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Here you have the best performances at Summerstage, including all the Latino acts presented citywide as part of the biggest festival in NYC. Summerstage runs until August 29th. Enjoy!

¿Quién no se ha pasado una tarde de verano en SummerStage? Aún recuerdo el conciertazo de Jovanotti, Los Amigos Invisibles y Natalia Lafourcade, por mencionar uno!. Summerstage es 'a must' para cada neoyorquino que se precie y para más de un visitante, claro!.

José Alberto El Canario.

Ana Rockafella García

Limón Dance Company

Mala Rodríguez

¿Quién no se la ha pasado bien en SummerStage? Hace un año estaba cantando y bailando al ritmo de Los Amigos Invisibles, Natalia Lafourcade y Jovanotti!. Pues nada, SummerStage, el festival gratuito al aire libre más grande de la ciudad, es parada esencial del verano neoyorquino. Los artistas en cartelera son de primera y muchos de esos artistas son latinos. Además de Parque Central, la programación de SummerStage abarca otros 17 parques de la ciudad, más de 100 eventos de los cuales más de 20 son eventos latinos. Hasta ahora se han presentado Ozomatli, Larry Harlow con la Latin Legends Band y Hector Tricoche. En el mes de Agosto se presenta la obra teatral SANGRE, una adaptación de Bodas de Sangre de Federico García Lorca y comisionada especialmente para SummerStage. Además se presentan el “king of Latin Soul” Joe Bataan, Henry Santos de Aventura, Wisin y Yandel, el salsero Tito Rojas, Andy Andy, Los Rakas, entre otros. Check it out!

Artist Website: http://www.joebataan.com/

Joe Bataan, called the “King of Latin Soul,” was influenced by the melodic sounds of doo-wop and the energy of Latin music that were the hallmarks of his Spanish Harlem neighborhood. The famed Fania Records found this intersection of sound and culture enticing and propelled Bataan to become a major force in the “Latin Boogaloo” music scene with hits like “Gypsy Woman” and “My Cloud.”

Artist Website: http://www.johnnycolon.com
Johnny Colón is an acclaimed musician and a pioneer of the “Latin Boogaloo” movement. His celebrated album, Boogaloo Blues became an instant classic and helped set the tone for this era in Latin music history. With other successful albums such as Boogaloo’67 and Move Over, Colón went on to found the East Harlem Music School, the first music school devoted to salsa music.
Artist Website: http://www.djturmix.com
DJ Turmix, originally from Barcelona, arrived in NYC in 2008. He is a specialist in 60’s Latin Boogaloo and an inveterate vinyl collector. He hosts the monthly LET’S BOOGALOO party at Nublu.

In 1965, on the verge of abandoning Latin music, a generation of young Latinos in NYC discovers Latin Boogaloo, a musical style mixing English and Spanish lyrics, with Afro-Cuban, jazz, rock and R&B rhythms and melodies. Featuring original interviews with legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colón, Ricardo Ray and others, Mathew Ramirez Warren’s documentary, “We Like It Like That” explores the story of the Latin Boogaloo era and seeks to understand its legacy and context in history.

* HENRY SANTOS + WISIN y YANDEL
Saturday, August 13. Mainstage at Central Park, Manhattan. 3:00 pm. 

Aventura’s Henry Santos is stepping into new territory with his premiere as a solo artist at SummerStage. Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Santos had an interest in music since he was a child and further developed this passion when he moved to the United States at age 14. As “a diehard music fanatic,” Santos has helped Aventura achieve phenomenal international success as a singer and composer. His compositions have secured Aventura as one of the most recognizable names in bachata music worldwide, catering to young Latinos in the US as well as audiences across Europe and Latin America. His hybrid “bachata with R&B, hip-hop and big-city attitude” sound has created a “juggernaut,” according to The New York Times. With a successful track record with Aventura, Santos solo debut is highly anticipated by numerous fans.

* HENRY SANTOS
Wednesday, August 17. Highbridge Park, Manhattan
7:00 PM
* BACHATA HEIGHTZ

Tuesday, August 16. Highbridge Park, Manhattan

7:00 pm
Artist Website: http://www.myspace.com/officialbachataheightz
Born and raised in Washington Heights, Jerry Garcia, Jonathan Garcia, Jeffrey Cruz, Aneudy Hernandez and Diego Capellan formed Bachata Heightz to explore their musical interests while staying off the streets. The group was inspired by the tropical music of their Dominican roots as well as hip-hop and R&B.  Combining these varying sounds, Bachata Heightz created urban bachata, which highlights their Latin heritage yet incorporates modern beats. As one of the first pioneers of this unique sound, they showcased it on their recording debut with Hector Acosta on “Me Puedo Matar,” which reached the top five on the Billboard Latin Tropical chart. Soon after, they released their inaugural full-length album, The First featuring the singles “Te Busco” and “No Sabes Del Amor,” becoming one of most influential groups in the Latin music scene.

