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| Track list: |
1. Fair
2. Marcus Garvey
3. Tanguillo De Maria
4. Molino Molero
5. Delali
6. Your Lips
7. Dande
8. Olive Harvest
9. Get Rhythm
10. Bemba Colora
City Parks Foundation
Catalog: #7018
Release date: August, 2005
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New York, New York – In commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Central Park SummerStage, City Parks Foundation announces the CD release of “Central Park SummerStage: Live from the Heart of the City.” Now, for the first time ever, music fans across the country can experience, first hand, the joyous sounds created by some of the most diverse artists to have performed at Central Park SummerStage during its 19 year history. The album marks the very first mixtape of live SummerStage recordings produced by CityParks Foundation. The CD is currently available exclusively at the SummerStage venue and will be released nationwide on Circular Moves August 16th.
Twenty years of joining top artists and audiences has earned SummerStage an international reputation. There’s poetry in that, for a signature aspect of the series is a border-defying, global sensibility. Reggae from Jamaica. Soukous and mbaqanga from Africa. Bossa-nova, samba and rap from Brazil. French chansons, Italian operettas, British soliloquisms. In its history, SummerStage has presented a total of 1,513 artist performances at 694 events, to more than 2.5 million people in Central Park, which had previously only hosted classical music, opera, and Shakespeare.
The CD is comprised of 10 tracks reflecting a wide range of past Central Park SummerStage performers. The bittersweet centerpiece of this collection is surely Celia Cruz’s Bemba Colora: over-the-top Latin energy spurred by her irrepressible vocals. This 2002 SummerStage concert appearance was to be her last; a year later, a malignancy stole away the Cuban-born “Queen of Salsa.” She was aware of her illness when she free-styled her name into the lyric. Today, the poignancy in her words is all the more: “As I prepare to leave, please, please God, remember my name… and if I die, hell, just bury me right here in Central Park and I want you all here with me. Remember my name, I am Celia Cruz.”