John Mayer & D'Angelo Team With The Roots At Day One Of Roots Picnic NYC

Philadelphia icons The Roots began the first New York City installment of Roots Picnic on Saturday at Bryant Park. The Roots started their headlining set on their own and played approximately 30 minutes of their own material before welcoming surprise guest Common for a 20-minute segment that the crowd ate up. Questlove and The Roots then played a few more numbers before guitarist John Mayer came out.

Mayer’s time on stage saw his John Mayer Trio band mate Pino Palladino help out on bass. The guitarist’s playing was sharp and he was clearly having a blast. Having not played his own songs out in front of a crowd for a while, he was really engaged in such tunes as “Waiting On The World To Change,” “Gravity” and “Paper Doll.” He also led a cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” It was quite the mini-set from John Mayer.

After the Mayer-led portion of the set, John stayed out to help out The Roots on a song before old Roots member Rahzel emerged to do some amazing beat boxing. As he finished up everyone came back out, but there was still no D’Angelo. Comedian Dave Chappelle came out to stall for time and told some jokes starting with, “I’m only out here for two reasons: Kevin Hart couldn’t make it and D’Angelo is late.” A few minutes later D’Angelo came on stage and played a fantastic set. The half hour jam featured many of the evening’s performers and left many jaws agape. D’Angelo’s voice and stage presence on such songs as “Brown Sugar” and “Playa Playa,” which each featured impressive solos from Mayer, was stunning.

Roots Picnic NYC concludes today in Bryant Park.

Check out Bryan Lasky’s photos of the headliners at Day One of Roots Picnic NYC ’16: