Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Nona Hendryx with Vernon Reid at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy extplay)

(More videos here)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Amalgarhythm with Terri Lyne Carrington & Kris Davis at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy extplay)

(More videos here)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Delgres at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy John Crowe)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Savion Glover and Marcus Gilmore at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy extplay)

(More videos here)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Liv Warfield, Judith Hill and Shelby J at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy extplay)
(More videos here)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Tank and The Bangas at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy Mai Perkins)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents King Sunny Ade at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy Dr. Askia Davis)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents William Bell and Band at MetroTech Commons

(Video courtesy Paul Storozum)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents Theo Croker and Band at MetroTech Commons

(Videos courtesy 7ishmael7)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival presents George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic at MetroTech

(Video courtesy Robert Mizaki)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival presents Charles Bradley & The Extraordinaires at MetroTech

(Videos courtesy Tom Pragliola)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival presents Bobby Rush at MetroTech

(Video courtesy Tom Pragliola)

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM R&B Festival presents The Ohio Players at MetroTech

Videos courtesy Marc Deon

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival presents Van Hunt with Ruthie Price at MetroTech Commons

Despite the heat, we had a comfortable seat in the shade of the trees at MetroTech Commons in downtown Brooklyn for a lunchtime concert by the brilliant R&B vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Van Hunt, joined by Ruthie Price, doing superb accompaniment on drums.

This show was part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's wonderful annual BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival, now in its eighteenth year.

Van Hunt played some old favorites -- old being relative, since his debut album arrived in 2004, instantly establishing him as a distinctive and original talent with its idiosyncratic amalgamation of R&B, neo-soul, funk, pop, and rock ‘n’ roll and earning him a 2005 “Best Urban/Alternative Performance” Grammy nomination for his breakthrough hit single, “Dust.”

The equally inventive On The Jungle Floor followed two years later, highlighted by the single, “Character.”

Today Van hunt played some of the terrific tracks from his new album What Were You Hoping For?, featuring Ruthie Price's amazing drums work.

The Vancouver Sun said the album

fuses Hendrix/Kravitz/Mayfield stylings with a punk/funk-driven guitar edge akin to Neil Young, the Stooges and cult Detroit proto-punk trio Death, which was rocking the underground in the early ’70s.

What Were You Hoping For? is where Hunt really finds his groove. . . "Watching You Go Crazy Is Driving Me Insane" [our favorite] barrels along at incredible speed with a mighty crunch,

"Designer Jeans" boasts a gritty bump-and-grind, blown-out psych-blues fuzz [the lunchtime crowd today adored this],

and Plum incorporates surrealistic poetry and ramshackle guitar noodlings.

The album’s lo-fi esthetics also work to Hunt’s advantage on ballads like the Isley Brothers-tinged "Moving Targets.

We were bowled over by Van Hunt's iconoclastic sounds and startlingly versatile range and equally impressed with Ruthie Price's ace work on drums.

This was an incredibly enjoyable show, and we're grateful to BAM's R&B Festival for continuing to bring great musicians to downtown Brooklyn on summer Thursday afternoons.

Thursday Afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn: BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival presents Bobbi Humphrey at MetroTech Commons

Today at noon we were at MetroTech Commons to see the first lady of the flute, Bobbi Humphrey,and her terrific band put on a wonderful show for the crowd.

She's celebrating her fortieth year of show business and shows no sign of slowing down from the performer she was back in the day when she was she was the first woman signed by Blue Note Records.

Her jazz phrasing is impeccable, and she has a virtuosity that enables her to move from crisp buoyancy to honeyed, flowing riffs.

This show was part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival, now in its seventeenth year.

The MetroTech Commons is a wonderful venue, and lots of chairs and even tables for midday lunch-eaters are available.

Someone saw us taking our little cellphone pics and said, "You get around. I saw you at Chrisette Michelle's show last night." We felt kind of embarrassed but sort of nice.

Her band was so excellent, they gave her great playing a run for the money

(the keyboardist was particularly brilliant),

and her young godson plays the trombone with flair.

But we've never heard anyone as good on the flute as Bobbi Humphrey. She may be a Texas country girl, but she plays music as hip and urbane as any we've ever heard.

We're grateful we got to see Bobbi Humphrey this afternoon at MetroTech.

Here's her "Harlem River Drive" from the 1973 album Blacks and Blues (Youtube video courtesy of Gilach):