Here is the FULL Schedule of this year’s Celebrate Brooklyn concerts. All shows except for benefit shows are free with a $3 suggested contribution.
NORAH JONES
Wednesday, June 9, 8 pm
The pianist, singer and songwriter — and now, Brooklyn resident — performs her
first free outdoor show in the borough.
ALLEN TOUSSAINT/ DAVELL CRAWFORD
Saturday, June 12, 7:30 pm
An undisputed architect of New Orleans music and a national cultural
treasure.
EUGENE MIRMAN & PRETTY GOOD FRIENDS
Thursday, June 17, 7:30 pm
Brooklyn comic and impresario Eugene Mirman has been described by Esquire as
“equal parts Andy Kaufman and Andy Warhol.” Spin has said that “Mirman has a
skewed observational wit rather than a sweaty Friar’s Club shtick — and kills
with self-deprecating ease.” Here he hosts a scaled-up version of his
regular comedy spectacular, which has become something of a local
institution. John Hodgman, Michael Showalter and Hannibal Buress are
scheduled to appear, along with others TBA, plus music and other oddball
surprises.
JG THIRLWELL’S STEROID MAXIMUS / DR. LONNIE SMITH
Friday, June 18, 7:30 pm
The prolific Australian composer, producer, performer, visual artist and
longtime DUMBO resident JG Thirlwell is an elusive but profoundly
influential presence in New York City’s underground music world. Working
under many pseudonyms, including Foetus, Manorexia, Baby Zizanie, Clint
Ruin, and Wiseblood, his varied body of work — which stretches the gamut from
orchestrations, big band, cathartic noise-rock to abstract electronics and
sound sculpture, chamber music, serial music and imaginary soundtracks
(sometimes all in the same album) — is linked by a dramatic intensity and an
evocative, cinematic quality. He has collaborated with the likes of Nick
Cave, Lydia Lunch and Soft Cell, done remixes for NIN and Pantera, scored
Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim series The Venture Brothers, and been
commissioned by Kronos Quartet and Bang on a Can. Celebrate Brooklyn! is
proud to present the New York debut of Thirlwell’s rarely heard large
ensemble Steroid Maximus, a big band/exotica mini-orchestra. The evening
will begin with a set by Dr. Lonnie Smith, the turban-wearing Hammond B-3
wizard.
Celebrate Brooklyn! & CareFusion Jazz Festival Present
BITCHES BREW REVISTED, WITH GRAHAM HAYNES, JAMES BLOOD ULMER,
MARCO BENEVENTO, DJ LOGIC, LONNIE PLAXICO AND
CINDY BLACKMAN / MIKE STERN TRIO
Saturday, June 19, 7:30 pm
This concert brings together a dazzling, multi-generational array of artists
to explore the legacy of the Miles Davis landmark on the 40th anniversary of
its release. The night begins with a performance by the virtuosic Mike
Stern, one of the premier jazz-fusion guitarists of his generation and a
veteran of Davis’s band.
ORQUESTA BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB FEATURING OMARA PORTUONDO / NELIDA TIRADO
Thursday, June 24, 7:30 pm
The great Omara Portuondo, the female voice of the original Buena Vista
Social Club, is a living legend of Cuban music. She now fronts the
extraordinary Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, which on recent tours has
taken “the atmosphere up to a breathless level” (The Independent) in
performances that “left audiences awe-struck” (Financial Times). Opening
will be flamenco dancer Nelida Tirado, who moves, The New York Times says,
“as if her body were a medium for some unearthly force.”
KID KOALA: SHORT ATTENTION SPAN AUDIO THEATER VS. THE SLEW / HESS IS MORE
Friday, June 25, 7:30 pm
According to Time Out NY, the DJ, graphic novelist, musician and producer
Kid Koala “pairs his deck skills with a songwriter’s smarts and the timing
of a stand-up comedian.” At Celebrate Brooklyn!, he will offer a sampling of
his wide-ranging talents, including excerpts of his Short Attention Span
Audio Theatre, a vinyl vaudeville of all sorts of mischief featuring DJ
P-Love; as well as The Slew, in which six turntables worth of live sampled
guitar riffs meets the ex-Wolfmother rhythm section for a head-banging
finale. Led by deadpan Danish pop-provocateur Mikkel Hess, Hess is More
channels Jon Brion, Flight of the Conchords and Steve Martin with gleeful
abandon, switching instruments mid-song and looping riffs and beats to
create what they call freestyle disco jazz.
