KCRW Summer Nights at Grand Performances with Allison Russell, ÌFÉ and DJ Raul Campos

KCRW’s Summer Nights and LA’s iconic Grand Performances are teaming up for a special night featuring Allison Russell along with ÌFÉ and DJ sets from KCRW’s Raul Campos.

KCRW MEMBER PERKS

• VIP balcony seating and access to Grand Performances Member Rotunda
• $1 off drinks at the Omni Hotel Bar
• Visit the KCRW table for a free KCRW limited edition member pin designed by artist Lvl Up Kid and discounts on Summer Nights KCRW merch

Not a KCRW member yet? Join the fam at Summer Nights! Visit the KCRW table at the event for some KCRW freebies and to pick up limited edition KCRW Summer Nights merch designed by artist Lvl Up Kid, which includes a year of KCRW membership.

ABOUT ALLISON RUSSELL
Allison Russell — poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, and co-founder of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah) and Birds of Chicago (with JT Nero) — unpacks her youth in searing detail on her tour de force debut Outside Child (Fantasy Records / Concord).  She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places and people and realizations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. “It’s an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization,” said The New York Times in their profile on Russell.

Outside Child received three Grammy award nominations in the Best Americana Album category, Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. In addition to her three Grammy nominations, Russell has been nominated for three Americana Music Association Awards, four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize and two Juno Awards. Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history.  The New York Times named Outside Child the #2 Best Album of 2021.

ABOUT ÌFÉ
ÌFÉ (pronounced Eeeh-FAY), a Bàbálawo, or high priest, initiated into Ifá in Cuba, sees his musical project as an extension of his spiritual life, the Ifá and Orisha religious practices being the lens through which the music is conceptualized. The creative work is also an extension of ÌFÉ’s lifelong study of African diasporic percussion, a pursuit that has taken him from collegiate drumlines through the same Dallas jazz and soul scene that birthed Erykah Badu to Puerto Rico, where, for 20 years, ÌFÉ studied under master drummers tied to the island’s rich Afro-Latin musical traditions. While living in Puerto Rico, ÌFÉ built up an extensive discography producing tracks and albums for singers and MC’s drawn from the island’s underground hip-hop and indie scenes. Out of this hyper-creative environment and cultural work, the concept and direction for ÌFÉ’s solo work was born in his San Juan studio in 2015.

In 2020 ÌFÉ moved to New Orleans, a change meant as a creative catalyst and for undertaking further musical study, but equally as a political decision, the African-American artist deliberately seeking to engage with a city rooted in Black American culture, community and history. 0000+0000, which began as early sketches in San Juan, was fully realized in New Orleans, becoming a necessary bridge for ÌFÉ between his past experiences and a new era, while still acting as a continuation of his efforts to connect dots within the African diaspora in the Western hemisphere.

ABOUT GRAND PERFORMANCES
Grand Performances, the longest running presenter of free outdoor concerts in Los Angeles, is returning this year to the newly renovated California Plaza in DTLA for its 36th season! Grand Performances mission is to inspire community, celebrate diversity, and unite Los Angeles through free access to global performing arts.