The Atlantic City Free Summer Concert Series Returned to Gardner’s Basin
The Light with Raymond Tyler
One of the “HOTTEST” releases on HULU this year has been Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s film, Summer Of Soul. The documentary examines the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which was held at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem and lasted for six weeks. Despite having a large attendance and performers such as Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Blinky Williams, Sly, and the Family Stone, and the Chambers Brothers, the festival was seen as obscure in pop culture, something that the documentarians investigate.
The City Of Atlantic City has sponsored an annual free summer concert series of their own at Gardner’s Basin for almost 10 years. Of course, because of Covid-19, there were no concerts in 2020. However, previous years brought artists like Cameo and The Sugar Hill Gang to Atlantic City.
This year there were only two concerts but thousands of residents made the most of them.
On Sunday, August 22nd, the headlining performance came from Gerald Austin and The Manhattan’s.
I ventured out on August 28th to catch the second and final concert. Thousands came out, braving the heat and the rain to see local bands start the afternoon, then The Force MD’s, Alyson Williams, Full Force and finally ending with The Stylistics.
I only caught two performances and both were amazing. First was Alyson Williams who had two great R&B hits with the songs Sleep Talk and the ballad Just Call My Name.
I also learned that Ms. Williams’ voice can be heard on several classic hip hop recordings including Kurtis Blow’s Basketball and several hits by The Fat Boys.
Ms. Williams set the stage for the R&B group Full Force. The members B-Fine, Bowlegged Lou, and Paul Anthony portrayed the bullies in the film House Party. In reality their group Full Force are award-winning gold and platinum producers and as vocalist brings to the stage harmony on par with Taking 6 or Boyz II Men.
Full Force displayed every skill at their command from singing to dancing to bringing out the musical group Allure to perform their cover of All Cried Out (the original and the Allure cover written and produced by Full Force.) They also brought as a treat to the thousands of people, Kangol Kid from the hip hop group UTFO and they performed the hip hop classic Roxanne Roxxanne (another Full Force produced hit.)
Full Force shined as they presented an amazing tribute to The Temptations that makes me think Mr. Otis Williams should connect with them and do a tour. After the Temptations tribute, Full Force did a medley of other people’s hits with their skills and personality including Can You Stand The Rain by New Edition and the current hit Leave The Door Open by Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak. Full Force comes from the 80’s/90’s tradition of hip hop artists involving the group so it was fitting that they ended their show with Bowlegged Lou leading the crowd in a sing-along of TV and R&B hits that everyone there knew from The Jeffersons’ Movin On Up theme to Michael Jackson’s I Wanna Rock with You.
You can connect with Raymond Tyler via Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram @RaymondTyler2018.
