Eilish won the Oscar for Best Song and the Questlove-directed Summer of Soul won the Oscar for Best Documentary feature.
Summer of Soul looks at The Harlem Cultural Festival, filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park), an event that celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity. Over six weeks in the summer of 1969, and nearly 100 miles south of Woodstock (where another festival was taking place), the footage that makes up Summer of Soul was never seen and largely forgotten.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson brought this ‘Black Woodstock’ to light for his debut documentary, Summer of Soul(…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Part concert film and part historical record, the documentary is an important piece of history that stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The trailer debuted during the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, April 25, 2021 where Questlove was serving as music director and DJ for the evening.
Questlove was joined on stage by fellow documentary producers Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein and appeared choked up when he mentioned his late father, musician Lee Andrews, who died in 2016.
It’s not lost on me that the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival should have been something that my beautiful mother and my dad should have taken me to when I was five years old. This is such a stunning moment for me right now. But it’s not about me. It’s about marginalized people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain. Just know in 2022, this is not just a 1969 story about marginalized people in Harlem.
Questlove attempted to finish his speech but was overwhelmed, saying “I’m gonna get myself together and thank everyone proper when I get offstage.”
Moments before Questlove’s category was introduced, future-Best-Actor winner Will Smith walked on stage and hit presenter Chris Rock for a comment made about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith. The moment left Questlove somewhat shaken as he accepted the award for Best Documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPbOF4wpEVw
A short while later, Billie Eilish, along with Finneas O’Connell, won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “No Time to Die” from the most recent James Bond film of the same name. The song was written by the brother-sister duo, and with Eilish only 18 when the song was recorded, makes the song and artist the youngest to record a James Bond theme, let alone win an Oscar for Best Original Song. “No Time to Die” previously won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Other nominees in the Best Original Song category this year included “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto (music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda), “Be Alive” from King Richard (music and lyrics by Dixson and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), “Somehow You Do,” from Four Good Days (music and lyrics by Diane Warren), and “Down to Joy,” from Belfast (music and lyrics by Van Morrison).
Since the 1960s, James Bond films have included memorable original songs, with two Best Original Song Oscars given to 007 films in recent years, including “Writing’s On the Wall” (Jimmy Nape, Sam Smith) from Spectre, and “Skyfall” (Adele, Paul Epworth) from Skyfall.
Other Bond film original songs that have been nominated in the past include “The Look of Love” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) from Casino Royale (1968), “Live and Let Die” (Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) from Live and Let Die (1974), “Nobody Does it Better” (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager) from The Spy Who Loved Me (1978), and “For Your Eyes Only” (Bill Conti, Mick Leeson) from For Your Eyes Only (1982)
During a break from Dead & Company tour in June of 2018 John Mayer started to build “Sob Rock” on your Instagram in portrait mode from Electric Lady studios in New York City. The IGTV episode compartmentalizes the ideas behind the albums first single “New Light”. Mayer said on a Tales from the Golden Road broadcast that Dead & Company is a little “Hendrixy.” Well Sob Rock is a little “Princey.” Mayer takes you on the ride from the songs original sample to one of Prince’s guitars making it’s way on the album. It was unplanned that it showed up during the recording.
He even put a compressor on the studio sound like the Purple one used to do. Mayer tells IGTV during the making of “New Light”… There’s this moment at the end of the solo going in to the last chorus…that’s cool. When you got a guy like Pino Palladino for a turn around like that, you set the dude free and go let him just feel it out.
Bassist Pino Palladino joins guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, drummer Steve Farrone, percussionist Lenny Castro, keyboardists Gregg Phillinganes & Jamie Muhoberac, guitarist and vocalist David Ryan Harris, Carlos Ricketts, Tiffany Palmer, and John Mayer for the “Sob Rock” 2022 tour. It hits 20 cities this year. Mayer debuted “New Light” in the encore live with a Phish like confetti curation during his last solo world tour opener in Albany in July of 2019.
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Mayer welcomed everyone at Albany’s old Knickerbocker Arena to “The Sob Rock Era” on the February 17 2022 debut show. The former “Dozin at the Knick” room holds the same stage Mayer birthed his Dead & Company role for transportation in October of 2015. Oteil Burbridge told NYS music about his perception in Dead & Co. “When Bill Walton says you’re good you stop worrying.” In fact the next venue the new group played that tour was MSG.
Let me tell you something this blows my mind. I’m up here playing these songs and I look out to see you & the dream is complete. Thank you.
John Mayer
The Albany audience responded with the same pieces of 80’s flair as Mayer on stage. The crowd sported radio walkmans with dead tape in deck, vintage commercials, faded sport jackets, tie dyes, scrunchies, wayfarers, Sob Rock newspapers, Stealie fleeces and Fast Times at Ridgemont High piano scarfs in motion. John Mayer thanked Lee Chris Art mid show for her vibe in the crowd.
The last train home carried the act down the Hudson River to Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden for two sold out evenings of John Mayer on February 20 and 21. Mayer’s last two night run at the Garden was with the Dead & Company for Halloween 2019.
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It should come as no surprise that the only artists work weaved in the tour’s set list so far is “The Beautiful Ones” by Prince sung by “Sob Rock” guitarist David Ryan Harris. John saw David Ryan Harris from the crowd during his sit in with the Leroi Moore era Dave Matthews Band at Jones Beach in 1995. Mayer and his new band also played material off “Room for Squares”, “Heavier Things”, “Continuum”, “Battle Studies”, “Born and Raised”, “Paradise Valley”, and “The Search for Everything”.
