'Afrobeat' Bands // p 1 of 1

Antibalas

Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") is an American, Brooklyn-based afrobeat band that is modeled after Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra. Although their music generally follows the musical architecture and language of afrobeat, it incorporates elements of jazz, funk, dub, improvised music, and traditional drumming from Cuba and West Africa.

History
Founded in 1998 by Martín Perna as "Conjunto Antibalas", the group first performed on May 26, 1998, at St. Nicks Pub in Harlem at a poetry night organized by renowned visual artist Xaviera Simmons. Over the course of the next few months, the group solidified with a core of eleven band members and expanded their repertoire of original songs. For the first year of the group's existence, they performed exclusively at non-commercial venues such as block parties, lofts, and public parks, before securing a Friday night residency at the now-defunct NoMoore in August 1999. Called Africalia!, the residency lasted from August 1999 till April 2001, when the club was shut down by fire officials during the Giuliani administration's crackdown on nightclubs and cabarets. Guitarist and producer/engineer Gabriel Roth wrote several of the earlier tunes and oversaw recording and production of the first three records.

Over the next few years, the band's presence grew; by summer 2000 Antibalas had released their first album Liberation Afrobeat Vol. 1 and had toured twice in England, while continuing to play at venues throughout New York City. Recording with the group in the early days was Cameroonian drummer Jojo Kuo, who can be heard on the studio recordings of "Uprising" and "Machete".

By early 2002, the horn-driven outfit had released their second album, Talkatif, and continued to tour throughout the United States and Europe. In summer 2004, their third studio album, Who is This America?, was released on Ropeadope Records. Antibalas's album, Security, was produced by John McEntire and released on the ANTI- label in 2007.

Antibalas has performed in 35 countries, from Japan to Turkey to Portugal to Australia, and throughout New York City, from Carnegie Hall to Central Park Summerstage to the Rikers Island prison facility.

The group has received guest visits from several musicians from Fela Kuti's Afrika 70 and Egypt 80 bands, including Tony Allen (drums), Femi Kuti (alto sax), Seun Kuti (tenor sax), Tunde Williams (trumpet), Oghene Kologbo (guitar), Nicolas Addey (congas), Dele Sosimi (keyboards), Ola Jagun (drums/percussion), and Jojo Kuo (drums) among others.

In the summer of 2008, Antibalas was featured off-Broadway in Fela!, a musical celebrating the life of Fela Kuti. The group arranged and performed the show's score of music originally performed by Kuti. In the fall of 2009, Fela! opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, once again with Antibalas.

In 2010, the band released their Rat Race EP, with an arrangement of Bob Marley's "Rat Race" featuring Amayo on vocals, as well as "Se Chifló" featuring Chico Mann as vocalist.

In 2011, the band reunited with producer and former Antibalas guitarist Gabriel Roth at Daptone Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to record their fifth full-length album, entitled Antibalas. The album was released on August 7, 2012, on the Daptone label.

The band resumed a heavy touring schedule beginning in April 2012 with their debut tour in Brazil, performing in São Paulo and Recife, and kicked off a US tour at the Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco, followed by a tour of California. On August 24, 2012, Antibalas made their national television debut, performing their single "Dirty Money" on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On September 11, they resumed their US/Canada tour with 30 dates in the Midwest, East Coast, Southeast and Gulf Coast, including the Austin City Limits Festival. On October 4, they appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. The band toured in Europe in October and November 2012, followed by an Australian tour in March 2013 . In May of the same year Antibalas visited Mexico for first time, performing in Puebla "Festival 5 de Mayo" with originals members like Victor Axelrod.

In 2015, The Antibalas horn section collaborated with The Dap-Kings horn section, Mark Ronson, and Bruno Mars to record Uptown Funk and other tracks off of Mark Ronson's 2015 album Uptown Special. They also performed Uptown Funk together on Saturday Night Live in November 2014.

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Daniel Villarreal

Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo is a well known drummer, musician and DJ in the Chicago music scene. Originally from Panamá he fuses his pan-Latin style with influences of psychedelic rock, Cumbia, afro-beat, boogaloo, rock, free experimental jazz, hip-hop, and funk to create an original contemporary soundscape.

