Community Calendar

This season, Carnegie Hall Citywide presents five nights of genre-spanning music in July, featuring Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, The Baylor Project, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Broadway Simfonietta, and The Hot Sardines Featuring Nellie McKay.

“For more than four decades, Carnegie Hall has partnered with community organizations in all five boroughs, offering free performances by renowned mainstage artists and rising musical stars in New York City neighborhoods, bringing together local residents and people from all over to share in great music,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “As part of this commitment to community, we are thrilled to return to Bryant Park this summer, presenting five fantastic concerts, kicking off next season’s Carnegie Hall Citywide series.”

The Grammy Award–winning Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble (ALJE) is an octet of virtuosos with roots in Latin jazz traditions trailblazed by greats like Tito Puente and Mario Bauzá. With a keen ear for the music’s future, the ALJE performs a diverse repertoire that highlights the ensemble’s principal musicians, including one of its newest members, pianist Andrew Andron. The ALJE is a perfect fit for this outdoor summer concert series, showcasing the sounds and amazing talent of New York City.

This season, Carnegie Hall Citywide presents five nights of genre-spanning music in July, featuring Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, The Baylor Project, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Broadway Simfonietta, and The Hot Sardines Featuring Nellie McKay.

“For more than four decades, Carnegie Hall has partnered with community organizations in all five boroughs, offering free performances by renowned mainstage artists and rising musical stars in New York City neighborhoods, bringing together local residents and people from all over to share in great music,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “As part of this commitment to community, we are thrilled to return to Bryant Park this summer, presenting five fantastic concerts, kicking off next season’s Carnegie Hall Citywide series.”

The Baylor Project represents one of today’s great musical marriages—a genre-crossing exploration led by vocalist Jean Baylor and drummer Marcus Baylor. Their most recent album, 2021’s Generations, earned the couple their first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album (Vocal), as well as its fourth Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Spanning jazz, blues, soul, gospel, and more, this project has sold out shows across the United States and taken the spotlight at large European festivals.

WBGO DJ Felix Hernandez kicks off Horizon Foundation Sounds of the City with his famous Rhythm Revue Dance Party. He’ll be spinning classic soul and old-school R&B, from James Brown to Aretha Franklin to Marvin Gaye and more. It’s fun, it’s free and most important of all—it’s funky. So bring your family, your friends and your dancing shoes, and we’ll see you at Chambers Plaza on July 14.

About Horizon Foundation Sounds of the City

Our famous FREE outdoor concert series brings residents together every week in Chambers Plaza. It’s a dance party with a festival atmosphere—and you’re invited! Grab a drink at our outdoor bar. Feast at NJPAC’s NICO Kitchen + Bar or nearby food trucks. Meet, mingle and move to the music.

DJ Duce Martinez and DJ Tiny spin the music, while you can learn some new moves from dance instructor Smiling David.

Revive Big Band is big. Not just in size—20+ members—but in scope, using jazz to connect the throughlines between hip-hop and its predecessors. The band is led by trumpeter and composer Igmar Thomas, who moonlights as Ms. Lauryn Hill’s music director and once served as Nas’ bandleader. Their performance will feature French soul-rap-R&B singer Thaïs Lona. They’re joined by the singer, flutist, beat-maker, producer, and recent 2022 SummerStage Anywhere alum Melanie Charles, whose latest LP Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women features a reimagining of Marlena Shaw’s 1969 working class anthem “Woman Of The Ghetto” and supported by Erika the DJ.

There will also be a side stage performance by J. Hoard.

The Residency of Thaïs Lona with The Revive Big Band at SummerStage 2022 has been made possible through Jazz & New Music, a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States with support from the French Ministry of Culture, Institut français, SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) and the CNM (Centre National de la Musique).

