Tonight is Thursday the 13th, and it should turn out to be a lucky number for visitors to the Summer Music Festival concert in the typically packed Courtyard of City Hall.
Producer Gary Mandell is serving up a doubleheader attraction at 7 o’clock, a dash of Motown and its cousin by musical marriage, rhythm and blues.
The ‘60s will live again.
Two dynamic groups will be sharing the marquee, the Blue Breeze Band, saluting Motown’s 50th anniversary, and the encoring Bonedaddys, a favorite Westside party band.
Blue Breeze will revive memories of entertainers who are gone, such as Junior Walker and the All-Stars, plus the biggest hits of Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations.
The Bonedaddys are known for setting this place on musical fire.
Says Mr. Mandell:
“If you like rock, funk, African, R & B, soul, reggae, rock steady, jazz, highlife, blues, New Orleans second-line, gospel, hillbilly and zydeco, you will enjoy the Bonedaddys.
“You should know that the Bonedaddy beat has its roots in the twin guitar Zulu rhythms.”
And Mr. Mandell went on to colorfully describe various Bonedaddy roots as “Fela’s horn-heavy Afro beat, bass-drenched zouk and soca music from the Caribbean, and the drum heaven of New Orleans rock and roll and second-line rhythm.”
Precise meanings of those terms may need to be place on hold until this evening.
