BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn Announces Rhye, Antibalas, Mala Rodriguez, Kronos Quartet, Anoushka Shankar And More

Events have been announced for the 40th annual season of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival. Free performances include:

• Saturday, June 16: The Jayhawks hit the Bandshell, with addtional sets from Mandolin Orange and Parsonsfield
  
• Thursday, June 21: Aimee Mann, named by NPR as one of the 10 best living songwriters, will be joined by pop-punk band Superchunk, and Brooklynite singer Jonathan Coulton
  
• Friday, June 22: Robert Glasper returns to the Bandshell with an exceptional new collective of underground icons in R+R=NOW, which stands for Reflect+Respond=Now
  
• Saturday, June 23: Fischerspooner, the pioneers of the early '00s electroclash movement, will fill the Bandshell with a new stage show; Juliana Huxtable opens with a DJ set
  
• Friday, June 29: Two sets from GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis will bookend Roger Guenveur Smith's one man show, Frederick Douglass Now, which incorporates elements of slam poetry and rap
  
• Saturday, June 30: Mandolin master and 2018 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Skaggs comes to the Bandshell with his band Kentucky Thunder
  
• Saturday, July 7: From a mysterious studio project to sold-out shows, Rhye has expanded their downtempo R&B sound and comes to the Bandshell with Natalie Prass and Overcoats

• Thursday, July 12: The Brooklyn afrobeat juggernaut Antibalas' live shows have become the stuff of legend. See them at the Bandshell, with Combo Chimbita and DJ Nickodemus

• Friday, July 13: A night filled with Latin female power, Mala Rodriguez brings her fiery rhymes, Ana Tijoux returns to the stage this time with her Chilean-folk inspired project, and Girl Ultra kicks off with sultry R&B

• Saturday, July 14: World renowned Kronos Quartet and traditional Malian ensemble Trio Da Kali will grace our stage, separately and together, for a magical evening

• Friday, July 20: Melding Indian raga with other world music influences and electronica beats, the sitar master Anoushka Shankar comes to the Bandshell with My Brightest Diamond
  
• Saturday, July 21: One of the biggest movie screens in NYC will explode with light, color, and sound during this screening and live orchestral score of Brimstone & Glory, a documentary about the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico?

Plus ticketed benefit concerts by Vance Joy and Alice Merton (June 14); Grizzly Bear and Spoon (June 20); and Joe Russo's Almost Dead (July 19).

More information is below. Please let me know if you're interested.

Regards,
Matt

Saturday, June 16, 7:00pm
THE JAYHAWKS | MANDOLIN ORANGE | PARSONSFIELD
Free

For more than 30 years, The Jayhawks "have crafted widescreen power-pop with country-western affectations, summoning an easygoing romanticism and a skyward sound that makes even their sad songs seem happy." (Portland Press Herald) 2016's stellar record Paging Mr. Proust and a more recent collaboration with Ray Davies show they're still at the top of their game. The sublime harmonies of North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange, who "approach traditional roots music from a fresh, modern perspective," (Rolling Stone) and the raucous foot-stomping Americana of Parsonsfield round out a perfect Saturday at the Bandshell.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Thursday, June 21, 7:00pm
Bud Light Music Series
Aimee Mann | SUPERCHUNK | Jonathan Coulton
Free

Aimee Mann, whom NPR named one the 10 best living songwriters, is at the height of her powers: her 2017 record Mental Illness is her "quintessential statement." (Pitchfork) The seminal pop-punk band Superchunk co-headlines, riding a wave of angsty momentum generated by their 2018 release What a Time to Be Alive, a snarling polemic against our current political moment. Singer-songwriter and raconteur Jonathan Coulton opens.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Friday, June 22, 7:30pm
Bud Light Music Series
R+R=NOW featuring ROBERT GLASPER, TERRACE MARTIN, CHRISTIAN SCOTT aTUNDE ADJUAH, DERRICK HODGE, JUSTIN TYSON, TAYLOR MCFERRIN | PAUL BEAUBRUN
Free

Each member of Robert Glasper's exceptional new collective is an underground icon in his own right, contributing to prestigious releases from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott, and Herbie Hancock. The name stands for Reflect+Respond=Now, and the mission is to create music that speaks to the current socio-political moment. BRIC has commissioned the group to write a new piece of music for this show called The Liberation Suite, which will have its world premiere at the Bandshell as part of their set. The Haitian-American singer and guitarist (and Brooklynite) Paul Beaubrun opens.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Saturday, June 23, 7:30pm
FISCHERSPOONER | JULIANA HUXTABLE
Free

