Having just returned from an Australian/New Zealand tour where they put the exclamation point on their Soulfire Live! Tour, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will celebrate Summer of Sorcery with a pair of eagerly awaited record release shows at Los Angeles’ Saban Theatre this Saturday, May 4 and Asbury Park, NJ’s famed Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, May 8. The band will then embark on the epic “Summer of Sorcery World Tour 2019,” beginning May 16 at Liverpool, UK’s 02 Academy and continuing through the year. The globetrotting trek will feature headline and festival stops across the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Spain before returning home to kick off an extensive North American tour that will get underway June 29 at Syracuse, NY’s New York State Blues Fest and then travel the Eastern US and Canada through an eagerly awaited performance at Annapolis, MD’s Outlaw Jam on July 28. Additional European headline and festival dates follow, including dates in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Austria, and the United Kingdom.
Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will then set off for the second leg of their North American tour, beginning September 5-8 at Las Vegas, NV’s Big Blues Bender at Hard Rock Casino & Hotel and traveling through the fall. The band will make an appearance at Louisville, KY’s Bourbon & Beyond on September 22 and include dates up and down the Western US, South, Midwest and East Coast before culminating with a hometown show at the legendary Beacon Theatre in NYC on November 6. All shows for the second leg of the tour will go on sale next Friday, May 10. Each ticket purchased online for the first leg of the US headline tour dates will include a CD of Summer of Sorcery. Exclusive VIP Meet & Greet Upgrade Packages are also available for most dates. All teachers and a guest will get in to the shows for free. For complete details, updates and ticket availability, please visit www.littlesteven.com/on-tour.
In addition, each and every US headline date on the Summer of Sorcery Tour 2019 will benefit Van Zandt’s TeachRock education initiative and offer an introduction to the Teachrock.org curriculum. Before the show, the TeachRock staff will host free professional development workshops designed to engage educators with techniques and content through which they can comfortably use music to inspire students, even if they’ve never touched an instrument. The free, multimedia K-12 interdisciplinary curriculum meets prevailing standards in English Language Arts, Social Studies/History, the Fine and Performing Arts, and also includes STEAM and advisory material suitable for K-12 teachers of all disciplines, interdisciplinary best practices, and group activities.
Little Steven will be joined on the “Summer of Sorcery World Tour 2019” by the one and only Disciples of Soul, a 14-strong all-star ensemble made up of some of the best studio and live musicians in the business. Leading the charge alongside Van Zandt is musical director and guitarist Marc Ribler (Darlene Love, Roger McGuinn, Carole King) who conducts the band: Lowell “Banana” Levinger (of The Youngbloods) on piano and Wurlitzer, bassist Jack Daley (Lenny Kravitz, Boz Scaggs, Darryl Hall), drummer Rich Mercurio (Ben E King, Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel), percussionist Anthony Almonte (King Creole and The Coconuts), Andy Burton on B3 organ, piano, synthesizers (Cyndi Lauper, John Mayer, Ian Hunter), the dynamite horn section of horn director Eddie Manion on baritone saxophone (Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny), Stan Harrison on tenor saxophone and flute (David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Duran Duran), Ron Tooley on trumpet (James Brown, John Lennon, Maceo Parker), Ravi Best on trumpet (Aretha Franklin, Stevie, Wonder, Kool and The Gang) and Clark Gayton on trombone (Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Joss Stone, Rhianna). The band is rounded out with the soulful, synchronized dancing backup singers Jessie Wagner (Kid Rock, Lenny Kravitz, Chic), Sara Devine (Alicia Keys, Mary J Blige) and Tania Jones (Disciples of Soul).
Summer of Sorcery is Van Zandt’s commitment to his solo career and was born from his renewed interest in his own music following his return to the spotlight with 2017’s Soulfire, his first album as Little Steven in nearly two decades. Created with a new incarnation of the Disciples of Soul, that album saw him revisit songs that spanned the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing on the “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” sound he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums and later, his own first solo LP. After two years on the road, which totaled more than a hundred shows and resulted in a rousing live CD, concert Blu-ray video and 7LP vinyl box set, Little Steven was inspired to record his first album of original material in 20 years, buoyed by his incredible 14-piece band, the first time he ever used the same band for consecutive albums. Together they retreated to Van Zandt’s NYC studio in the fall of 2018 and conjured up 12 incredible sonic movie scenes that feel like summer.
Summer of Sorcery is Little Steven at his omnivorous, humanistic best, expertly crafted and deeply rooted in the many classic genres which taught and inspired the self-proclaimed “walking history lesson” from the jump. With their richly bombastic arrangements, floor-shaking groves, and high-powered performances from all involved, new songs like “Soul Power Twist” and the album kick off “Communion” synthesize Van Zandt’s incalculable range of cultural and sonic inspirations into a one-of-a-kind brass-fueled brand of Technicolor rock ‘n’ soul unlike anyone else’s. The album features 10 original new songs alongside “Suddenly You,” an outtake from the “Lilyhammer” score, Netflix’s first original series, which starred Van Zandt who also composed all the music for trailblazing show, and a reimagining of “Education” which was first recorded for his 1989 album Revolution. “The education system needs to be fixed, needs to be improved,” he says. “Teachers need to be supported. There needs to be more support, more funding. That’s what I’m trying to get across with my TeachRock program and that’s all in this song.”
The record culminates with the epic title track, “Summer of Sorcery,” an eight-minute mission statement that conjures the euphoric rush of a summer romance and limitless possibility. “The whole theme of the album is summed up in that song, that wizardry, that magic mixture of falling in love in the summer,” says Van Zandt.
“With this record I really wanted to travel back to a time when life was exciting, when unlimited possibilities were there every day,” says Van Zandt. “That was the feeling in the ’60s, the thrill of the unexpected coming at you. Our minds were blown every single day, one amazing thing after another, constantly lifting you up. So you kind of walked around six inches off the ground all the time, there was something that kept you buoyant in your spirit. I wanted to try and capture that first and foremost.”
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