Daniel Villarreal has long been a widely known and beloved character on the Chicago music scene. On almost any night of the week, you’ll find him DJing at at least one spot on bustling 18th Street in his home neighborhood of Pilsen. If he’s not there, he’s playing drums with Dos Santos, Valebol, The Los Sundowns or Ida y Vuelta (all bands he co-leads), or sitting in with Wild Belle or Rudy De Anda.

Villarreal may be most known for his big style and magnetic personality, but to musicians on the scene, it’s as much for his talents as a malleable and reliable drummer, with a deep pocket in many styles and sounds...

As a DJ, Daniel specializes in groovy vintage Afro-diasporic sounds. His DJ sets (vinyl or digital) showcase his knowledge of world music, electronica,Tropicalia, vintage latin soul, Chicha, psychedelic Cumbia, Afrobeat, reggae, funk, and groovy deep cuts beats.

^{Source danielvillarrealmusic.com}

Darondo

William Daron Pulliam (October 5, 1946 – June 9, 2013), who performed in the 1970s under the name Darondo, was a funk and soul singer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Although he is not widely recognized today, serious enthusiasts of the soul genre consistently rate him in high regard.[1] The mythology surrounding Darondo describes him as a pimp, although he has denied this claim. His performing name is said to have originated as a compliment from a waitress who was fond of his generous tipping habits. Darondo has received more attention in recent years thanks to London DJ Gilles Peterson playing his 1973 single, "Didn't I" on his BBC Radio 1 program.

In 2007, Darondo's song "Didn't I" was covered by Jack Peñate on his Spit At Stars EP and in 2008, featured on an episode (season 1, episode 4) of Breaking Bad. "Didn't I" was also featured in the 2010 film Saint John of Las Vegas in a scene featuring Steve Buscemi and In 2009, the song "Legs" was featured in an episode (season 1, episode 8) of the American version of Life on Mars. In 2010, "Didn't I" was featured in the films Night Catches Us and Jack Goes Boating. It also appeared in the New Element video, Future Nature. In 2013, "Didn't I" was featured on a LateNightTales compilation mixed by Bonobo (musician) (Late Night Tales: Bonobo). In the same year, "Didn't I" was featured in the third instalment of the Spanish Apartment trilogy, Chinese Puzzle starring Romain Duris. It was used as an ending theme in an episode (season 2, episode 1) of Lovesick . "Didn't I" was covered by the English electronic music duo HONNE on their 2015 EP "Coastal Love".

Recordings of Darondo are available from Luv N Haight, an imprint label of Ubiquity Records. Other works can be purchased from Omnivore Recordings. He also hosted a public broadcasting music video program where he did comedy skits and gave love advice in a segment called "Penthouse Letters" which can be found on YouTube. He died of heart failure in 2013.

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Ebo Taylor

Ebo Taylor (born 1936) is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music.

Ebo Taylor has been a pivotal figure on the Ghanaian music scene for over six decades. In the late '50s he was active in the influential highlife bands the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band. In 1962, Taylor took his group, the Black Star Highlife Band, to London. In London, Taylor collaborated with Nigerian afrobeat star Fela Kuti as well as other African musicians in Britain at the time.

Returning to Ghana, Taylor worked as a producer, crafting recordings for Pat Thomas, C.K. Mann, and others, as well as exploring solo projects, combining traditional Ghanaian material with afrobeat, jazz, and funk rhythms to create his own recognizable sound in the '70s.

Taylor's work became popular internationally with hip-hop producers in the 21st century. In 2008, Ebo Taylor met the Berlin-based musicians of the Afrobeat Academy band, including saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff, which led to the release of the album Love and Death with Strut Records (his first internationally distributed album). In 2009, Usher used a sample from Taylor's song "Heaven" for "She Don’t Know."

The success of Love and Death prompted Strut to issue the retrospective Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980, in the spring of 2011. A year later, in 2012, a third Strut album, Appia Kwa Bridge, was released. Appia Kwa Bridge showed that at 77 years old, Taylor remained creative, mixing traditional Fante songs and chants with children's rhymes and personal stories into his own sharp vision of highlife.

He performed at the 2015 edition of the annual Stanbic Jazz Festival along with Earl Klugh,Ackah Blay and others.

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Goat

Goat is a Swedish alternative and experimental fusion music group. The band originates—according to its own publicity—from Korpilombolo, Norrbotten County. Their first album World Music, was released on 20 August 2012 by Rocket Recordings, and in North America on the Sub Pop label. The group released their third studio album, Requiem, in October 2016.

