Lincoln Center’s Summer For The City kicked off on June 11th with a mashup of cultures and music. Robert Glasper and Alain Pérez headlined the opening night at Damrosch Park, while a silent disco bumped in Lincoln Center’s Main courtyard, with at least three other concerts earlier in the day.
Alain Pérez was first on the main stage with a smile that never left his face. Dancing, singing, and freewheeling his way across the stage, Pérez brought seemingly unending energy to his set, even during slower ballads. After his first song, he addressed the crowd in Spanish, “If you feel like dancing, dance. If you feel like moving your feet, do so.”
The audience responded immediately, getting up from pre-arranged seats and dancing in the aisles, at their seats, and right next to the stage. Salsa and Bachata rang out as Pérez’s vocals encouraged the audience to move throughout the night.
The energy from his set increased the temperature of an already sweltering city night. His motto of the evening came halfway through the set when he said in Spanish, “it’s hard to have a good life, it’s hard to stay well, but it’s not hard to dance…”
Pérez, a Cuban native, shouted out to his fellow Latinos in New York, yelling in Spanish, “Hello my Latinos of New York! My Cubans, Puertorriquenos” and later “the people of Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Cubbaaa[sic].”
As Pérez ended his set, a round of “otra, otra” rang out, encouraging an unexpected encore. Unlike most artists who have a planned encore, Pérez and the Lincoln Center staff seemed genuinely surprised to come back on stage. So much so that Robert Glasper (who was next to take the stage) had to talk to the sound tech to allow the encore to happen since all the mics and amps had been muted.
After a change of sets, Robert Glasper was on. Starting with what could only be described as a New York sense of calm and confidence, Glasper shouted out Alain Pérez saying. “Shout out to my Cuban brother Alain Pérez. [I’ve had] the pleasure of going to Cuba 8/9 times. I made my daughter there.”
Glasper didn’t stop there. He took the time to introduce his band and discuss each of their new albums or projects, saying, “I’m the biggest fan of my band.” He finally addressed the crowd, saying,” I hope you enjoy it [the upcoming set]. If you don’t, this shit was free, so I don’t know what to tell you.”
Glaspar’s sense of calm exuded throughout his set, even when his musical notation became too complex to follow. As compared to Pérez’s Afro-Latin jazz, Glasper combined jazz, rap, rock, DJing, and smoke hop into a sound that at times was chaotic and unfiltered and at times was unstructured and beautiful.
To understand where Glaspar’s set would go next, you would need a treble clef and sheet music, as his songs jumped around musical styles and time signatures. Glaspar’s innovation and inventiveness were a part of the set’s appeal, but it also made the music a bit less accessible – a set for jazz heads.
During Glasper’s set the crowd went from constantly dancing to being enraptured by the music’s syncopation. Gone was the joy of movement. But it was replaced with the contentment, head nodding, and joy of listening to music so enthralling you can’t help but be still.
Both artists played amazing sets. Both played their music. What was so fascinating about the opening night of Summer For the City was how different the sets were and how well they worked together.
Alain Pérez’s controlled but explosive (loud, joyous, danceable) music paired surprisingly well with Glasper’s unfiltered, musically complex songs with limited danceability. The dissidence of musical styles brought a little bit of what everyone wanted to one night.
Lincoln Center’s Summer For The City continues through August 9th.
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