Summer Stage 2007 kicks off July with Cinematic Orchestra, El Michel Affairs, Kevin Michaels,RAMP...

Although I missed the grand opening of Summer Stage 2007 with Joss Stone and Common, I made a summer resolution to attend at least 1 Summer Stage event very week. The weekend of July 20 will be a busy one because there's Neko Case on Friday July 20th and Cat Empire on Sunday July 22nd.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Summer Stage is a series of mostly free music concerts, dance and film events that goes on every year between June and September in Central Park, NYC. New Yorkers bask in the sun in bikinis for women and bare chess for men as we often do where ever there's a patch of grass, drink beer and enjoy the music.

Saturday's performance features Cinematic Orchestra, El Michel Affairs, Kevin Michaels, and RAMP with DJ Spinna providing dance music between the performances. Although the Summer Stage described the event as a compilation of soul and funk, it sounded more like jazz, lounge, big band, gospel and a bit of soul.

El Michel Affairs from Brooklyn, New York opened up the performance with a lot of energy. Although they are supposedly a punk and soul group, I'm not sure how punk is defined by the sounds of trumpets, saxaphone and the trombone. Overall I enjoy the energy of their music but can't really identify any particular songs because they didn't introduce the song names.



The next 2 performances where a bit of a wash and very much filler in anticipation of Cinematic Orchestra. Kevin Michaels, a hyped up crooner has a great bellowing voice like a male version of Beyonce and theatrics with the hair but the songs aren't inspiring. He sang a song about "Vicky's Secret" which is essentially a commercial tune for Victoria Secret if anything. RAMP, a group who released their first and only record in 1977, was re-discovered through their cameo in one of A Tribe Called Quest's album. Does Bonita Applebaum ring a bell? Anyways, I felt like I was in a church and 45 minutes of their performance was more than enough.



After 2.5 hours of waiting, the crowd finally got to see who they came for in the first place, Cinematic Orchestra. When the band came out, members of the audience started congregating closer to the stage, standing there mesmerized almost. I can't very well describe their sound other than that it was big and involving and complex. It would have been much more enjoyable if they had appeared early because really, after 2 hours of so-so music, I was tired and restless and my friends were antsy to leave.


I would give this Summer Stage event a B as in, it could have been better. I do have a couple of video clips and as soon as I can compress them, I'll upload them shortly.

Here's a sample of Cinematic Orchestra's works: