Central Park Music & Performance: Jul 31 – Aug 6 — Naumburg's baroque night, and Andrew Bird brings an orchestra to Rumsey

The Mysterious Production of Eggs

        Hi music fans — three free nights worth clearing the calendar for, and they’re about as far apart stylistically as the park gets: a Latin triple bill at Rumsey Saturday, the Naumburg season’s baroque program at the Bandshell Tuesday, and Andrew Bird playing The Mysterious Production of Eggs with the Wordless Music Orchestra on Thursday. All free.

Weather this week
Saturday and Sunday are dry and warm, 86°F and 83°F, and then the pattern turns humid and unsettled — Monday wet, Tuesday through Thursday in the mid-80s with afternoon and evening thunderstorm chances between 40 and 50 percent. Only Tuesday’s Naumburg concert and Thursday’s Rumsey show carry real weather risk; check before you leave, and if the Bandshell gets rained out the Naumburg series traditionally announces the call late in the afternoon.

Sat Aug 1, 6 PM — Trueno / Milo J / J Noa at Rumsey Playfield
A trio of rising Latin artists, free, gates from 6. Trueno and Milo J are both out of the Argentine hip-hop scene and J Noa is the Dominican teenager everyone has been calling the future of the genre — this is the kind of bill SummerStage books before the room gets too big for it. Rumsey is under festival permit from 8 AM, so the plaza is closed off all day. RSVP doesn’t guarantee entry; get there early or take the Member-for-a-Day line. Elsewhere in the park that afternoon: That Guitar Man at Hernshead, noon to 6, and tango at the Shakespeare statue, 6 to 9 — an easy pairing if you want music without a queue.

Sun Aug 2 — the Meer at 2, K-pop at Rumsey at 7
Two very different afternoons. Up north, the Harlem Meer Performance Festival brings Kobie Dozier to the Dana Discovery Center at 2 PM — jazz, soul and hip-hop, free, and the best-sounding small stage in the park. Then at Rumsey, WayV with THE EITHER and Chopstix at 7 PM, programmed with China Institute for its centennial: two takes on the future of Chinese pop, with WayV coming out of the NCT ecosystem. Expect the biggest, youngest queue of the weekend at 72nd Street. Mid-park, the International Folkdancers hold King Jagiello Plaza 11 AM to 8 PM, live and participatory.

Mon Aug 3 — nothing on, and rain anyway
81°F, showers and thunderstorms. No music permitted anywhere in the park. The Arsenal’s free photography show — forty years of SummerStage through Jack Vartoogian’s lens — is open 9 to 5 and is the right rainy-day substitute for a concert.

Tue Aug 4, 7:30 PM — Nosky’s Baroque Band, Naumburg Bandshell
The 121st season of Naumburg Orchestral Concerts continues with Nosky’s Baroque Band, free, 7:30 to 9 at the Bandshell. Aisslinn Nosky’s group plays the period repertoire with more attack than most, which suits an outdoor room — the Bandshell’s acoustics reward ensembles that push. This is the oldest free outdoor classical series in the United States, running since 1905, and it stays criminally under-attended for what it is. Arrive by 6:30 for a seat inside the plaza. Rumsey is under an all-day permit for a separate concert production.

Wed Aug 5 — dark night across the park
Nothing programmed at Rumsey, the Bandshell, the Meer or anywhere else. A rare fully silent Wednesday in the middle of festival season.

Thu Aug 6, 8 PM — Andrew Bird and the Wordless Music Orchestra at Rumsey
The show of the week, and free. Bird plays The Mysterious Production of Eggs in full for its 20th anniversary, with the Wordless Music Orchestra behind him — the record that turned a violinist-whistler with a loop pedal into a songwriter people take seriously, orchestrated. Surma opens. Expect the longest line of the week at the 72nd Street entrance from 6. Earlier the same day, the Arsenal hosts Foundational Voices: The People Who Built SummerStage, 4:30 to 7, free — an oral history of the festival from the people who made it, and a genuinely good hour if you care how this programming came to exist.

Quick recap

  Sat 6 PM, Rumsey: Trueno / Milo J / J Noa. Free, Latin, gates at 6.
  Sun 2 PM, Dana Discovery Center: Kobie Dozier, free, Harlem Meer Performance Festival.
  Sun 7 PM, Rumsey: WayV / THE EITHER / Chopstix, free, China Institute centennial.
  Tue 7:30 PM, Bandshell: Nosky’s Baroque Band — Naumburg, free, 121st season.
  Thu 8 PM, Rumsey: Andrew Bird with the Wordless Music Orchestra, Eggs at 20. Free, and the one to arrive early for.
  Thu 4:30 PM, the Arsenal: Foundational Voices, on how SummerStage got built.
  Wednesday is dark everywhere.

Turn it up,
The Central Park Guide