Kamani plays at Nightfall Friday
Nightfall 2021 continues its 34th season this Friday at Miller Plaza, with shows through Sept. 10. Chattanooga’s longest-running outdoor concert series, Nightfall features music on the Miller Plaza stage, with food trucks, local artisan vendors and lawn games in Miller Park.
This Friday’s show, held on Nightfall’s home stage at Miller Plaza, features recently-formed national headliner Kamani and local opening group NuBreed Band.
Review for Kamani:
This week’s headliner is Kamani, a group formed in late 2020. More than a band or even a supergroup, Kamani is a funk collective, and in the words of founder Nikki Glaspie of Nth Power, “on a mission to heal the world through funk”. This funk band has an impressive lineup, featuring artists Nikki Glaspie (The Nth Power, Dumpstaphunk, Beyonce), Sput Searight (Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note, TOTO), Xavier Taplin (Ghost-Note, TOTO), Kat Dyson (Prince, Cyndi Lauper), and Matt Lapham (Shak Nasti, Roosevelt Collier Trio). group is a conglomeration of awe-inspiring talent and dance-inspiring grooves.
Kamani is the name of a healing tree native to the Hawaiian Islands, and brilliantly symbolic of their collaborative musical energies.
As a band, Kamani places a laser focus on the funk, specifically classic material from the Seventies and early 1980’s glory days. Nothing that bumps is off limits, from James Brown to the GAP Band, Parliament Funkadelic to MAZE, Prince to The Four Tops, plus beloved cuts from the collaborators themselves. Majestic gospel harmonies are in abundance, thunderous drums and a fat bottom end power the pulsating R&B and soul grooves, and the dancefloor is always bubbling with energy when Kamani takes the stage.
Review for NuBreed Band:
Opening for this Friday’s event is local group NuBreed Band. Well-versed in a range of genres including R&B, Old School, Country, Blues, and Jazz, this group’s music delivers sounds that encompass the heart of the Chattanooga music scene. Led by bassist Reggie Moss, this high-energy band has been entertaining in the area for over 12 years, and was formerly known as the NuMac Band.
Two blocks of reserved motorcycle parking will be allowed in the 800 block of Market Street as well as the block of M.L. King between Market and Broad. In order to maintain the family-friendly and pedestrian-friendly nature of this music series, motorcyclists will be asked to comply with protocols of remaining parked after arriving and not revving engines on site to conflict with the featured live performance.
Registration for artist booth spaces in Miller Park can be found at http://www.nightfallchattanooga.com/nightfall-registration-form.
Immediately following Nightfall this year, the Lookout Wild Film Festival will be showing an hour of free short adventure films in Miller Park from 9:45-10:45 p.m.
Nightfall bulk discount beer and wine tickets will again be available this year at each show, offering a 20 percent savings on a packet of 20 beer and wine tickets. Food trucks and non-alcoholic drink concessions are also available on site. No outside food or beverages are allowed to be brought in to Nightfall since concession sales are a primary funder of Nightfall.
Known for its family-friendly environment as well as being recognized nationally for the quality of its musical programming, Nightfall is a family-friendly concert series that brings the Chattanooga community together in the heart of the city, said officials.
Nightfall is locally produced by Chattanooga Presents.
For more information on this free community concert series, call 304-5835 or visit NightfallChattanooga.com for a complete, interactive website that includes music samples by each headliner, as well as other information for first-time attendees.