Mayer encouraged everyone in Albany to dance in unison to “Moving on and Getting Over”. John sings to “Rosie” at the Garden… Don’t Leave me here under the January rain, come let me in, take my heart by the hand. “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” was played in Albany and New York City for those suspicious minds in each town.
I will beg my way in to your garden and then I’ll break my way out when it rains. Monday night at Madison Square Garden had the show turn split screen for a special presentation. For the first time ever the “Sob Rock” catalog was performed live stripped down acoustic along side many other classics on the fourth night of the tour. It felt vert reminiscent of The Grateful Dead’s 1980 Radio City Halloween shows that split the bill acoustic & electric.
Mayer started the night solo to light the room with “Neon”. He led the pack from his seated chair on the psychedelic piece “If I Ever Get Around To Living” that explored the Garden’s room. Tom Petty’s Drummer Steve Farrone is also a part of Sob Rock University. David Ryan Harris and John Mayer did an acoustic duo cover of “Free Falling” for extra credit.
The only other artist work besides Mayer to be featured on the acoustic set was Paul Simon. Mayer sang Simon’s “Homeward Bound” as the outro to his original track “Stop this Train” at Penn Station. The set closed with a “Sob Rock” & “Graceland” album hybrid debut. Mayer and the entire Garden sang “You Can Call Me Al” in between his new original “Til the Right One Comes”.
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Monday nights special guest in place of Steve Farrone was Philadelphia’s Questlove fresh off his January birthday. Sob Rock guitarist Isaiah Sharkey is a fan of the Philadelphonic sound in Manhattan. Sharkey told NYS music in July that his most influential show from a NY crowd was Pennsylvania’s Joey DeFrancesco at the legendary Blue Note in the village. Philli’ born Saxophonist Vanessa Collier told NYS Music about Questlove’s knowledge and love of music.
It’s not a surface level thing with Questlove. It’s all life. He knows every groove from every single song he’s heard. From a DJ perspective and drummer angle is great.
Vanessa Collier
Questlove was on his way to attend “Sob Rock” at the Garden when he found out he would be sitting in for one of his favorite drummers. Quest’s stop at Penn Station from Rockefeller was immediately felt during “Vultures” to open the second set. He sat on the throne for the six song electric change up & encore. Quest, who laid studio drums to Mayer’s 2004 cut ”Clarity”, loved playing it live to a sold out Garden. The Sob Rock cast saved Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” snippet for Quest’s set as well. “Something like Olivia” hit like “Lay Down Sally” at MSG.
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All the Sallys swaying next to the wrong Harrys in the audience at the Garden caught a vibe during “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” to end the show. John Mayer & Isaiah Sharkey pick’s light the same fire Eric Clapton & Robert Cray’s “Old Love” burned in 1989 when he debuted “Journeyman”. In similar fashion Keith Richards & Ivan Neville are headlining the Love Rocks NYC benefit at the Beacon Theater in March to recast his 1989 X-Pensive Winos to the stage with Steve Jordan.
Truth be told I coulda played the whole show. I texted Jimmy (Fallon) earlier I felt like Don Henley in 1988 when last minute he played drums for Guns N’ Roses at the AMA’s. It was hella fun tonight.
Questlove
Pino Palladino certainly saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac on the way to the Garden. He plays bass on Don Henley’s big apple island ballad “New York Minute.” Jimmy Fallon had a head full of roses and calavera art on his face in the crowd during Dead & Company’s Halloween show at MSG in 2019. John Mayer took a solo during “Standing on the Moon” that night which permeated through the worlds most famous arena in to “Gravity” for his own band’s 2022 encores. In a New York minute everything can change.
Mayer is truly channeling the same solo paths that Petty & Garcia once trailed. Sob Rock’s vibe is very Traveling Wilburys though. Drummer Steve Farrone has backed George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton. George Harrison once reflected about Eric Clapton’s stage presence from the crowd during his legendary Rainbow Theatre Concert from London in January of 1973.
While dressed in an all white suit with his foot tapping on the stage Harrison said he took on the glow of an angel playing a long to the music. At 44, Mayer keeps his gravity where the same light Leroi shines on him. Except the New Light is Purple.
John Mayer, Madison Square Garden – February 20, 2022
Setlist: Last Train Home, Shot in the Dark, Belief, Something like Olivia, I Guess I Just Feel Like, Who Says, Rosie, Shouldn’t Matter but it Does, Helpless, Your Body is a Wonderland, I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You), Wild Blue, Edge of Desire, Til’ The Right One Comes, The Beautiful Ones*, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, New Light, Waiting on the World to Change, All I Want Is To Be With You Encore: Gravity *Prince Piece sang by David Ryan Harris
John Mayer, Madison Square Garden – February 21, 2022
Acoustic Set: Neon, Last Train Home, Shot in the Dark, Belief, In the Blood, If I Ever Get Around to Living, New Light, Wild Blue, Your Body is a Wonderland, In Your Atmosphere, Somethings Missing, Daughters, Free Fallin’. Carry Me Away, Who Says, Stop This Train*(Homeward Bound), Til’ The Right One Comes *(You Can Call Me Al)
Encore: Gravity
*Paul Simon verse
Questlove Set: Vultures, Clarity, Something Like Olivia, The Beautiful Ones**, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
