Afropop’s Sean Barlow interviewed Erika Elliott, the Director of Music Programming for the City Parks Foundation, about the exciting upcoming free concert season at Central Park SummerStage and City Parks Concerts in the boroughs. For full details about the program line-ups, visit www.summerstage.org.

SB: Tell us a little bit about your story. How did you get to the place you are now?

EE: I have about 15 years in the music entertainment business. I came to New York to work at an independent hip-hop label that was very successful, Loud Records. After doing that for a while, I went more into the live music side of things and went to work at William Morris Agency. Then I went back to the record labels and worked in artist development and marketing for a couple years at RCA. From there I went back to the live music side of things and got my first real curatorial gig as the director of urban music for S.O.B’s, the downtown club. So I did that for about 4, almost 5 years, and then was really lucky to be able to get in here in 2004. It was a really big jump but a really exciting opportunity for me. I was really thrilled, and still am really excited to be here. It’s a very special gig and there’s not that many of them! (laughs)

SB: And you started as program director?
EE: Actually my original title was “talent buyer”and I’ve been promoted since to the Director of Music Programming.

SB: And that’s for not just SummerStage, but for all the boroughs?
EE: Absolutely. I’m responsible for programming all of the music that gets booked at Central Park SummerStage; I book all of the music for the City Parks Concerts, and the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest. City Parks Concerts is definitely one of the series that is lesser known than SummerStage but truly a joy for me to work on. It’s really fun when every borough is doing free concerts all over the city, specifically in July and August, and doing big name stuff. I mean this year we have Ismael Miranda, we have Heather Hedley, we have Chrisette Michelle, we have KRS-One, and they’re all in great parks all over the city so that’s a really fun series to work on. And then of course the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival has a long legacy in New York and we’re excited to have been producing it for several years now. I’m equally excited about that lineup this year; we’ve got some really classic big names…     

SB: Like who?

EE: We have Frank West, we have Jose James, who was part of SummerStage last year and who’s a really interesting developing artist. We have Pyeng Threadgill, we have The Cedar Walton Trio, and…a couple others (laughs). The full lineup is Frank West, Gary Bart, Jose James, and Aaron Parks. Those are the ones that are at Marcus Garvey. We do Marcus Garvey in Harlem and then we do Downtown at Tompkins Square. That one has Cedar Walton, Papo Vasquez, Pirates of Troubador, Pyeng Threadgill, and Dred Scott Trio. It’s four acts on each stage in the afternoon and it’s free. It’s really great to have something like that in the city the last weekend of August.

SB: Definitely, especially for those of us who are not on vacation in some exotic place. So let’s focus on the Afropop Worldwide world--African, Caribbean, and Latin music. Starting with African music, why don’t you choose a couple of the shows you’re especially excited about and tell us why.

EE: It’s very difficult to do this ever year because, of course, they are all dear to my heart. I’m really excited about our partnership with the French Cultural Services and the French Embassy. We’re doing our first ever Fête de la Musique celebration on Sunday, June 21^st headlined by Yannick Noah. He has such an extraordinary personal story from his tennis carrier, to music career, to Pop Icon status in pretty much all of the French-speaking world. But he’s relatively lesser known here for his musical ability so it’s really exciting to bring him here. He’s someone who the French community is hugely excited about but maybe your average New Yorker doesn’t really know him other than his tennis career.

When we first started talking about Yannick Noah, everyone said, “The tennis star!?”  A lot of people really only know him as that if they are not well versed in what’s happening in Europe and other places. I think it’s really exciting and it’s a big show for him. He hasn’t really played New York and he lives here! Also, just the context of this whole Fête de la Musique celebration, which is a worldwide celebration. We’re partnering with them to present not only him, but also Mayra Andrade [Cape Verdean singer], who I saw at WOMEX a couple years ago and thought she was a star. She has a really subtle, beautiful voice. Then, coming from the much more pop perspective, Coralie Clement, who’s a rising singer/songwriter.

SB: Who else?

EK: I’m definitely really excited about Oumou Sangare with Les Nubians, & Asa on July 5th. I’m just really thrilled to have three super vibrant, strong women coming from very different perspectives but that really work, in my mind, perfectly together. Oumou, of course, we’ve had in the past and we’re really excited to have her back after what has been several years.

