Summer is heating to boiling point in July but cooling centers are prevalent in every park with music, dance and spoken word the added quencher for entertainment and diversion from routine work.
This month, Brooklyn gets the nod for providing two stellar concert series, choice entertainment, free concerts and hot pop acts to last the rest of the season.
The Martin Luther King Concert Series and the Seaside Summer Concert Series kicks off next week with vintage and current acts including: Cissy Houston, Bobby Brown, Salt ‘N Pepa, Gladys Knight, Gloria Gaynor, The Village People and Bootsy Collins.
Temperatures will soar on July 12 when Disco Night opens the Seaside Series at Surf Ave & West 21st St. in Coney Island. Dedicated to the memory of Donna Summer, tribute performances by The Trammps, Rose Royce and survivor Gaynor will headline the evening. Fans of the genre will likely echo the anthems of the era singing the lyrics of Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” The VP’s “YMCA,” The Trammp’s steaming hit “Disco Inferno” and the chart-topping 1976 hit “Car Wash” by Rose Royce.
Gladys Knight is also billed for this cool location.
In East Flatbush, The Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series returns to Wingate Field on July 16. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., Funkmeister Bootsy Collins along with the SOS Band are slated to launch this series of soulful acts.
Bassist William Earl Collins AKA “Bootsy” and Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee with Parliament Funkadelic will likely deliver from his vast catalogue of hits which began in 1976 and includes: “This Boot Is Made for Fonk-N,” “Stretchin’ Out In Bootsy’s Rubber Band” and compiles last year’s “Tha Funk Capital of the World.”
On opening night, Sounds of Success, the popular group better known as SOS will probably beckon fans to sing along to “Just be Good To Me,” “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” and “The Finest.”
Here is a partial lineup of confirmed acts:
Seaside — July 12
Disco Night/Last Dance: A Tribute to Donna Summer
Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, The Trammps and Rose Royce
July 20
Squeeze, The Romantics
July 26
Annual Latino Music by the Sea
Oscar DeLeon, Luis Enrique, N’Klabe
Aug. 2
The Best of Classic Rock Night
Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styxx
Lou Gramm: The Voice of Foreigner
Aug. 9
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Aug. 16
Gladys Knight, The Commodores
MLK — July 16
Bootsy Collins, SOS Band
July 23
Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago
Annual Caribbean Night
The King of Calypso The Mighty Sparrow
Additional artists to be announced
July 30
Public Enemy, Salt-n-Pepa
Aug. 6
Heads of State featuring Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant
Aug.13
Ledisi
Aug. 20
Annual Gospel Night
Cissy Houston (featuring a tribute to her daughter, Whitney Houston)
Vickie Winans
