The Music Frees All Festival, which delivers some of the finest funk, afrobeat, soul, hip hop and reggae music acts from the five boroughs, began last night at Southpaw. Its founder, Miles Arntzen, created this three-day, three-venue festival not only to support a community of these musicians and celebrate their music, but also to encourage the famously "static" NYC audience to let go and dance! Expect to hear funkadelic tunes from Turkuaz and soulful spoken word/rap from NYC’s own Super Osei & Seattle based M$ney Jungle. The concerts at Southpaw (Night 1) and Public Assembly (Night 2) kick off at 8 PM and showcase four different bands and a DJ to continue the dance party. The Music Frees All Festival finally makes its way to Manhattan at Drom on its closing night. All the proceeds of this show will go towards the Scotty Hard Trust to help financially support the medical needs of Scotty Hard, an NYC-based music producer who became partially paralyzed after an automobile accident in 2008. While this show is a benefit, there will be no shortage of bootyshaking music from Nyle vs. Naysayers serving up clever rhymes and beats to Arntzen’s own band, EMEFE (in the picture), delivering dangerously danceable afrobeat. For more information go here. – Abigail P. Devora
