Live bands that fuse afrofunk & latin
Duderonomy
Haut de la Garenne 7,784 Posts
Last year I went to see Horace Andy. He was singing over dusty old dubplates that Mad Proffesor selected, and for the most part, he was pretty good. But after he had finished the support band came on. They're called the Soothsayers, and they had a 5 piece rhythm section, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and a three strong horn section. One of the procussionists was an old wrinkled looking African guy sitting down playing a drum sat between his legs with a funny shaped stick, and him and another African-looking guy (ie both black + wearing traditional dress) were singing some conscious-type lyrics. With this and the rhythm section, it was heavy, heavy afrofunk, but the horn section was tuijana brass. Their set was some mad party songs and covers; one song utilised the horns from Outkast's "Spottieoppie...". They had the crowd hooked. They must have impressed Mad Proffesor, because he's turned in a dubbed-out remix for the Soothsayer's debut 10". I listened to the LP, but it doesn't quite capture the atmosphere of their live performance, which is a real shame.Fast-forward to last month, and I saw another amazing live band using exactly the same formula. Heavy afrofunk rhythm section with multiple procussionists, this time a huge dude with dreads playing reggae b-lines, a latin horn section and a guy who seems *ethnic* on lead guitar and vocals (of course he could be called Trevor and lives in Birmingham). Sometimes he would play a little african flute, or kick a distortion peddle into life and play some rock guitar, then go back to a clean rhythm guitar strum while he sang. Great fucking band, they're called Sa Mon Di, and if nothing else, I would look for a Quantic remix of these guys too.Anybody else been to good live gigs recently and heard something fresh?
Comments
Ocote Soul Sounds are some members of Antibalas with some other cats, about 8 in total. I dunno about Mariachi horns but within 20 minutes I heard covers of Spanish Grease and Musicawa Silt. Mad afro-funky, music was :melt from start to finish.
Bronx River Parkway are more on the latin side but hey it all (mostly) came from Africa dinnit?
Chico Mann are worth checking out, although not such a heavy sound and they use drum machines so it's more broken beat sounding: www.fabchannel.com/chicomann
Spam Allstars are another group that use drum machines plus live horns. Definitely Afrofunk meets Cuban. I haven't seen them live because the only venue they play in NYC is SOBs and that's about $10 per drink plus cover, the sound sucks, and it's full of idiots. I guess they have golden handcuffs. The EP on Spamusica rocks, and they've probably released more since then.
This phonetically sounds real close to the correct pronunciation of Cymande. Coincidence! Where's Sleuther Vandross when you need him?
I thought it was pronounced si-mon-day
LA PROPER STAND THE FUCK UP!!!