De Musica Ligera: Big Apple summer concerts

Whether one is a native or a tourist, one of the advantages of being in New York City over the summer are the excess of concerts that are held throughout the city. With the Memorial Day weekend representing the symbolic beginning of the summer in the U.S., we bring to you six concerts that will go on in the “Big Apple” over the next few months.

As an added incentive, please note that all of the following concerts have free admission! Hence, we’ll have to reluctantly put aside future performances by Manu Chao and Os Mutantes.

June 6^th: Puerto Rican Power

Boricua salsa giants will perform in Battery Park as part of the River to River Festival. The group formed in the early 1970s and had famed salsero Tito Rojas as their main singer trough most of the 1980s. Rojas has enjoyed a successful solo career for nearly two decades, but Puerto Rican Power continues going strong as they near three decades together.

• YouTube: Puerto Rican Power – Me Tiene Loco

July 1^st: Rodrigo y Gabriela, Vietnam, JDH and DAVE P

The Mexican duo (by way of Ireland) will headline a nighttime concert as part of the Central Park SummerStage series. Though visa problems nearly derailed their North American tour earlier this year, the pair has been slowly gaining notoriety with heir infectious mix of acoustic rock. It’s almost impossible to not be stirred by their tunes, one of which we include below.

• MP3: Rodrigo y Gabriela – Mr. Tang (live, unknown)

July 13^th: Zoe, The Prinker Tones, Chestes

The Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) has been held for yearly in New York for the past few years and 2007 will be no exception. Several famous acts have played free concerts as a result of LAMC including Aterciopelados two years ago and ex-Soda Stereo front man Gustavo Cerati last year. This year, Mexican rockeros Zoe (who we touched on here) will perform in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park along with Spain’s The Pinker Tones and Monterrey pop group Chetes.

• MP3: Zoe - Via Lactea

July 14^th: Café Tacuba, Pacha Massive, La Sista

The following night, LAMC will host a concert in Central Park with well-known band Café Tacuba. The Mexican quartet will top what should be a killer concert with local act Pacha Massive and Boricua singer La Sista.

• MP3: Café Tacuba – Chilanga Banda

July 15^th: Nortec Collective, Grupo Soñador

Much like Bondo do Role and Insitituto Mexicano de Sonido (who we discussed here), Tijuana’s Nortec Collective fits in the musical genre known as “Latintronica.” As we described in this post, it is a genre which fuses traditional, folkloric Latin American music (northern Mexican sounds, in the case of Nortec Collective) with elements from electronic music. Superficially it may seem like an oil-and-water combination, but Nortec’s sound is anything but.

• MP3: Nortec Collective – Bar Infierno

August 9^th: Yerba Buena, Los Amigos Invisibles, Jose Conde y Ola Fresca

Eclectic, fascinating music will be the order of the day during this concert at Hudson River Park. Yerba Buena combines funk, hip-hop, and afro-Cuban beats into a wonderful milieu of music, while disco and funk are in the repertoire of Los Amigos Invisibles (who I was lucky enough to see free at El Museo del Barrio last August). Good times, good times!

• YouTube: Yerba Buena – Guajira

Are there any other concerts going on this summer that you want to tell others about? Then please feel free to either comment to this post or drop us a line at ourlatinamerica@yahoo.com!

Sources- YouSendIt, YouTube, Huevos Pericos, The Latin Americanist, Latin Alternative Music Conference, RiverRocks, Central park SummerStage, Celebrate Brooklyn!, River to River Festival, Lincoln Center

Image- afropop.org (Los Amigos Invisibles performing in Prospect Park last summer)