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HOTTEST TICKET Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z duetted at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in February. the fenway experience A s he tours for his new album, The 20/20 Experience, and its September sequel, it's fitting that Justin Timberlake plays historic Fenway Park. The video for the album's big-band-style hit single "Suit & Tie" features the ever-debonair Timberlake bringing the sexy back along with vintage style. He and Jay-Z, his collaborator on the song, play Fenway August 10 and 11 as part of the pair's select Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour— the most recent superstars to play the ballpark in a dazzling string of concerts dating back nearly a century. The first Fenway concert took place in August 1920, eight years after the ballpark opened. Bostonians thronged to Fenway that summer to hear the patriotic fervor whipped up by John Philip Sousa. It was nearly 40 years before music returned to the park, bringing with it the future legends of jazz. In 1959, music promoter and producer George Wein (also the impresario of the Newport Jazz Festival) presented a three-day jazz program at Fenway featuring Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and Dinah Washington. But an equally star-studded jazz festival in 1973, with a young Stevie Wonder and the legendary B.B. King, ended the concert tradition for another 30 years when patrons' raucous behavior soured the Yawkey ownership on hosting anything music-related. Two years into their ownership, John W. Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino rocked some vitality into Fenway by restoring the concert tradition. First up were two sold-out performances by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Brand in 2003. "We debated doing it," Sam Kennedy, COO of the Red Sox, admits. "A lot of people around continued on page 58 Fenway Park's dazzling string of concerts dates back nearly a century. 56 PHOTOGRAPHY BY TK; ILLUSTRATION BY TK KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND JAY-Z JOIN THE LIST OF LEGENDARY MUSICIANS FOR WHAT MIGHT BE A HISTORY-IN-THE-MAKING CONCERT AT FENWAY THIS SUMMER. BY JARED BOWEN BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 056-058_BC_SC_HottestTicket_SUM13.indd 56 6/7/13 1:39 PM