Celebrate Brooklyn kicked off w/ Jimmy Cliff (pics), continues w/ Laura Marling, Balkan Beat Box, Esperanza Spalding, more

Jimmy Cliff at Prospect Park – 6/5/12

The 2012 Celebrate Brooklyn series at Prospect Park kicked off on June 5 with Jimmy Cliff. Pictures from that show are in this post.

JImmy Cliff is planning to release a full album with Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong this July called Rebirth. It follows the Sacred Fire EP that the two did together last year. Jimmy was just interviewed about that and going back to his reggae roots for Chicago Tribune:

“We were planning to look back,” says Cliff, 64, by phone from a tour stop near Connecticut, “but when I arrived, it was really satisfying, and I felt, ‘I have to tap into this again.'”

What Armstrong and Cliff came up with, late last year, was “Sacred Fire,” an EP with roots-reggae versions of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton,” Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and Cliff’s “Ship Is Sailing.” It’s the first glimpse of Cliff’s new direction with producer Armstrong — they’re planning a full album, “Rebirth,” in mid-July. “He made me reflect and remember the values of those things that we did then. He opened that for me and allowed me to look into that again,” Cliff says. “There’s a tendency to move on and create something new.”

Jimmy will return to NYC next month for Groovin in the Park.

Celebrate Brooklyn continues this week with a free Laura Marling show TONIGHT (6/14). That show also includes Michael Kiwanuka and Willy Mason. On Friday (6/15), it’s a free show with Geri Allen, Carrie Mae Weems, Esperanza Spalding, and more. And on Saturday (6/16), its another free one with Balkan Beat Box, Chico Trujillo, and Nation Beat. Check out the full 2012 schedule here.