SB: What about Oumou really appeals to you?

EE: First and foremost, for me, is having a powerful woman who is really defining this genre and has had such a huge impact on the music and the culture worldwide. There are just not that many women out there who have her status, particularly coming from Africa. Musically, of course, she’s wonderful but if I have to say why it excites me the most its just big names in music that are women, there are just not that many. I’d like to give her credit for not just her abilities, but her personality, determination, and lots of other things. So when I was looking at this show and we knew we were going after her as the headliner, there were a lot of different ways we could’ve developed the show. But for me, it was kind of to build on just the…women (laughs). There were a lot of directions we could have gone. Oumou is touring all over the US with Béla Fleck and is doing a lot of other interesting pairings on her tour, but I was really inspired to put together an interesting bill of female vocalists.

Les Nubian comes more from the urban perspective, but with their French and African backgrounds there is something that really resonates as a connection. They were, of course, beyond excited to be on a bill with Oumou and I’ve wanted to present them on the stage for a while. And then Asa is this big story from Europe that is just beginning to translate here. I knew a little bit about her, having been in Europe last year and seeing a lot of buzz on her, but not having seen her live. Then when she played at Le Poisson Rouge, the turn out was phenomenal, everyone in the audience was singing along. It was really simple, almost acoustic; singer/songwriter but there’s something really special about the quality of her voice and her songwriting.

SB: Is she singing in French?

EE: No, in English. She’s on the Downtown Label, which picks really unique projects. She has a connection to Les Nubians, which I didn’t even know about. They had worked together in France. She has a really successful career in France and got a lot of awards over the past year there, so they’re trying to bring her over to the US. But she does sing in English.

SB: The Oumou show is also one of my favorites upcoming this summer. I just love Oumou. She hasn’t been around for a while so it’s going to be really exciting to see her. And who’s next?

EE: Next for sure is Alpha Blondy, Lee Scratch Perry, and Subatomic Sound System. Alpha Blondy I’ve wanted to present the whole time I’ve been at SummerStage. He’s the biggest iconic African reggae artist there is, in my mind. He doesn’t tour all the time and he hasn’t been in New York for a while, at least that I know of, and I’ve been trying to get him for years. When that happened, the question was how do you present him? Do we make it a specifically an African show and show other interesting artists from that region? But for me it was really about trying to bring another iconic Reggae figure and the opportunity to present Lee Scratch Perry presented itself. I think they both have such a kooky sense of humor and they’re both eccentric and political and interesting. I hope it translates on the stage, I know behind the scenes it will probably be hilarious. I don’t know if they’ve shared a bill before, but for me that’s a once in a lifetime thing. Subatomic Sound System is lesser know but they’ve collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry on his recent album, producing and remixing a lot of his material and they have a collaborative album coming out in the next year. They’ll be DJing. They’re New York based DJs, and one of their guys actually DJed our launch party. They show the contemporary side of what’s going on with Reggae music. Obviously those two men are at the top of status and history of the genre so for me, that’s going to be a huge day.

SB: Yeah, definitely. Tell us about the Throw Down Your Heart project with Béla Fleck and Toumani Diabate. Have you seen the show?

EE: The show I have not seen, the movie I’ve seen. Early on when we knew we were going to do Oumou, there was a lot of talk about if we should just do Oumou with Béla because, as I said, they’re doing dates all over the country together. But I really felt strongly that as much as I wanted to do Béla, I really wanted that bill to be what I described it, a day of female voices all together. That was something I was really inspired to do. But he is doing this national tour and he’s got this film coming out, so Béla really wanted to play the venue so they tried to figure out how he could do it in a way that was compelling. So they came back to us with the idea of doing this duo. He’s doing a tour supporting this film about the collaborative voice of the banjo and pairing it with instruments from Africa and his journey to trace its origins. Once I saw the film, it was so moving and seemed like such a natural connection. Particularly because since I started here five years ago, we’ve started doing more film and music collaborative presentations and found that to be a really powerful medium. There are a lot of really amazing films out there these days that have musical components to them. This was a perfect film to do that and it was great that Bela could then perform with Toumani. I’m sure he’s played the venue, but it hasn’t been in quite a long time.

