One of the Summer’s Hottest Concerts this Sunday at Central Park Summerstage

One of this summer’s most hotly anticipated outdoor concerts is happening this Sunday, July 16 in the afternoon at Central Park Summerstage, and you better believe that his blog will be in the house. Although billed as the Paris New York Heritage Festival, the music is African and African-American. Drummer Tony Allen, Fela’s main man behind the skins, is the French connection – Il est citoyen.

That Afrobeat legacy is represented second on the bill by Fela’s son and musical heir, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80..The opening act, Brooklyn’s own Underground System, hit the stage sometime after two, when the doors open. With their high-voltage vocal frontline and original psychedelic Afrobeat songs, they’re not only worth seeing, you’re going to have to see them if you want to get into this show at all: arrive on time or else.

The great Roy Ayers headlines, guessing at around 5 PM. Ostensibly the legendary vibraphonist and film composer is the most-sampled man in hip-hop history, although that could just as easily be James Brown or George Clinton.

Much as bits and pieces of Ayes can be found booming through billions of hip-hop headphones – the snippet of We Live in Brooklyn, Baby in the Crooklyn Dodgers’ incendiary 1995 classic, is a favorite – Ayers’ career spans the worlds of jazz, soul and film music. He grew up a protege of longtime Duke Ellington collaborator Lionel Hampton and was mentored by Bobby Hutcherson. But Ayers’ film work may be his most lasting legacy. This blog’s predecessor and sister publication Lucid Culture ranked his score to the 1973 blaxploitation cult classic Coffy as one of the thousand greatest albums of alltime. It’ll be interesting to see how much of his vast catalog gets represented Sunday afternoon. Bring shades and a water bottle (plastic only, as per house rules) because it’s gonna be a hot one.