MORE FREE CONCERTS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

SUMMER CONCERTS AND DANCE PARTIES CONTINUE THROUGH SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

COST: FREE concert admission; parking is $8

WHERE: the OC Great Park at Sand Canyon and Marine Way in Irvine, 92618

The Orange County Great Park and the Irvine Barclay Theatre have teamed up for a second year to bring a varied, artistic and entertaining free summer concert and dance series to the park, beginning Aug. 1.

While it will be a period of well-planned effort before the Great Park fully achieves the look of a grand metropolitan park, it’s already sounding like one, thanks to a lineup pulsing with the savvy, imagination and diversity that befits the robust region the Great Park serves.

You won’t find tired tribute bands or other musical corndogs here. Rather, there’s an eclectic mix of world-class artists working inside, and outside, of a rich variety of musical traditions.

This year’s series represents a variety of global cultures found in the community. Barclay President Doug Rankin says, “We are trying to serve different ethnic communities as a core audience, but we haven’t taken a ‘one from column A, one from column B’ approach. Our goal has been finding artists who have a special quality that can reach the broader community. The program we’ve come up with is sophisticated and urbane, but, make no mistake, it’s all high energy and wildly entertaining. We can’t wait to see how audiences respond to these shows.”

Exhibit 1 is Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul, who thrilled park audiences last season and kicks off this year’s Saturday night concert series on August 1. Born in the Bronx to Irish immigrant parents, violinist Ivers is sufficiently steeped in Celtic culture to have won the All-Ireland fiddle competition a record nine times, yet ventures so freely outside of tradition that she’s been hailed by the New York Times as “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.” It was Ivers’ fiddle that propelled all those feet in the original Riverdance, and she played on the Grammy-winning cast album. Ivers also has performed with everyone from the London Symphony Orchestra to Patti Smith.

That’s just the first of nine concerts and eight dance parties. Other main stage events range from the Hawaiian sounds of Hapa to the group Niyaz’s elegant blending of timeless trance music with ancient Sufi poetry and 21st century electronica played on instruments ranging from tablas to laptop computers. Other performers in the series employ the traditions of Creole New Orleans, Andean folk music, coastal Colombia’s Caribbean rhythms, American swing and other styles as launching pads for their own distinctive musical flights.

Then there’s the Berlin-based 17 Hippies. The fact that there are only 13 of them is the least of their idiosyncrasies: Using horns, bouzouki, accordions, ukuleles and other sonic weapons, the groups sounds like a marriage of the Clash and a Bulgarian wedding band, with Italian film music, French cabaret and a score of other sounds hopping around the honeymoon suite.

One of the concert events was crafted specifically for the Great Park: the pairing of Francesca Gagnon—the soaring voice of Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria—with the multi-faceted, dream-inducing Chilean band Inti-Illimani. Along with being a special event in its own right, the concert is a fitting preamble to the full Cirque du Soleil experience coming to the Great Park in 2010.

The Friday night dance parties are no less inspired, ranging as close to home as OC soul singer Derek Bordeaux and as far afield as the series’ closing night of Bollywood movie dance music, with salsa, Cuban, swing, country and Louisiana zydeco music motivating the feet on other nights. The free dance instruction and free-form fun will take place on an expanded dance floor this year, with improved staging and sound.

Most of the series performers are accustomed to appearing on world-class stages, and the production facilities in place the Great Park are more than up to their standards. Last year’s shows went without a hitch, and this year the park boasts an improved stage and sound system, including a remote array of speakers to serve the expanded lawn seating (there are also hundreds of chairs on the tarmac), as well as a video and sound feed in the café, so that no one will miss a moment of the music.

Such a series doesn’t happen by accident. Last year, Great Park board president and Irvine city councilman Larry Agran approached the Irvine Barclay Theatre with the idea of creating a summer series, one that wasn’t tied to the old stereotypes of Orange County as a rural or suburban setting, but that would instead serve the questing, diverse metropolis that the county has become.

“We told him we’d be glad to volunteer—and we are in fact volunteering our services in this--because we have a responsibility as good citizens in the community, and because it is an expansion of what we do at the theater,” says Barclay president Doug Rankin. “In my years here our passion has been to present diverse, eclectic performances that help connect people to their community and their world.”

“That’s really the essence of these events,” echoes Great Park Cultural Director Henry Korn. “One of the strongest aspects of Doug’s and his staff’s curatorial perspective is that he has created a true intercultural community with the approach to the artistic selections.”

All summer concerts and dance parties are free and open to the public. Parking is $8. A complete list of events is attached. The events take place at the Preview Park of the Orange County Great Park, accessible from Sand Canyon Avenue near I-5. Enhancing the festival atmosphere of concerts and dance parties are the Hangar Café, a bar and vegetarian café open beginning at 6 pm on performance evenings, and free rides in the Great Park’s giant orange helium-filled balloon.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday Night Concerts at 8pm:

EILEEN IVERS and IMMIGRANT SOUL New York
August 1

Orange County Great Park summer festival opens with one of last summer’s stand-outs: nine-time All-Ireland Award-winning Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers and her heart-stopping band of Irish-American musicians. But don’t miss the “soul” in Immigrant Soul; the New York Times called Ivers “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin” and you’ll hear plenty of soul, jazz, roots and rock in her very tight band.

DON VAPPIE and the CREOLE JAZZ SERENADERS New Orleans
August 8

Classic jazz from the likes of Jelly Roll Morton, Jabbo Smith, Sam Morton and the New Orleans Owls – this unique American music explodes on stage with all the excitement and sizzle and satisfaction that defined the French Quarter 70 years ago. Vappie’s virtuosic banjo fronts a bold horn section, piano, bass and drums.

