Carnegie Hall Brings Grammy Winners, Mexican Jazz To Bryant Park

MIDTOWN, NY — Midtown is getting a little louder during Fridays in July, but for good reason.

Carnegie Hall Citywide is bringing music, song and dance to Bryant Park every Friday this month, starting off with a bang on July 7 with the multi-Grammy-winning Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.

But that's not all that the free concert series has in store.

On July 14, violinist-fiddler Tessa Lark and composer-bassist Michael Thurber will come to the park and play a range of works — from Bach to bluegrass, jazz and Appalachian music — as well as improvised songs. They've played at Caramoor, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and beyond. For this special performance in Bryant Park, they are joined by special guest Louis Cato, the Grammy-nominated guitarist and vocalist widely recognized as the bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The next week, July 21, Mexican jazz singer Magos Herrera performs with her phenomenal sextet and chamber orchestra The Knights. Herrera has been called "one of the great modern singers of our time" by Latin Jazz Network and just released a new album titled "Aire." The album features original compositions and pieces from her Latin roots. Written largely during pandemic isolation and now performed live for audiences in Bryant Park, Aire is described as "music that is evocative of the kind of luminescence swirling in bittersweet, yet mystical ecstasy unique to the piety of Herrera’s renditions," writes Latin Jazz Net.

On July 28, The Champe-Soukous Collective — an All-Star ensemble that bridges the Trans-Atlantic connection between Colombian champeta and its source music of Central African/Congolese soukous-rumba — comes to the park. Featuring artists from Colombia, Congo and Angola, the new group performs afro-Colombian dance-music fusions, featuring members like soukous guitar legend, Huit Kilos Nseka and several other heavy hitters, like star vocalists Wawali Bonane Bungu, Mis Blandine and Ricardo Lemvo.

And the Hall's final event in the series on Aug. 4 closes with the Ndlovu Youth Choir. Hailing from South Africa, the choir dazzles with powerhouse vocals, precise choreography and irresistible pop-music sensibilities. The group is also the only youth choir to ever reach the finals of "America's Got Talent."

All events start at 7 p.m.

For more information and to see a full schedule of all events at Bryant Park this summer, click here.