eason to Befriend the Masses and their Big Asses
Because nothing says summer quite so ripely as the smell of the August sun on the Hudson, River to River has amassed some of the most talented acts from the fields of poetry, dance, music and its bastard messenger bag toting stepson, indie rock. We'll be standing outside in the sweltering summer heat for the voodoo-summoning, piano-pounding jazz-funk of Dr. John, Wales' finest tank driving Beach Boy-inspired post-pych, the Super Furry Animals, the drunkenly slurred talk-singing of the Hold Steady and the diabetes-inducing J-Pop of real-life cartoon stars, Puffy AmiYumi. Hang on a second, how could we forget the Scottish pop-geniuses Belle & Sebastian, alt-country prolongers Son Volt, Alex Chilton's pre-Big Star, blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops, Wittgenstein-reading Jerseyites Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and really, really old hip-hop guys, the Sugar Hill Gang. With all of that, and some freaking outdoor poetry readings, we're almost looking forward to that mid-summer humidity. Almost.
River to River Festival, Multiple Downtown venues, www.rivertorivernyc.com, free.
HOTTEST Place to Realize You're Just Not as Cool as You Thought
It's not like we don't celebrate Brooklyn every chance we get, it just that, well, sometimes it takes a little extra encouragement, more often than not in the form of a few wildly-popular local indie rock acts in order to help us embrace our many hipster friends at full stops down the L line. Thankfully, the fine folks at Celebrate Brooklyn! drop us a friendly little reminder once a year why theirs is one of our top four favorite boroughs (suck it, Stanton Island). Under the omnipotent sponsorship of Princess Cruises, art-damaged Hobokonites, Yo La Tengo send a friendly reminder that they're still into way cooler shit than you, by performing live scores to accompany a series of short, underwater documentaries by French director, Jean Painlevé (July 13). TV on the Radio, Matt Pond PA, and VBrooklynites for the day, Voxtrot, share an impressive triple-bill June 30, well worth the price of admission. All right, so neither James Brown saxophonist Maceo Parker (June 15) or 20th century classical composer Philip Glass really belong in an otherwise indie rock-exclusive show preview, but if you don't go to either one, you're an awful person. There's more than enough reason to spend a few summer nights under the watchful eye of people who are paying way too much for a 15 minute commute into Manhattan.
Celebrate Brooklyn!, Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th St. (at Prospect Park West), 718-855-7882 or www.celebrateBrooklyn.org, free ($3 suggested donation).
HOTTEST Way to Learn About Jazz
Jazz has its days in the sun when the two-day Charlie Parker festival comes to town in August. The festival, which honors the memory of one of the greatest musical innovators of the twentieth century-a man who, alongside Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie helped invent bebop, the variation of jazz which helped push the genre into a limitless realm that opened the door to the cool, bossa nova and fusion. The event happens in two separate stages: opening in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, closing the following day at Tomkins Square Park in the East Village.
The festival brings together veterans and novices alike: last year, young artists such as Japan's piano wiz Hiromi and hip-hop fusion Soweto Kinch shared the spotlight with the likes of saxophonists Odean Pope and David "Fathead" Newman and Geri Allen.
Musicians take playing to a non-paying audience quite seriously. "The challenge of playing outdoor festivals," Hiromi said last year, "is that if people don't like you, they'll just walk away." The festival also gives an opportunity for newbies to get acquainted with the genre without having to shell out a considerable amount of cash.
Charlie Parker Festival, Schedule to be announced June 15; Marcus Garvey Park & Tompkins Square Park, free. www.cityparksfoundation.org
HOTTEST Reason to Spend an Evening in Queens
Its really an outdoor dance party more than anything else-with (mostly) obscure DJs making dance music relevant again. Part of the spectacle is, of course, the installation in the museum's courtyard. This year's selection for the Young Architect's Program is the NYC-based firm, Obra, which (according to their rendering) will construct their work Beatfuse!, a series of elegant canopies just right for feeling the funk. So far the lineup includes England's the Idjut Boys (July 8) who fuse disco, DUB, funk and jazz into their own signature sound. NYC band Kudu (July 15) will fill the space with their dark, dirty edge of dance, d'n'b and soul and, with an unusual mix of electro, rock and disco, Belgium's the Glimmers (August 25) show that DJs can still be cool without sounding just like every other guy.
WarmUp, P.S. 1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. (at 46th Ave.), Long Island City, Queens, 718-784-2084, Saturdays, July 1-Sept 2; 3-9, www.PS1.org.