* SANGRE
By Mando Alvarado
Adapted from BLOOD WEDDING by Federico García Lorca.
Directed by Jerry Ruiz. SummerStage Theater.
Wednesday, August 17. Mainstage at Central Park, Manhattan. 8:00 pm
 **Bi-lingual – Spanish and English**





Sangre is a special commission by City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage that explores the effects of violence within the community. A gritty, raw, intense perspective into modern urban culture and how men’s choices affect loved ones and the community at large, this powerful theater piece is not to be missed.
Federico Garcia Lorca is regarded as one the most popular Spanish playwrights of the early 20th century. With numerous works to his credit, he has had an enduring legacy on modern Spanish culture. His seminal work, “Blood Wedding” is based on a newspaper fragment which tells the story of a family vendetta and a bride who ran away with the son of the family’s enemy. Lorca uses it to investigate the subjects which fascinated him: desire, repression, ritual, and the constraints and commitments of the rural Spanish community in which the play is rooted.

Artist Website: www.cruzandothemovie.com
Mando Alvarado, noted playwright, screenwriter and actor has re-interpreted this classic for SummerStage by fusing Lorca’s vision to his own. Alvarado’s “Sangre” is a powerful, spirited telling of the original work that takes the newspaper, pulp element of the original play and sets it in present day Bronx. Containing the same visceral issues but refocusing on the choices the characters make based on personal desires versus duty for the family.
Director Jerry Ruiz directs a fast moving, pavement-pounding contemporary urban retelling of this classic love story, set against a backdrop of crowded sidewalks and vibrating subway platforms.

* ANDY ANDY

Thursday, August 18. Highbridge Park, Manhattan. 7:00 PM

Dominican singer Andy Andy has emerged as one of a handful of musicians on the cutting edge of the bachata craze, beginning with his debut album, Aqui Conmigo. Infused with traditional Dominican folk music and contemporary bachata, Andy juxtaposes new and old sounds to reach a wide audience. With his sophomore album,Necesito un Amor, he was nominated for the Latin Grammy award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album. Andy Andy has topped the Billboard’s Top Tropical Albums charts with Ironia, which featured Andy Andy’s staple sounds – guitar and percussion driven, mid-tempo bachata rhythms and his mellifluous vocals that bring it all together. Its hit single, “Que Ironia” was multi-formatted as a ballad and in bachata and reggaeton styles. Andy Andy’s success continued with the album Tu Me Haces Falta with his latest, Placer y Castiga peaking in the top 20 on the Billboard’s Tropical Album chart.

* TIKEN JAH FAKOLY/ META AND THE CORNERSTONES / LOS RAKAS
Saturday, August 20. Mainstage at Central Park, Manhattan
3:00 pm
Artist Website:http://tikenjahfakoly.artiste.universalmusic.fr
Tiken Jah Fakoly has established himself as one of the figureheads of the new reggae scene in Africa. Fusing his infectious reggae beat with politically charged lyrics, Fakoly has become a spokesperson for an entire generation, speaking out on political and social injustices through his songs which have led to his exile from several African countries including his homeland, the Ivory Coast. On his latest album, AfricanRevolution, Fakoly delivers the same poignant messages promoting social justice intermingled with catchy reggae melodies and African instruments.

Artist Website: www.metaandthecornerstones.com
Considered “the future of reggae music,” by The National Geographic, Meta and the Cornerstones fuse afropop, hip-hop, rock and soul with an international mixture of vocals. This synthesis of reggae and soul with powerful lyrics and feel-good melodies creates something that transcends oceans, borders, and language barriers. Consisting of members who are as diverse as their music, each brings their own unique background to create a unifying and soul-pounding experience for audiences.

Artist Website: http://losrakas.com
Los Rakas represent pan-American flows. Cousins who grew up in Panama before spending their teens in Oakland, California, Raka Dun and Raka Rico put a distinctive “Panabay” twist on hip-hop and reggae. Drawing on Panamanian plena’s faithful approach to reggae and the Bay Area’s idiosyncratic hip-hop scene, Los Rakas merge dancehall melodies with a lyricism all their own that has received accolades from tastemakers like The FADER and NPR for their hit single, “Abrazame.”

*TITO ROJAS
Tuesday, August 23. East River Park, Manhattan

Over the past three decades, Tito Rojas has escalated to become one of salsa’s biggest singers. With his natural vocal talent, Rojas “uses almost no ornamentation when he sings” and melodically accompanies salsa’s upbeat rhythm. Hailing from Puerto Rico, Rojas started his solo career with his hit song “El Campesino” and went on to become a leading member of several well-known bands, including his own, Conjunto Borincano. Renowned as a top “salsero”, Rojas pursued a solo career in the 1990s with the romantic salsa album, Sensual. He reached a new pinnacle in his career when his 1995 album, Por Derecho Propio went double platinum, and he was awarded “Best Salsa Artist” in Puerto Rico. A constant on the Latin music scene, Rojas has “reached the area where pop music turns into art, where signs of emotionalism by the performer bring an entire audience together,” according to the New York Times.
Para más info: SUMMERSTAGE