Simply put, Brooklyn-born singer, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and all-around keyboard master Cory Henry is the future of music. A GRAMMY winner with his old band Snarky Puppy, he’s since made a name for himself as a solo artist and producer earning four GRAMMY nominations including Kanye West (Donda), Erik Bellinger (New Light) and his own self-produced album (Something to Say). Henry has also gone on to lay his vocals, instrumentals and production skills to recent releases from global superstars Rosalía, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Imagine Dragons and more. With a DJ set from Soho Radio’s Rustam Ospanoff, spanning the deepest soul sounds from around the world.

Jazzmobile's mission is to present, preserve, promote and propagate America's classical music, Jazz. This summer, Jazzmobile presents native Nuyorican drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, and activist Bobby Sanabria and his 21-piece multi-Grammy nominated Multiverse Big Band.

This performance will combine elements of Jazz, funk, and R & B, as well as Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Puerto Rican rhythms and more into what Fernando Gonzalez of JazzTimes has described as "... a musical juggernaut." Ben Ratliff of The New York Times says "... Mr. Sanabria expands the possibilities, moving the sound of bands like that of Puente, Machito, with all the heft and intricacy and clave-based dance rhythm, into the harmonically oriented sophistication of current New York jazz players. It's New York up and down, and back and forth across the last century, from the street to the mambo palaces to the conservatories."

This season, Carnegie Hall Citywide presents five nights of genre-spanning music in July, featuring Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, The Baylor Project, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Broadway Simfonietta, and The Hot Sardines Featuring Nellie McKay.

“For more than four decades, Carnegie Hall has partnered with community organizations in all five boroughs, offering free performances by renowned mainstage artists and rising musical stars in New York City neighborhoods, bringing together local residents and people from all over to share in great music,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “As part of this commitment to community, we are thrilled to return to Bryant Park this summer, presenting five fantastic concerts, kicking off next season’s Carnegie Hall Citywide series.”

Fueled by the belief that classic jazz feeds the heart and soul, The Hot Sardines is making a name for itself as “one of the best jazz bands in New York today” (Forbes). The Hot Sardines have performed at the Newport and Montreal jazz festivals, sold out venues from Chicago to New York to London, and reached the top spot on the iTunes jazz chart. In this free performance in Bryant Park, they welcome guest vocalist Nellie McKay, a first-rate entertainer described as a “renegade songwriter with an ultra- flexible Great American Songbook sensibility. McKay finds modern resonances everywhere” (Rolling Stone).

Join us on Sat, July 30 for our 2022 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Film Night. We'll be screening the movie Fame with an opening performance by Sing Harlem.

This 1980 cult-classic musical follows a diverse group of teens as they navigate the challenges and triumphs of life at the prestigious New York High School of Performing Arts. At once gritty, heartbreaking, and joyful, Fame remains one of the most authentically New York films ever made. The acclaimed youth gospel group Sing Harlem sets the tone.

This dual-headliner bill showcases two pillars of modern jazz, bolstering communities fostering the next generation of jazz greats. Shabaka Hutchings is one of the brightest stars in a London jazz scene that’s stretching the boundaries of the genre. Sons of Kemet is his project with Tom Skinner, Theon Cross, and Eddie Hick; the lineup features two drummers, a tuba, and SummerStage Anywhere alum Hutchings on saxophone and clarinet. Their latest LP Black to the Future unites the African diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic, working with vocalists and rappers from the UK and US, making jazz that encourages political dialogue as much as individual expression.

Drummer, bandleader and recent SummerStage Anywhere alum Makaya McCraven’s take on jazz is viewed through the lens of hip-hop production, deconstructing and reassembling jazz and soul standards with the ear of a crate-digger. His 2020 LP We’re New Again reimagined Gil Scott-Heron’s final album through his own POV. On his latest, this year’s Deciphering the Message, he pilfers the Blue Note catalog for samples like a kid in a candy store, creating a virtual band of jazz legends from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and rising contemporary stars like Junius Paul and Marquis Hill. They’re joined by L’Rain, a Brooklyn-based songwriter and sound artist with a jazz lineage at the forefront of New York’s experimental community, and DJ Lindsey on the decks.