TOTO LA MOMPOSINA Colombia
August 15

Mixing infectious Caribbean rhythms with lush romantic melodies and great vocal style, Toto la Momposina and her 10-piece band are frequent headline attractions at music festivals worldwide but they rarely perform in California. Her Great Park appearance is one of only four engagements on the West Coast.

FRANCESCA GAGNON “The Voice of Alegria” with INTI-ILLIMANI Canada/Chile
August 22

A special event created just for the Great Park: Francesca Gagnon, the voice of Cirque du Soleil’s longtime hit “Alegria” sings the music of Cirque du Soleil with Chilean folk icons Inti-Illimani. An inspired pairing: Gagnon’s otherworldly vocals float above Inti’s earthy, raw sound. In their four decades of music-making, Inti-Illimani has shared stages with Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Wynton Marsalis; Canadian born Francesca Gagnon has been charmed by the music of many cultures and she in turn charms us with her gorgeous voice.

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY Southern California
August 29

True heroes of the swing revival, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy celebrates 100 years of Cab Calloway, the legendary fireball of talent whose goofy “hi-de-hi’s” and “ho-de-ho’s” in a rich and vibrant baritone brought a much-needed, high-voltage jolt of winning, feel-good energy to a country slogging through tough times… making Cab Calloway a man for our times, too.

17 HIPPIES Berlin
September 5

For the past 12 years Berlin’s very own “orchester spezial” has been playing its whirling, crashing, diving, bobbing and weaving mixture of music that morphs French songs, English ballads and international rhythms into a captivating cocktail of sound. An eclectic band of virtuosi, the17 Hippies are variously masters of the accordion, trombone, trumpet, violin, cello, woodwinds, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, Irish bouzouki, guitar, double bass and harmonium. And then there are the stellar vocals, in German, English and French...

NIYAZ Iran/Los Angeles
September 12

“Call it Sufi music or World Fusion, but one thing is for sure, the band Niyaz is an Iranian musical trio whose debut album ranked #1 on world music charts on iTunes…” This is trance music for the 21st century: hypnotic, ecstatic, ghostly, delicious. Azam Ali, best known as half of the popular duo Vas, is the vocalist heard on the soundtrack of “The Matrix: Revolution”; Loga Ramin Torkian, formerly of Axiom of Choice, is a master of Persian and Turkish musical traditions. Loga and Azam are accompanied by tabla, bass, violin and laptop.

HAPA Maui
September 19

Last summer’s HAPA concert at the Great Park was among our favorites; this year Barry Flanagan and Nathan Aweau are joined by traditional chant master Charles Ka’upu for an evening of Hawaiian bliss. Known as “the sound of Maui,” HAPA filters the pan-Polynesian traditions of Hawaii through the lens of contemporary acoustic music to create a sound that has kept them in demand on the festival circuit while earning them a record-breaking number of Na Hoku Hanohano (“Hawaiian Grammy”) Awards.

To be announced
September 26

Stay tuned for announcement of our closing celebration.

 

Friday Night Dance Parties at 8pm
Free dance instruction at 7:30pm

NACHITO HERRERA Latin
August 7

After tutelage by Rubén González and other giants of the Buena Vista Social Club, Nachito Herrera toured America with the Afro-Cuban All-Stars and later as music director of Cubanismo. An in-demand bandleader, he has mastered a wide variety of danceable Latin music styles.

DEREK BORDEAUX GROUP Rhythm & Blues
August 14

Derek’s sultry, honey-sweet Motown voice is the heart of this tight-as-a-drum sextet, seen frequently in various Southern California and Las Vegas venues.

PETE JACOBS and his WARTIME RADIO REVUE Swing
August 21

It’s like waking up in 1942… Benny Goodman-style clarinet solos, Andrews Sisters-style harmonies, and dance dance dance. A tribute to the Great Park’s legacy of El Toro Marine Air Station.

CEDRIC WATSON Zydeco

August 28

Accordion master Cedric Watson won a Grammy nomination for his first album; now he’s on the road backed by his south Louisiana zydeco swamp-mates on guitar, bass, drums and rub board.

STEVE LUCKY and the RHUMBA BUMS Swing
September 4

Veterans of ‘scenes’ as diverse as the famed Derby in Hollywood, NYC’s Lincoln Center, and CNN-TV, the Rhumba Bums along with Miss Carmen Getit play swing, jump blues and hot jazz with wit, style and plenty of tongue in cheek.

JOHNNY POLANCO y su CONJUNTO AMISTAD Salsa
September 11

So popular at the Great Park last summer that he was invited back immediately, Johnny Polanco is our favorite salsero, with regular gigs at El Floridita, The Mayan and other iconic Southland venues.

MERCHANTS OF MOONSHINE Country
September 18

The two-steppers, the line-dancers, the citified folk in their high-heeled boots: the Merchants of Moonshine make room for all. Expect good times, great guitar licks, and songs that’ll break your heart, fix it up, and then break it all over again.

BOLLYWOOD STEP Bollywood disco party!
September 25

Our 2009 summer dance party finale: a Bollywood blow-out! A special night of fun with exuberant Bollywood dance demonstrations, step-by-step instructions and simple choreography for all to follow, a party atmosphere and, of course, those irresistible dance rhythms.

Free Friday night dance instruction at 7:30pm by Atomic Ballroom instructors and on Sept 25 by Bollywood Step.

CHESS AT THE GREAT PARK

The Great Park will provide chess tables and pieces prior to Flights and Sounds on Friday and Saturday evenings. The Chess Palace will be on site to assist any chess enthusiast!

Source: Irvine Barclay Theatre

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