Ledisi, courtesy of SummerStage

On Wednesday, the City Parks Foundation rang in another year of free outdoor music with SummerStage’s opening night. New York’s beloved public performing arts organization launched its landmark 40th anniversary season with a show that mirrored the tradition’s commitment to championing new perspectives, spotlighting high-caliber talent and balancing innovation with historical reverence.

On the welcoming build-out at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, SummerStage, in partnership with the Blue Note Jazz Festival, welcomed Brooklyn-based second-line Brass Queens, DJ Kultured Child, jazz vocalist Spilata and genre-bending singer-songwriter José James, a veteran guest of the series who offered a radiant mix of easygoing and soulful originals. Ledisi headlined the event with a celebration of the great Dinah Washington, showing her studied love for the  “Queen of the Blues” by putting her own spin on the standards captured on her 2025 tribute album For Dinah.

Ledisi started with a slow and intentional reading of “What a Difference a Day Makes,” hanging on a heavy footprint between walking bass and rim cracks to bring deep consideration to every passing syllable. She built to a full-bodied saunter by the end of “If I Never Get to Heaven” and went spinning off into distant reminiscence on the chilling “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” then properly embraced the blues with “Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning.” Throughout the show, she called her backing quartet to a roar and down to a simmer again, and several times reset to a more patient pace by stomping or cued her accompanists to extend their improvisation, as on a free and fizzy rendition of “Caravan.” After loping through “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me” and sharing a cinematic arrangement of “This Bitter Earth” that Christian McBride wrote for her, Ledisi capped off the night with a warm encore of “Teach Me Tonight.”

Read more about this year’s SummerStage programming here. Get an inside look at opening night in the photo gallery below.