IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 2 -- The Orange County Great Park
came alive tonight with just time rock and roll and surf ballads song dynasty by
the popular 70s Orange County rock band HONK. More than 2,000 multitude got
into the groove with HONK at the first ever so Night Flight Saturday evening
concert. Now through September 27th, southern Californians can look forward
to Night Flights at the Great Park -- a serial of Friday night dance
parties and Saturday evening concerts.
Next Friday, August 8th, the Great Park Night Flight dance party lifts
off with rhythm and blues band Derek Bordeaux. On Saturday, August 9th, the
Great Park goes Bollywood with a execution from the JAIPUR KAWA BRASS
BAND. Music and dance lovers can enjoy performances from about anywhere
on the festival grounds, the Hangar Cafe, picnic lawn or fifty-fifty aloft in the
Great Park Balloon.
"It's wonderful to see so many southern Californians enjoying their
Saturday Night in the Great Park," said Larry Agran, Chair, Orange County
Great Park Board Corporation. "We look forrard to an amazing summer of absolve
music and dance performances and encourage everyone to experience all the
Great Park has to offer."
Great Park Night Flight enthusiasts were too entertained by The Flight
Crew, the Orange County Great Park Summer's resident performance troupe
comprising Orange County based singers, story tellers, dancers and
acrobats. The Flight Crew took vacation or scene suggestions from the
audience and acted out the suggestion through a non-rehearsed improvisation
and story. They sang a capella to "Come Fly with Me," "I Believe I Can Fly"
and "Fly Me to the Moon." They transformed themselves as living sculpture
wearing lycra costumed shapes that moved throughout the Park.
The Hangar Cafe featured light meals and drinks. Inside the Hangar Cafe
is an extraordinary photography exhibition by the Legacy Project, six
Orange County professional photographers world Health Organization have been documenting the
transition of El Toro Marine Air Station into the Great Park.
The Great Summer 2008 Night Flights schedule:
NIGHT FLIGHTS 2008
JAIPUR KAWA BRASS BAND -- Aug. 9
Marching dance band, party band, Bollywood marriage ceremony band -- the newest craze
in world music
When the English brought their traditional brass bands to India in the
1700s they probably didn't foresee the wildly creative mixing and morphing
of musical forms that was going to take place, as the brass circle found its
way from military parade grounds to religious festivals, wedding parties,
political rallies and sports arenas. Today, in the escape-velocity hands of
percussionist Hameed Khan Kawa (of worldpop music label Musafir) and his
seven musicians, the resolution is an intoxicating blend of traditional
Rajasthani rhythms, timeless brass dance band melodies, Bollywood film songs set
to trombone and tabla -- there is no limit to their musical resourcefulness and
riotous energy. Don't miss them on the final performance of their US debut
tour.
More: http://www.artways.com/
VAGABOND OPERA -- Aug. 16
From Pink Martini's Portland comes edgy cabaret theatre, cribbing from
Dietrich and Piaf, Kurt Weill and klezmer
With the very theatrical sensibility of Paris cabaret and English music
hall, this six-piece music ensemble blends voices, accordion, tenor and
alto saxophones, cello, stand up bass, drums ... "and, when the temper is
proper, a burlesque hoola-hooping fire performer." From Portland, Oregon --
home to Pink Martini and home to an amazing level of creativity in
recent years -- Vagabond Opera has created a place where "alienated
classicists and romanticist bohemians, Gypsy music, opera, klezmer and cabaret
come-ons mingle like emigres trading aliases at an after-hours club. It's
highly cultured, with a guttersnipe's knowing sneer" (Willamette Weekly).
If this is your genial of crowd, then Vagabond Opera is for you.
More: http://vagabondopera.com/
HAPA -- Aug. 23
Award-winning contemporary Hawaiian music and hula Beauty, serenity, nonnatural calm -- HAPA's music is the sound of
peace and harmony. Rooted in the island culture of Hawaii, HAPA's
pan-Polynesian music borrows from the strummed ballads of Portuguese
fisherman, the songs of Spanish cowboys, the harmonies of the traditional
church service choirs of the early missionaries and contemporary acoustic folk-rock
medicine. HAPA's self titled debut cd released in 1993, swept the 1994 Na Hoku
Hanohano Awards (Hawaii's equivalent of the Grammys), comely the biggest
selling CD by a group or duo in the history of recorded Hawaiian music.
Could there be a more perfect band for a warm even under the stars, this
summer at the Great Park?
