Salters Scene: JSWISS And Keith “The Captain” Gamble In Harlem

By Udo Salters

Harlem Week is in full swing!  On Thursday, August 15th, artists JSWISS and Keith “The Captain” Gamble performed at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr State Office Building In Harlem.

As part of the Thursday Summer Stage in Harlem free concert series. 

The legendary Doctor Bob Lee from WBLS, hosted the evening’s concert.   

JSWISS, a Hip-Hop artist who has been rocking since 2009 and was given the stamp of approval by the legendary Ralph McDaniels, kicked off the show. He performed songs from his catalog like “Making Space” and “Feel Alright”.  A set filled with good vibes, which was a perfect lead into Keith “The Captain” Gamble and the Nu Gypsies. 

Before the baton was passed from JSWISS to The Captain, Bob Lee came back to the stage. Lee informed JSWISS, that Grandmaster Dee from the Hip Hop group Whodini was backstage and appreciated his performance.  Lee then invited Grandmaster Dee to the stage, which led to a cool Hip-Hop moment as Grandmaster Dee started reciting lyrics from his group’s song “The Freaks Come Out at Night.”  JSWISS read the moment and joined in with a beatbox.  Moving things along, Lee invited a few other VIPs to the stage including Marko Nobles.  Nobles gave a rundown of the different activities still to come for Harlem Week.

Eventually, the show continued and Bob Lee introduced Keith “The Captain” Gamble and the Nu Gypsies.  Out the gate, The Captain set it off with some soul: Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman.”  The crowd was engaged and ready to be led on a musical journey by The Captain. 

Soul smoothly transitioned into Funk.  The Funk was on high when The Captain led the Nu Gypsies into “Slipping into Darkness” by War.  You could see people in the crowd who had not moved to that point, grooving in and out of their seats. 

RELATED: See more photographs by Udo Salters Salters Scene.

On a few songs saxophonists and flutist Sweet Lee Odem had some incredible solos.  Now that the sun was setting on the Adam Clayton Powell Jr State Office Building and the show was coming to an end, it was time for The Captain to bring this musical journey to a dramatic close.  The closing song was Purple Rain by Prince.  One lady in the audience was ecstatic about this song choice, as she was dress in all purple.  Purple Rain gave The Captain the space to let loose on the guitar.  At one point, he left the stage and played among the people. 

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The song did end and Keith “The Captain” Gamble and the Nu Gypsies were done with their set right around 7PM.  The host Doctor Bob Lee came back on stage to close show, but the audience was not ready to go home.  There were chants of one more! One More!  Lee checked with the stage crew to see if there was time for more one song.  Well, one more song became 30 seconds.  The Captain led the Nu Gypsies in 30 sounds of Funk.

It was a great night in Harlem!

Udo Salters

Udo Salters was born and raised in New York City. His love for photography began as a youth when he started taking photos of friends and family at various events. In a natural transition, his passion turned from shooting images of fashion models and fashion shows to jetting around Harlem to Hollywood creating images of celebrities and socialites at some of the most exclusive hot spots. He has worked for many outlets locally with Harlem World Magazine, Fortune 500 companies, and many other various media outlets. He currently resides in NYC. Get more information at Udo Salters Photography.

Photo credit: by Udo Salters.