Skirball Center announces lineup for free Sunset Concerts

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Sean Watkins
Sean Watkins

A special set by singer-songwriter Sean Watkins & Friends — which will pay tribute to the music of Paul Simon — will kick off the 21st season of the Skirball Cultural Center’s Sunset Concerts. The six-week series of free Thursday night concerts in the museum’s courtyard starts July 27.

“American Tune Featuring Sean Watkins & Friends: A Singer-Songwriter Celebration of Paul Simon” will be performed in conjunction with the current exhibition “Paul Simon: Words & Music,” a collection originally curated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and expanded for the Skirball. The Simon exhibition is on view through Sept. 3; on concert nights, it will be open until 10 p.m.

The rest of the Sunset Concerts lineup is typically genre-spanning and global in reach.

It includes the West Coast debut of Ibibio Sound Machine, the African-electro band fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams; the L.A. debut of Caribbean roots music trio Delgres; Cuban siren Daymé Arocena; the klezmer/Cuban music fusion of David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana (featuring the trumpeter, Cuban pianist Hilario Durán and an ensemble of jazz players); and the L.A. debut of Afro-Venezuelan soul group Betsayda Machado y La Parranda El Clavo.

The concerts begin at 8 p.m., with doors at 6:30. Parking costs $10. The shows are free, but an RSVP is requested.

The full schedule:

July
27: Sean Watkins & Friends

August:
3: Ibibio Sound Machine
10: Delgres
17: Daymé Arocena
24: David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana
31: Betsayda Machado y La Parranda El Clavo