Verve's 70th Anniversary featuring Samara Joy & Christian McBride/Mei Semones @ Central Park Summerstage, New York, NY 9/2/26

 

Bill: Samara Joy & Christian McBride/Mei Semones & Friends

Venue: Central Park Summerstage, E 68 St. at 5th Ave., New York, NY

Date: Wednesday 9/2/26

Door: Free

8:30pm Samara Joy & Christian McBride

Active: Joy: 2019 (Bronx, NY), McBride: 1989 (Montclair, NJ via Philadelphia, PA)

Latest Release: Joy: Portrait (Verve, 2024), McBride: Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 (Mack Avenue, 2025), Trilogy 3 (with Chick Corea & Brian Blade) (Universal, 2025)

Joy: Bandcamp Facebook  Instagram Discogs Setlist AllMusic Wiki YouTube Spotify

McBride: Bandcamp Facebook  Instagram Discogs Setlist AllMusic Wiki YouTube Spotify

7:30pm Mei Semones & Friends

Active: 2022 (Brooklyn, NY via Ann Arbor, MI)

Latest Release: Animaru (Bayonet, 2025)

Featured Release: Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto-Getz/Gilberto (Verve, 1964)

Bandcamp Facebook Instagram Discogs Setlist AllMusic Wiki YouTube Spotify

Verve Records 70th anniversary focused on the young upstarts: Mei Semones has still got a foot in indie-land  until Verve issues her record last year.  Her guitar playing was very fluid Jazz and it is mind blowing she can play at that level while singing.  Christian McBride featured Samara Joy in his set.  Joy is a current new Verve artist whreas McBride issued his first couple albums there then jumped ship.

The start of the night was behind-the-scenes man Nick Getz, Stan's son.  Besides it being a Grammy winning outrageously popular outlier, Getz/Gilberto still holds up well.  Nick was emotionally moved both for his Dad and his mom who served as a top secret record promoter and singlehandedly got MGM to force Verve to release it.

 Mei Semones still has a foot in "math rock" as the band described it.  While the next album presumably on Verve is out in 2027, we got treated to her being on the fence as to what genre to be.  I'm sure Verve will take care of that.  One of the "friends" of the show was her boyfriend aron! who is currently released on Verve and issued the single Macramé featuring Mei.  Tonight, she featured Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto's Getz/Gilberto, shuttling vocalists in and out (the friends) but she got the highlights of an album that got passed down to me, accidentally stepped on and hunted a replacement without finding in 70's Worcester.  I had a connection to this album that I forgot about.

Christian McBride came out doing a tributary bass solo for Cassandra Wilson, who passed away at 70 earlier in the day.  The group went through a few songs then Samara Joy came on holding pitch and a bit of Bronx class to the cheering and sometimes screaming crowd.  Generationally appropriate since Joy is only 27, exactly half the age of McBride.

Central Park had a good weather night in terms of rain stopping before the show.  The mosquitoes were out on the Park Greenery coming from the West side off the C Train.  I've been bitten worse and I'm glad I came out.