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Jungle Fire

Jungle Fire’s highly infectious and explosive sound draws inspiration from the groundbreaking rhythm sections behind James Brown, Fela Kuti, Ray Barretto and Irakere; a musical recipe consisting of West African and Afro-Caribbean styles layered with heavy break-beat funk, all spiced with a dose of uniquely Angeleno grit.

Originally conceived as a one-off project back in 2011, JF quickly gained attention and thus proved its place among the thriving LA funk/soul scene by lighting up local clubs, venues and underground warehouse parties. The buzz grew and word of mouth spread eventually linking up the band with the Ohio-based indie soul label Colemine Records to cut their first 7” single “Comencemos” (a cover of Fela’s “Let’s Start”). Lauded by DJ’s, radio stations, tastemakers and rabid funk fans across the globe “Comencemos” sold out internationally paving the way for the second 7” Colemine release “Firewalker”.

“Few bands live up to their name in the way Jungle Fire do; fusing Cumbia, Afrobeat and traditional funk, each JF jam blazes the floor with real power” as described by Juno Records UK, best sums up the Jungle Fire live show. Serving up a healthy dose of originals and deep latin/afro funk covers all cooked up together in a live mixtape style set ensuring an energy that is nothing short of fire.

Since their inception Jungle Fire has played an impressive amount of club dates and festivals both domestic and abroad having shared the stage with Shuggi Otis, The Blackbyrds, Lee Fields, Charles Wright, The Budos Band and even performing for Los Angeles’ recent mayoral inauguration.

Currently, JF has been supporting their first full-length record “Tropicoso” via the Los Angeles heavyweight Latin Alternative label Nacional. Focused on taking their show international Jungle Fire embarked on a massively successful U.K. tour playing to packed venues at every stop including headlining Craig Charles’ Funk Club (Band On The Wall) and BBC 6 Radio. Not stopping there, the band also made their South American debut at the Mompox Jazz Festival in Colombia.

^{Source facebook.com}

Kokoroko

Kokoroko (stylised as KOKOROKO) is a London-based eight-piece musical group led by Sheila Maurice-Grey, playing a fusion of Jazz and Afrobeat. In February 2019 they were named "ones to watch" by the Guardian, after their track "Abusey Junction" garnered 23 million views on YouTube. In February 2020 they won Best Group at the Urban Music Awards. In September 2020 they played BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

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Menahan Street Band

Menahan Street Band is a Brooklyn, New York-based instrumental band formed in 2007, that plays funk and soul music. The band features musicians from Antibalas, El Michels Affair, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and the Budos Band. The group was founded by Thomas Brenneck while living in an apartment on Menahan St. in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. Their debut album, Make the Road by Walking, was released in 2008 on Dunham, a sublabel of Daptone Records.

Various songs from Make the Road by Walking have been sampled by hip hop artists, including the title track, which was sampled by Jay-Z on the track "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)...", "Going The Distance", which was sampled by Kid Cudi on his song "Solo Dolo Pt.II" featuring Kendrick Lamar on Cudi's third studio album Indicud, and "The Traitor," sampled by 50 Cent on his mixtape War Angel LP and by Cudi on his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day. In addition, the song "Tired of Fighting" is used as a primary sample in Kendrick Lamar's "Faith" from his eponymous 2009 EP, as well as YBN Cordae's 2019 track "Family Matters" from his debut album The Lost Boy.

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Metá Metá

São Paulo trio Meta Meta fuse punk, jazz, samba, Afrobeat and candomblé into a compelling, visceral whole, permeated with Brazilian song, orixá chants and Yoruba roots. Guitarist Kiko Dinucci, saxophonist/flautist Thiago França and singer Juçara Nunes are on a continuing journey through the connected cultural strains of the 21st century. Their 2011 debut Metá Metá began with a smooth blend of Afro-samba, gathering in intensity until a sudden Brazilian Afrobeat finale. The following release resumed the journey, adding bass and drums and featuring pioneering Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen on two tracks. Their third album, MM3, took matters further, bringing in musical influences from a visit to Morocco and thematically taking aim at their country’s political crisis, pushing the mood from brooding Braziliana to squalling jazz-punk thrash-outs. It has to be done and Meta Meta do it with serious skill.

^{Source womex.com}