"The art-pop duo and original poster-boys for New York City's electroclash scene" (NPR) have come storming back with a fresh embrace of sensuality, lust, and love, and a new stage show that is not for the prudish. Sir, Fischerspooner's first new record in nine years, boasts a gaggle of name-drop-worthy collaborators (Michael Stipe, Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, Boots) and is packed with dance floor ready singles. The DJ/author/conceptual artist Juliana Huxtable, "a mind whose output transcends prescribed limitations," (artnet) spins.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Friday, June 29, 7:30pm
Branford Marsalis | Roger Guenveur Smith: Frederick Douglass NOW
Free

The GRAMMY Award-winning New Orleans-based sax player and bandleader Branford Marsalis is "a jazz chameleon...with a swooping tone, supple phrasing, and witty licks." (AllMusic) His two sets tonight bookend Roger Guenveur Smith's startling one man show, Frederick Douglass Now, which incorporates elements of poetry slam, rap, and revival minister to recast the words of the runaway slave-turned-abolitionist into a 21st century context and "makes a striking statement about where America has come and still has to go in terms of race." (LA Times).

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Saturday, June 30, 7:00pm
Ricky Skaggs AND KENTUCKY THUNDER | SIERRA HULL AND JUSTIN MOSES | MAMIE MINCH
Free

Mandolin master and 2018 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Skaggs "is without peer as a combination vocalist and instrumentalist." (AllMusic) This living legend will get a run for his money from Sierra Hull, who as a teenage mandolin phenom "emerged as one of bluegrass' most celebrated prodigies" (NPR) and the multi-instrumentalist (and former Skaggs bandmate) Justin Moses. Brooklyn's own Mamie Minch starts the show.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Saturday, July 7, 7:00pm
Eventbrite Music Series
RHYE | NATALIE PRASS | OVERCOATS
Free

From a mysterious studio project to sold-out shows, Rhye has expanded their downtempo R&B sound with a sprawling live band, and performances that now stretch "into extended jam sessions that touched on everything from the irrepressible soul-funk of Curtis Mayfield to late '60s psychedelic soul bands like Vanilla Fudge and Rare Earth." (Billboard). They are joined by the "slow neo-soul simmer" (Stereogum) of singer-songwriter Natalie Prass, and the night kicks off with the "magnetic harmonies" (Billboard) of New York City electro-folk duo Overcoats.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Thursday, July 12, 7:30pm
Presented in Partnership with The Village Voice
ANTIBALAS | COMBO CHIMBITA | DJ NICKODEMUS
Free

Brooklyn afrobeat juggernaut Antibalas, whose live shows have become the stuff of legend. As noted in Village Voice, Antibalas thrives "when they've got a hip-to-hip crowd they can heat up by degrees-with ultra-tight Fela covers and original songs that might as well be." DJ Nickodemus of Turntables on the Hudson fame presides to get bodies warmed up, and Combo Chimbita opens with high-energy, locally sourced tropical dance music.

For full press release, click here
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Friday, July 13, 7:00pm
Eventbrite Music Series
Presented in Association with The Latin Alternative Music Conference
MALA RODRIGUEZ | ANA TIJOUX | GIRL ULTRA

Headlined by Spanish MC Mala Rodriguez, this annual showcase will be a night of fierce women artists. The multiple Latin GRAMMY-winning, Barcelona-based artist has earned unanimous praise for her socially-minded lyrics and her sexually unabashed on-stage persona. Opening performances by French-Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux and her Roja y Negro project, and Mexican R&B diva Girl Ultra.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Saturday, July 14, 7:30pm
KRONOS QUARTET | TRIO DA KALI
Free

World-renowned Kronos Quartet and traditional Malian ensemble Trio Da Kali, gracing the stage, separately and together, for a magical evening. Last year, the two groups teamed up to release the collaborative album Ladilikan, which "shatter[ed] boundaries of culture, genre, faith and ethnicity-all with an ease that must be heard to be believed" (NPR's All Things Considered) and recently received the 2018 Songlines Music Award in the Fusion category.

For full press release, click here
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Friday, July 20, 7:30pm
Anoushka Shankar | MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
Free

Sitar master Anoushka Shankar's sound is full of "shimmering textures seem to offer a hotline to the divine," (The Australian) honoring tradition while boldly embracing the future. The daughter of the late Ravi Shankar and half sister of Norah Jones, her latest project, Land of Gold, veers sonically away from her classical side and takes as its subject matter the global refugee crisis. Opening performance by indie experimentalist My Brightest Diamond.

For full press release, click here
For hi res images, click here

Saturday, July 21, 7:30pm
BRIMSTONE & GLORY WITH LIVE SCORE BY WORDLESS MUSICAL ORCHESTRA | SONIDO GALLO NEGRO
Free

A screening and live orchestral score of Brimstone & Glory, a documentary from the creative team behind Beasts of the Southern Wild about the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico. BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival favorites Wordless Music Orchestra provide percussive accompaniment to the film, performing the original score composed by Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin. Mexico City-based, theremin-driven nine-piece instrumental combo Sonido Gallo Negro opens.