More: http://www.hapa.com
TBA -- Aug 30
EILEEN IVERS AND IMMIGRANT SOUL -- Sept. 6
Nine-time All-Ireland fiddle protagonist and her all-Irish American band Former Riverdancer and nine-time All-Ireland fiddle champion Eileen
Ivers heads a isthmus of drums, guitar, bass and keyboards plus a three-time
All-Ireland piano accordion champion. All are American-born musicians world Health Organization grew up
in Irish immigrant communities; the drummer is besides an accomplished blues
isaac M. Singer.
"Ivers' presentation was music with the kind of life and spirit that
come together when gifted artists from different backgrounds find the
linkages that connect all forms of music -- no marvel the audience loved
every minute." -- Los Angeles Times
More: http://www.eileenivers.com
QUETZAL -- Sept. 13
Chicano folk-rock, heirs to the bequest of Los Lobos Dynamic vocals of Martha Gonzalez and Cesar Castro are the centre of
this much-loved Los Angeles band, blossoming into a large sound with guitars,
keyboards, percussion plus the traditional folk rhythms of requinto, congas
and cajon. Don't miss the opportunity to see Quetzal before their impending
move to Seattle later this year -- and celebrate Mexican Independence Day a
few days early.
More: hypertext transfer protocol://www.myspace.com/quetzal
YAELISA and CAMINOS FLAMENCOS -- Sept. 20
Classic Spanish flamenco euphony and dance Emmy Award-winning dancer and choreographer Yaelisa, the company's
artistic director, is among the upper side flamenco artists in the nation. She's
even conquered flamenco's native Spain, where she was one of 11
choreographers (and the just American) invited to award her sour at the
prestigious Certamen de Corografia in Madrid. Her approach to flamenco is
that of the purest flamenco traditions from Spain: she seamlessly blends
the music and dancing while weaving improvisation into the desegregate, and allowing
each voice its have time and space. Yaelisa is best known locally as the
artistic film director of Irvine Barclay Theatre's annual New World Flamenco
Festival.
Press outfit online: hypertext transfer protocol://www.caminosflamencos.com/
EDGAR MEYER and CHRIS THILE -- Sept. 27
Blistering bluegrass and classical crossover Double bass master musician Edgar Meyer has an active vocation as both a
performing artist and a composer -- it's tough to diagnose a double bass player of even
half Meyer's tremendous influence and creative thinking. First approach to national
attention with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor in Appalachia Waltz, he is
equally at home in Nashville's upside studios, on the fete circuit and in
the world's finest concert halls. He is appreciated by a brobdingnagian and aried
audience. His singularity in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award
in 2002.
Widely regarded as one of the most interesting and inventive musicians
of his generation, 26-year-old phenom Chris Thile has changed the mandolin
forever, elevating it from its origins as a relatively unsubdivided folk and
bluegrass official document to the sophistication and brilliance of the finest
jazz improvisation and greco-Roman performance. For more than 15 eld, Thile
played in the wildly popular band Nickel Creek; more of late he's been the
musical maverick behind the critically acclaimed Punch Brothers.
Separately, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile have earned a shelf full of Grammy
Awards; together, they institute a wealth of stirring to their newest
design: an album of their own compositions and a tour of key performing
arts venues and summer festival. Certain to be a osseous tissue fide "shred-fest."
FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTIES
Derek Bordeaux -- Aug. 8
Rhythm & blues lot covers Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, all the greats
http://www.derekbordeaux.com/
Mike McCaffrey Trio -- Aug. 15
Piano/vocal trine does Sinatra and Nat King Cole
Johnny Polanco y Conjunto Armistad -- Aug. 22
LA's best salsa dance band -- horns, vibes, vocals, everything
hypertext transfer protocol://www.johnnypolanco.net/
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys -- Aug. 29
Roots, rockabilly and Western swing
hTTP://www.bigsandy.net
Eve Selis -- Sept. 5
Queen of the roadhouse rockers
hTTP://eveselis.com/
Los Pinguos -- Sept. 12
Winners on Ed McMahon's "The Next Big Star", contemporary Latin music
from Buenos Aires
http://www.lospinguos.com
TBA -- Sept 19
Pete Jacobs and His Wartime Radio Revue -- Sept. 26
the sounds of WW2 from Benny Goodman to the Andrews Sisters
http://www.wartimeradio.com
The Orange County Great Park, which is nearly twice the size of New
York City's Central Park, will be a major metropolitan parkland and the focal
percentage point of the redevelopment of the 4,700-acre sometime Marine Corps Air
Station at El Toro. The Great Park will include extensive natural areas and
overt space in addition to recreational and cultural uses.
For more than information, please go to http://www.ocgp.org.
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