FREE concerts at Kingsborough Community College

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Kingsborough Community College will present HOT SUMMER NIGHTS, four FREE sizzling weekends of music including global beats, jazz, funk, blues, folk, rock, pops, Latin, and swing throughout the month of July.

The free outdoor performances, held rain or shine, take place at the bandshell on the KCC campus, which is located at 2001 Oriental Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn.

The Hot Summer Nights festival kicks off on Saturday, July 7 at 8pm with a patriotic pops concert performed by the Brooklyn Community Concert Band. The performance continues the college’s 30-year tradition celebrating Independence Day.

On Sunday, July 8 at 8pm, dance to music performed by Brooklyn’s hardest-working salsa band, Willie Villegas y Entre Amigos. No newcomer to the U.S. salsa scene, Willegas has played with such luminaries as Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, and Paquito Guzmán.

The two-day American Roots Weekend offers a broad spectrum of homegrown music, including gospel, blues, soul, and jazz to bluegrass, country, indie rock, and folk.

•Saturday, July 14, beginning at 5pm, features “Deep Soul” with one-hour sets by a host of New York City-based musicians: Harlem’s McCollough Sons of Thunder (5pm), the acclaimed 16-piece shout-gospel band that always brings audiences to their feet; Melvin Sparks Band (6:30pm), the originator of soul jazz, old school acid jazz and barbecue funk; singer Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely (8pm), who jumped into the spotlight after Lenny Kravitz tapped her to open for him on his first world tour and has been leaving audiences screaming for more ever since; and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (9:30pm), Brooklyn’s own Queen of Funk.

•Sunday, July 15, beginning at 6pm, KCC presents a political indie rock Tribute to Woody Guthrie, the legendary singer/composer who lived on nearby Coney Island and would have turned 95 this weekend. The program features one-hour performances by The Wiyos (6pm), whose exuberant “old–timey” sound takes audiences back to an era before TV and mass–media were the main sources of entertainment; Sarah Lee Guthrie (granddaughter of Woody and daughter of Arlo) and her husband, Johnny Irion (7:30pm), whose caressing harmonies have been compared to June Carter and Johnny Cash; and The Mammals (9pm), a provocative rock group co-founded by Tao Rodriguez Seeger, the grandson of famed folk singer Pete. The evening concludes with a birthday jam for Woody Guthrie featuring all the performers on that night’s program and special guests, beginning at 10pm.

The Global Rhythms Weekend is a two-day festival of world music, featuring adventurous new sounds drawing from the musical traditions of Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond.

•On Saturday, July 21, hear Latin jazz and Colombian folk by Pablo Mayor–Folklore Urbano (7pm), a high-energy 12-piece ensemble setting new heights in the genres of both world music and Latin jazz and traditional bomba and plena of Puerto Rico infused with rock and salsa by Viento de Agua (8:30pm). Their name means "the wind of water," a reference to the thick air before a tropical storm.

•Sunday, July 22 features one-hour sets by Mozayik (5pm), performing their own brand of Haitian-Creole drawn on classical, gospel and funk influences; Jeff Newell’s New-Trad Octet (7pm), who infuse the sounds of a New Orleans marching band with Caribbean beats; and José Conde y Ola Fresca (8:30pm), offering jazz alternative Latin dance music influenced by Cuban són, salsa, funk and jazz.

The series closes the last weekend in July with the Danny Repole Swing Band on Saturday, July 28 at 8pm (dancing is highly encouraged) and the Brooklyn Community Concert Band on Sunday, July 29 in an evening of hit Broadway show tunes.

The college will provide 2,500 seats; lawn chairs and blankets are encouraged. (In case of rain, the performances are moved to the 700-seat performing arts center.) Admission and parking are free. To get to the campus via mass transit, take the B1 or B49 bus to the last stop and either walk to the campus or take the free MTA shuttle bus; the Q train (Brighton Beach stop) and F train (Avenue X stop) both meet up with the B1 bus. A free beach shuttle will be offered on the two Festival Weekends, linking Coney Island Beach, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach to the campus.

For more information, visit www.kingsborough.edu/kcc_arts or call 718-368-6680.