TEXAS TORNADOS / THE RED CLAY RAMBLERS
Saturday, June 26, 7:30 pm
In the midst of a bona fide revival, the Tex-Mex supergroup Texas Tornados
lives on with originals Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez as vital as ever and
the spirits of the late Freddy Fender and Doug Sahm presiding. On tour and
on their new album Esta Bueno!, which came out earlier this year, Shawn Sahm
steps to the front and “pulls off his dad’s old tricks with a few of his
own” (Austin Chronicle). They will be preceded on the bill by the timeless
North Carolina string band The Red Clay Ramblers, who, according to The New
York Times, play like “a fantasy roadhouse band from a vanished rural
America” in whose music “bluegrass, New Orleans, classical folk and gospel
sounds emerge in nutty profusion.”
ZOOM: ZVIDANCE / SON LUX WITH LOTTDANCE
Thursday, July 1, 8 pm
Integrating cell phones, projections and live music, ZOOM, the latest of
choreographer Zvi Gotheiner’s “heroically surging, exalting dances” (The New
York Times), shatters the wall between audience and performers, with photos
and text conversations from the crowd becoming an exhilarating, interactive
real-time video collage of images and unscripted dialogue to which the
dancers respond. The evening begins with a collaboration between the forward
thinking classical/electronic/hip-hop composer Son Lux — whom NPR’s “All
Things Considered” named Best New Artist in 2008 — and Lottdance, an evolving
group of cultural conspirators that draws together dancers, musicians and
visual artists to create multimedia events.
THE FAB 5 / UZALO
Friday, July 2, 7:30 pm
Four decades into their career, the Fab 5 have played countless live shows
and created a veritable library of live vintage party mix recordings. To be
sure, the group embodies the history of reggae and lives up to their billing
as “Jamaica’s #1 Showband.” The percussionist Junior “Gabu” Wedderburn,
master drummer of Broadway’s The Lion King and founder of the Jamaican roots
collective Ancient Vibrations, gets things started with his latest project,
Uzalo.
ITUTU: ARMITAGE GONE! DANCE FEATURING BURKINA ELECTRIC
Thursday, July 8, 8 pm
Former “punk ballerina” Karole Armitage, who has choreographed for everyone
from Baryshnikov to Michael Jackson, “is always pushing the limits of
possibility, spectacularly deconstructing the body with a diabolic flair”
(Le Nouvel Observateur, France). In ITUTU, her company shares the stage with
the West African band Burkina Electric to create a haunting amalgam of dance
and live music that combines ballet and African dance, electronica and
ancient rhythms — a uniquely modern synthesis of new and old, pop and
tradition.
Celebrate Brooklyn & LAMC present
OZOMATLI / FIDEL NADAL / TOY SELECTAH
Friday, July 9, 7 pm
The singular music of Ozomatli blends hip-hop, salsa, dancehall, cumbia,
samba, funk, merengue, comparsa, East LA R&B, New Orleans second line,
Jamaican raga and Indian raga, among other styles to be found in Los
Angeles’s cultural melting pot. This summer, they return to their favorite
NYC stomping ground. Also on the bill are Afro-Argentine reggae stalwart
Fidel Nadal, founding member and front man for of the fabled Rasta punk rock
band Todos Tus Muertos, and the Monterrey, Mexico-based DJ Toy Selectah, who
has produced or remixed Calle 13, Café Tacuba, Control Machete, Manu Chao,
Eminem, Plastilina Mosh and Cypress Hill.
OKAYAFRICA World Cup 2010 Finals party
WITH THE ROOTS, TALIB KWELI, SAHR NGAUJAH, BAJAH + THE DRY EYE CREW,
BLITZ THE AMBASSADOR AND MORE
Sunday, July 11, 4 pm
The Roots headline this World Cup party, which celebrates the first time in
its 80-year history the tournament will take place on African soil. With a
kick-off by Sahr Ngaujah, the star of Fela! on Broadway, the show features
performances by artists from all corners of the Diaspora, including host
Talib Kweli (Brooklyn), Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew (Sierra Leone), Blitz the
Ambassador (Ghana), and many others to be announced. Check
bricartsmedia.org/celebrate for updates.