SB: I totally agree with you about presenting the film.
EE: I kind of love that. I mean, at first it was like, “God are people really going to sit in the park and watch a movie?” Obviously there was successful stuff at Bryant Park and things like that, but those are much more popular culture movies so we just weren’t sure. But one of the first we did, which I was really passionate about, was the Refugee All Stars from Sierra Leone. That was the first time that I specifically curated the film and the music.

SB: Oh yeah. Seeing the film and then the group perform was very powerful.
EE: After seeing that film, I went to my boss and said we have to show this film and this music. The idea is to take film that is meaningful and transformative and can bring light on either political or social situations. Or something like Béla’s film that shows musical connections across continents or genres. These are things that people should see. Although I think many people will see this film, this is an opportunity to show it to 3,000 plus people who might not have seen it otherwise.

SB: How about choosing some concerts that are kind of “off-target” but that our listeners might enjoy. I mean the Afropop audience loves all kinds of music. For instance, could you tell us about the Turkish Festival or Bettye LaVette?

EE: I don’t know if I can speak that intelligently about the Turkish festival, I’m not as familiar with the individual artists. It’s a whole day of music and culture and the Tourism Board and the embassy are involved with. These are some of the biggest names in Turkey who don’t ever play the US. They are really iconic figures to this culture and we really haven’t presented artists from this region, partly because I don’t know them.  So it’s a little bit of an education for me but also an opportunity to present a country that has a strong and diverse cultural background, but that may be lesser known to people not in the community. My hope is that people come out not knowing what to expect.  Clearly we’ll have the Turkish community come out; it’ll be a big deal from all over the Tri-State Area. But, my hope is that New Yorkers will come, experience what it is, and hopefully walk away excited about a country whose music they may not have known about.

SB: Sure. It’s like any of these intensive ethnic or nationality based shows; half the crowd will be Turkish and you just pick up the spirit. It’s infectious. So let’s talk about Betty. Is she one the Summer Stage bill?

EE: Yeah. We are presenting Bettye LaVette on Friday, July 24^th in an evening program. The bill is a lot of fun and I think it’s going to be a stand out day. We’ve got Felix Hernandez Rhythm Review. If you know him, he brings out an amazing crowd of people who are ready to get up on their feet and dance and have a good time. So we’ll go from them into Budos Band, a fun funk band who are out of the Dap Kings label. From there we’ll go to Betty LaVette. Although she’s been around for quite a while, it was really with the Obama Inauguration appearance with Bon Jovi that she’s getting a lot of momentum on what really is an amazing career and an amazing talent and a voice that just doesn’t stop. This is our first opportunity to present her.

SB: What is her story?
EE: She’s been around for a long time. She’s been recording since the late 60s into the 70s, but really never got very commercially successful until much later. It’s been within the last 10-15 years that people have sort of rediscovered here in a way and she’s been solidly building a following ever since. Her singing chops are just so good that everywhere she goes people take notice, from the guys in The Who on down. Whoever sees her performance it’s kind of like she’s converting people to the gospel of Bettye Lavette.

SB: I was there on Jan. 18^th at the Lincoln Memorial when she did her duet with Ben Jovi. And the Obama family was up there enjoying the show. It was just spine tingling.

EE: Was she as amazing live?

SB: Yes she was. EE: That’s the thing. For me, it’s an exciting story to see someone who’s been doing it for a long time and has got a lot of talent but who’s getting these great opportunities based not on, “Oh she’s the most commercially successful.” It’s really based on her talent. People are like, “We want to work with her.” I don’t know the behind the scenes story, but I would imagine it’s really based on people wanting to work with her, not that she’s the biggest name out there.

SB: So of course Afropop Worldwide  includes Latin music as well, so let’s talk about Jerry Rivera.

EE: He stared in his career super young, I mean I want to say like 15 years old. He is hugely successful and has done some ten plus albums since then, many of which have been Grammy nominated. I think people equate him with people like Marc Anthony, sort of that young generation of salseros who started very young but are very well respected. He’s got a new album coming out and he’s just a big name in salsa music. Keeping with the tradition of the legendary Fania label, he has worked with a lot of the legendary salseros.

