Giant Step Announces SummerStage Lineup

With a lineup last year that included the Brazilian Girls, Femi Kuti, DJs Nickodemus and Smash, this year Giant Step is delivering another great SummerStage show. Featuring Seu Jorge, Jose Gonzalez, Alex Cuba Band and Cut Chemist, don't miss this free event.

Sunday, July 02, 2006
From 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage
This is a Free Music Event presented in collaboration with Giant Step

Seu Jorge’s introduction to most North Americans came through the Bill Murray comic film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, in which Jorge played a guitar-totting sailor whose repertoire is limited to David Bowie tunes sung in Portuguese. In real life, the Brazilian singer/songwriter has a far greater range. His 2005 album Cru mixes covers of Elvis Presley and Serge Gainsbourg with compelling originals about life in the slums of Rio, all delivered in a soft croon and with spare acoustic instrumentation that belies the often dark subject matter.

Jose Gonzalez has built a career that defies all geographic and cultural boundaries. A young Swede with an Argentinean father, he sings in English and counts as influences such American artists as Elliot Smith, Cat Power and Tortoise. The music on his [2005] album Veneer centers on the singer’s acoustic guitar and introspective voice, and the single “Heartbeats” has made Gonzalez a rising star in the U.K. British tabloid institution The Sun sings his praises, calling him “a thrillingly original new talent.”

Alex Cuba Band, led by the charismatic Alexis Puentes, represents the new wave of Cuban musicians moving outside the traditional confines of the classic Cuban sound. Incorporating elements of Afro Cuban musical arrangements and instrumentation, melded with pop songwriting and exquisite melodies, Alex Cuba composes, writes and sings original Latin pop/soul music with a unique Cuban approach. Alex Cuba Band’s debut album Humo de Tabaco (Globe Star Recordings) was recently awarded a Canadian Juno for Best World Music Album and charted among iTunes most popular Latin downloads for 16 consecutive weeks. With guest features from Jason Mraz and Ron Sexsmith joining Alexis Puentes on bi-lingual Spanish/English duets, Humo de Tabaco has an appeal to broader audiences especially enhanced by the album’s infectious melodies.

Cut Chemist just can’t be stopped. Coming of age amidst the fertile hip-hop scene at LA’s Good Life Café (which helped nurture the careers of Freestyle Fellowship and Pharcyde), Cut Chemist’s first original production was “Lesson 6” (from the Jurassic 5 EP), a cheeky head-nod to the pioneering sample-based cut-ups of Double Dee & Steinski. He spent 12 years as DJ and producer for LA hip-hop dynamos Jurassic 5, the cornerstone of their punching beats and inspiring live shows that helped propel the group to widespread recognition. Simultaneously, he spent five years flexing his turntable skills alongside the Grammy-winning Latin alternative band Ozomatli, and several years releasing highly coveted mix-tapes (such as his Brain Freeze Original Soundtrack collaboration with DJ Shadow in 1999 that eventually lead to the duo’s 2004’s Product Placement tour and DVD). Throughout it all, he’s found the time to helm his own club nights in Los Angeles. And it don’t stop! Since freeing himself from obligations to his group projects, Cut Chemist recorded hundreds of songs before selecting the final 12 for his Warner Brothers Records debut album, The Audience’s Listening due out June 13th.