Celebrate Brooklyn & Museum for African Art present
AFRICAN FESTIVAL WITH KONONO NO. 1, OMAR PENE & SUPER DIAMONO, CHIWONISO,
META & THE CORNERSTONES AND DJARARA
Saturday, July 17, 2 pm — 9 pm
Celebrate Brooklyn!’s annual celebration of African music, food and culture
will build to an ecstatic crescendo this year with the distortion-drenched
trance music of Congolese thumb-piano wizards Konono No. 1. Also featured
are Dakar’s Omar Pene & Super Diamono, seminal figures in the birth of the
modern Senegalese sound; the distinctive voice of Zimbabwean Afro-soul diva
Chiwoniso; the pan-African reggae of Meta & The Cornerstones; and the
festival horns and drums of Haiti’s Djarara.
CELEBRATE BROOKLYN & BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC PRESENT
THE CHAPLIN MUTUALS: CARL DAVIS / THE TWO MAN GENTLEMEN BAND
Thursday, July 22, 7:30 pm
The Brooklyn-born, UK-based Carl Davis is a conductor for the London
Symphony Orchestra who has composed music for more than 100 television
programs and countless silent films. He returns to Celebrate Brooklyn! to
conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic in live performances of his original
scores to three of Charlie Chaplin’s classics from the Mutual Film
Corporation: Easy Street, 1 AM, and Behind the Screen. Antic, The fun,
old-timey Two Man Gentlemen Band will kick off the concert.
BOMBA ESTÉREO / LA SECTA ALLSTAR / RITA INDIANA
Friday, July 23, 7 pm
Masterminded by bassist-producer Simón Mejía and fronted by the singer
Liliana Saumet, Bogotá’s Bomba Estéreo is at the forefront of the Latin
Alternative scene. The band merges traditional sounds from Colombia’s
Caribbean coast — like cumbia, bullerengue and champeta — with electronica,
reggae and hip-hop to conjure what Hispanic Magazine describes as “homegrown
folkloric music being etched upon the global DNA of urban beats.” La Secta
Allstar are considered the kings of Puerto Rican rock en español, and Rita
Indiana is a rapidly rising Dominican star.
FIELD OF DREAMS (UN MUNDO NUEVO):
ANDRES LEVIN & THE BRUCE HIGH QUALITY FOUNDATION
Saturday, July 24, 4 pm
The Grammy-winning producer Andres Levin and the Bruce High Quality
Foundation are devising a Bandshell-wide, all-day, DIY world’s fair. The
event will feature a broad range of musical and theatrical guests: Cucu
Diamantes, Luis Guzman, Pablo Picasso, M1 from Dead Prez, Los Hanky Panky
vs. Yerba Buena, Les Nubians, Raven O, Francis and the Lights, Forro in the
Dark, John Medeski and others TBA.
MI21: MOTHER INDIA 21st CENTURY REMIX, WITH DJ TIGERSTYLE / FALU
Thursday, July 29, 8 pm
MI21 is a dynamic audio/visual re-scoring and re-visualizing of the
profoundly influential Mother India (1957), the first Bollywood film to be
nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film) and a talismanic
piece of cinema history that came to symbolize the post-colonial Indian
psyche. MI21 re-imagines the three-hour epic into an impressionistic 60
minutes of arresting imagery with a live score by DJ Tigerstyle, who is
accompanied here by strings, keyboards, and percussion. The evening will
kick off with a performance by Falu, the “indie Hindi,” who trained under
the legendary vocalist Ustad Sultan Khan in Bombay and brazenly mashes up
rock, funk, Bollywood and purely Indian classical music.