SB: Like Gilberto Santa Rosa from Puerto Rico.

EE: Yeah. I think there’s this thing in the salsa community that there are these amazing legends, many of whom are around and many who have passed away, and then there’s this young generation that is keeping the tradition but also making it relevant and making a name for themselves in their own right. He’s one of the people who have been successful at that. There’s a handful, but he’s really one of the big names who’s done that. And like I said, having started so young and being able to get that kind of respect, that’s what’s sort of rare about him. He’s still really young and he’s got like ten plus albums under his belt. He’s definitely less than 30!

SB: Most people know SummerStage and go, some occasionally and some religiously, but they just don’t know the borough concerts [Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island]. From first glance the borough concerts seem to be more Americana and Summer Stage is more adventurous and more international. How would you give a feel of what’s going on at the borough concerts and why people should check it out?

EE: It’s the best value you can get for two dollars. You can get an amazing, first-rate performer playing in a park for free! Many of the people that are doing the City Park concert series are people that could be playing SummerStage, and some of them have and/or will if they haven’t already. But what I would say about the series is that it’s really neighborhood oriented and we really make an effort to connect artists with communities that they either came from or are connected to in some way. A good example, for me this year, is KRS-One. Since I began curating the program five years ago, I’ve always wanted to bring him to perform in the South Bronx. We presented him last year at East River Park, it was our launch season and I thought he would be a good person to start. But this year we’re presenting him in the South Bronx at a park we work with called Crotona. This is a neighborhood that KRS-One put on the map in some ways and where hip hop really originated, so that’s exciting. The same is true for MC Lyte; she’s playing in Brooklyn and she’s from Brooklyn. Her manager came out last year and really wanted to involve her in the series and there’s that “give back” idea. The series that we do in Highbridge in Washington Heights is almost exclusively merengue or bachata and we’re presenting the rising stars of those genres who do extremely well in New York in a neighborhood that is extremely vibrant. We pull between three and four thousand people out to these shows. Almost every park that we’re in we’re pulling from a thousand to four thousand people so in some ways there really is a SummerStage equivalent. What is true about it is it is a little more urban leaning, it is a little more Latin leaning, we do more hip hop there, and it’s really to connect with the communities that we’re in. But we’ve had reggae, we do Haitian, we’ve had African, and we do various different types of Latin music. We’ve done people like Antibalas and Sharon Jones, so we try to be adventures where it makes sense for the artist and the neighborhood. I always tell people not to sleep on this other series because the talent certainly rivals music that I’m presenting at Summer Stage, it’s just closer to home and a little lesser known. 

SB: Cool. Final Question Erika: Say I am an artist who would love to perform at Summer Stage. What do I do and what should I know about your criteria for choosing artists that would help me in my quest to fulfill my big dream?

EE: Well, that is a very complicated and difficult question to answer just because artists come in so many different stages of their careers. I would say in general, on the headliner level, that is what it is. For the opening act, I’m looking for people who are developing a career; making some noise for themselves in New York or internationally; and whose style compliments, matches, or enhances what I’m already intending to do with the day.  I think the challenge is that there is an amazing amount of talent in New York and the whole world. The biggest challenge for me curating the days is we do roughly 22 shows a summer and of those 22 shows, each genre is maybe represented once or twice. We’ll only have maybe two or three African shows, we’ll usually only have one reggae or Caribbean show, one or two urban shows, so genre wise that really narrows the list. How many opportunities there are really depends on who you are musically. But if you’re a developing act, I think the most important thing is to be making a name for yourself within the market or in the genre. Even if it’s not in New York, if you’re someone doing an amazing job in the African music scene, I’m likely to hear about it through various different channels.  Choosing who opens a bill is by far the most difficult part of my job. Everybody wants that opportunity and there is so much quality talent out there. A lot of it has to do with the artists that are on the bill. A lot of times they have a lot to say about who’s on there, it could be something that they’re really excited about.  And then there a lot of other factors that are sometimes intangible. But I think if you’re doing a really good job of promoting yourself as an artist and developing your career, the opportunity will be there when the timing is right.

SB: Thank you Erika! It’s going to be an exciting season. Great job.  And as usual the Afropop Worldwide posse will be out there at our booth soaking up the scene. Drop by!

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