Putumayo Artists playing for FREE in New York City this Summer!

Putumayo World Music’s main office is located right in the heart of New York City, and one of the best things about summer in New York is all of the wonderful free concerts that are available. We have put together a list of free concerts by exceptional artists featured on Putumayo compilations! Don’t miss your chance to get out with your family, friends and neighbors to take advantage of these great performances.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra (Baila!)
Thursday, June 25, 12 noon @ BAM R&B Festival at Metrotech
Led by world famous pianist and arranger Oscar Hernández, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra has established itself as the musical curators of “El Barrio,” aka Spanish Harlem.

Ingrid Lucia (New Orleans Christmas)
Saturday, July 11th, 4 PM @ Roosevelt Live! on Roosevelt Island in New York
Performing with Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Orchestra with Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos. “One of the most ecstatic quintets to emerge from New Orleans in recent memory, spot lighting blues, standards, and intriguing originals. The Neutrinos are solid crowd pleasers, thanks to Todd [Londagin], the only trombonist-blues singer-tap dancer in captivity, and Ingrid Lucia, who wiggles like a French Quarter Betty Boop.” – Village Voice

Alpha Blondy & The Solar System (World Reggae)
Sunday, July 19, 3 PM @ Central Park SummerStage
Alpha Blondy is one of the world’s most respected Ivorian reggae performers. Singing predominantly in his native language of Dioula as well as French, English, Arabic, and Hebrew, Alpha Blondy creates lyrics that convey strong political attitudes and a fine sense of humor. Backed by the rhythmic beats and drippy sounds of his band The Solar System, Alpha Blondy has created music categorized as being truly his own.

Buckwheat Zydeco (New Orleans Playground, World Playground, Zydeco)
Friday, July 24th @ 7:30 PM @ Celebrate Brooklyn!
The swamp boogie accordion master Buckwheat Zydeco and his band “spit out the kind of crackling music that’s been missing since the heyday of Stax Records,” says The Wall Street Journal, which adds that, “on stage [Zydeco’s] attack is relentless.” Zydeco shares the bill with the Holmes Brothers, whose harmony-filled blend of American roots music jumps from church to the juke joint and “recalls the era when soul seceded from gospel music” (Mother Jones).

Kailash Kher (India)
Saturday, July 25 @ 7:30 PM @ Celebrate Brooklyn!
The South Asian superstar, Bollywood icon, and judge of Indian Idol Kailash Kher moves “among styles without hesitation, adding elements of folk, reggae and rock to Indian pop,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which adds that he “has a voice as appealing as it is thrilling.” Kher is joined on this bill by Electro Morocco, which is comprised of five NYC-based Israelis and combines buzzing guitars with synths and beats to concoct a dance floor-friendly mix of retro rock, Middle Eastern folk and warped electro.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo (African Dreamland, Animal Playground)
Thursday, July 30, 12 noon @ BAM R&B Festival at Metrotech
After more than 40 years, 40 albums, and 6 million records sold, Grammy Award-winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo remains one of the preeminent à capella groups in the world.

Arlo Guthrie (Sing Along with Putumayo)
Thursday, July 30th, 7 PM @ Castle Clinton National Monument, Battery Park
Four Nights of Peace, Love & Music: A Castle Clinton Tribute to Woodstock
Arlo Guthrie will showcase his own humorous persona and musical mixture of folk, rock, country and blues. From Woodstock to the Castle, his storytelling and anecdotes continue to be woven seamlessly into masterful musical performances. Tickets will be distributed 2 per person outside Castle Clinton on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 5:00PM on the day of the show.

Burning Spear (Reggae Around the World)
Thursday, July 30, 7:30 PM @ Celebrate Brooklyn!
Performing with Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens “Four decades and still dropping knowledge: no other artist, with the possible exception of Toots Hibbert, can lay claim to being reggae’s true elder statesman.”

Toumani Diabaté (African Dreamland)
Monday, August 3, 7:30 PM @ Central Park SummerStage
Performing with Béla Fleck
A full set of music by Béla Fleck and Toumani Diabaté, followed by a screening of the documentary tracing Fleck’s journey through Africa in search of the origins of the banjo. Suggested Donation $5. Malian musician Toumani Diabaté is an internationally acclaimed Kora (a harp unique to West Africa with twenty-one strings) player. Toumani, perhaps more than any other Kora player, is responsible for bringing this instrument to audiences around the world. A performer of exceptional virtuosity and creativity, Toumani is an artist who shows that the kora can rival the world’s greatest instruments. Throughout Toumani’s career each of the albums he has released are distinctly unique and highlight his diversity and innate ability to join the old and the new in timeless, beautiful music resulting in some of the very best that Africa has to offer.

Taj Mahal (Blues Around the World, Caribbean Playground, Sing Along with Putumayo, American Blues, World Playground)
Wednesday, August 12th, 5:30 PM @ Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing with Bonnie Raitt
NOT A FREE SHOW- BUT ONE NOT TO MISS!
This summer, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal—two leading lights of modern blues—are joining forces for their first-ever tour together. This show will feature Bonnie and Taj on stage alone and together. Bonnie, backed by her always-dazzling group, and Taj, with the six-piece, Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band, will play full sets separately, before closing the night with a collaborative, blow-out performance.

Ricardo Lemvo (¡Salsa!, Baila!, Afro-Latin Party, World Playground, Africa, Music from the Coffee Lands)

Sunday, August 16, 7:30 PM @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors at Damrosch Park
Performing with Ba M’buta: Ancestral Connections from the Kongo to the Americas: Africa Aye, Ibboru, and Makina Loca Ricardo Lemvo has established himself as a pioneer with his innovative music. Lemvo’s blend of Afro Cuban rhythms with pan-African styles (soukous, Angolan semba and kizomba) has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “seamless and infectious.”

KIDS

Elizabeth Mitchell (Sing along with Putumayo)
Tuesday, June 16th, 10:30 AM @ Madison Square Kids
Elizabeth Mitchell, a Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, has released 4 albums of music for children. Her most recent release “You Are My Little Bird” was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” with Melissa Block and voted best children’s album of 2006 by Amazon.com

Bakithi Kumalo (African Playground)
Thursday, July 30,  10:30 AM @ Riverside Park Children’s Performance Series
Robbi K and Friends – songs, stories and more! Robbi K and her husband, South African bassist Bakithi Kumalo (particularly known for his work with Paul Simon), present an interactive show of music and storytelling that combines world grooves, childhood favorites, and original compositions. Kids can participate in call-and-response, clapping, clicking, group singing, and general all-ages fun – in multiple languages!

Jay Mankita (Picnic Playground)
Saturday, August 8, 4 PM @ Brooklyn’s Caroll Gardens (as part of the Putumayo Kids Picnic Playground Tour)
Sunday, August 9, 1 PM @ Peter J Sharp’s Childrens Glade in Central Park (as part of the Putumayo Kids Picnic Playground Tour)
Jay Mankita is a guitarist, singer and songwriter from Massachusetts. Jay drives a van that runs on recycled vegetable oil and has recorded 6 CDs, including one entirely about food. He has performed many fun and educational shows about food for children.