THE SWELL SEASON / THE LOW ANTHEM
Friday, July 30, 7:30 pm
Glen Hansard, of the Irish band The Frames, and the classically trained
Czech pianist and singer Marketa Irglova, won an Oscar for “Falling Slowly,”
from the Once soundtrack, a film in which they also starred. As the Swell
Season, they have gone on to achieve further success. Rolling Stone has
called their newest music “hot Irish soulŠenergetic folk rock and
dream-pop-touched balladry.” The concert begins with the gospel-tinged
Americana of The Low Anthem, one of the most celebrated indie rock bands to
emerge over the last year.
SONIC YOUTH / GRASS WIDOW / TALK NORMAL
Saturday, July 31, 7 pm
Sonic Youth’s glorious noise will engulf the Prospect Park Bandshell in a
free show that promises to be one of this summer’s live music highlights.
The No Wave pioneers have contributed as much over the last three decades as
any band to the rise of alternative rock, and their sway over today’s indie
scene cannot be overestimated. They are joined on the bill by the
“bewitching tales and eerie, obsessive melodies” (SF Gate) of the Bay Area
trio Grass Widow and the propulsive riffs of Brooklyn’s own Talk Normal.
METRIC / JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN / HOLLY MIRANDA
Thursday, August 5, 7 pm
Uncut recently said that Metric’s mercurial front woman Emily Haines is
“still secretly one of the most articulate, compelling performers in modern
rock.” Indeed, the band’s intense, always-evolving fusion of psychedelia,
disco and electro-rock has made them one of the most exciting and enduring
outfits to emerge from the fertile Toronto music scene that grew up around
the collective Broken Social Scene (to which Haines and Metric co-founder
James Shaw belong). Representing Brooklyn on this triple bill are the
“sublime … absolutely devastating” (Q Magazine) soul-punk diva Joan as Police
Woman and Holly Miranda, who has been widely acclaimed as a rising star.
HOUSE OF USHER: MARCO BENEVENTO / WHITE MAGIC
Music & Movies
Friday, August 6, 7:30 pm
Cult B-movie auteur Roger Corman’s 1960 adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s
masterpiece of death, madness, and familial decrepitude stars a wild-eyed
Vincent Price. The film is a study in creeping, diabolical menace. To
celebrate its 50th anniversary, BRIC has commissioned organ virtuoso and
indie jazz crossover phenomenon Marco Benevento to write a new original
score, which he will perform live as the film plays on Celebrate Brooklyn!’s
50-foot screen. Brooklyn denizens White Magic will embrace the last bits of
sunlight before the darkness descends, providing gripping avant-folk and
witchy psychedelia.
DAPTONE REVUE: SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS / BUDOS BAND / OTHERS TBA
Saturday, August 7, 7 pm
The Bushwick label Daptone Records, long committed to delivering the finest
soul, funk, gospel and afrobeat sounds to be found on analog tape, will
bring to the Bandshell their unstoppable materfamilias, Sharon Jones & The
Dap-Kings, on a bill of Daptone artists that will deliver an unforgettable
night of Brooklyn soul.
BRADY RYMER / ELIZABETH MITCHELL
Sunday, August 8, 4 pm
The 32nd Celebrate Brooklyn! season concludes with a day of family-friendly
American roots and folk music to honor the legacy of the progressive
children’s book author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. Brady Rymer’s
downhome, foot-stomping Little Band That Could “might just be the
best-sounding band in children’s music,” according to NPR’s “All Things
Considered. Elizabeth Mitchell’s renditions of Woody Guthrie classics and
other folk gems have made her the first modern children’s artist to be
signed to the venerable American Folkways label. She also gleefully covers
the likes of the Velvet Underground and Bob Marley.
BENEFIT CONCERTS
PASSION PIT
Tuesday, June 29
Sold Out
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Tuesday, July 20
Celebrate Brooklyn Benefit Concert
Tickets available via Ticketmaster
THE NATIONAL / BEACH HOUSE
Tuesday, July 27
Sold Out
THE DEAD WEATHER
(Alison Mosshart / Jack White / Dean Fertita / Jack Lawrence)
Tuesday, August 3
Celebrate Brooklyn Benefit Concert
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Mercury Lounge and Music Hall of Williamsburg box offices free of service
charges, cash only.
Mercury Lounge (Mon-Sat: noon-7 pm ); Music Hall of Williamsburg (Saturdays
only: 11 am-6 pm).