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A Global Groove
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Hamilton Spectator, A Global Groove >>
The music of Antibalas is vibrant, energetic, and ecstatic. It is not world music as museum piece, to be admired as musical anthropology. It is not a global groove gentrified into bland lifestyle music. It is the sweaty, fundamentally funky melting pot of influences known as Afrobeat.
Afrobeat is a style of music that unites highlife, jazz, funk and traditional African elements such as Yoruba folk music. It was largely created and popularized by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a Nigerian musician, composers and arranger. While in Los Angeles with his group on the late ‘60s, Kuti encountered American musicians such as James Brown and American political groups such as the Black Panthers. From there, he embraced the concept of pan-African nationalism and actively borrowed African-American musical ideas. Kuti went on to form his own political party, be imprisoned by the Nigerian military government, and hone a sound that would influence a generation of musicians in Africa and around the world.
Kuti died in 1997, but his legacy lives on in bands such as Antibalas (also known as the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra). The Brooklyn-based collective is proof that Afrobeat is a living music that’s still evolving with new and experienced players worldwide. Only one member of Antibalas saw Kuti live at his famous Africa Shrine in Lagos, but the rest of the group have had the good fortune to play with ex members of Kuti’s band and even his son, Femi Kuti.
“There’s a very active connection, it’s not just like a bunch of guys holed up in a basement listening to Fela records,” says Martin Perna, one of the founding members of Antibalas. “That’s cool too- if you’re living in Medicine Hat you’re probably not going to bump into too many Nigerian musicians, correct me if I’m wrong, but we recognize that it’s a blessing be around people who are part of the greater legacy.
Part of Afrobeat’s legacy is decidedly political. Antibalas includes Latinos, whites, African Americans, Africans, and Asian Americans, all of whom bring different elements and experiences to the music, yet all members are ultimately like-minded in vision and political opinion. Still, when Perna formed the band in Brooklyn in 1998, it was clear that politics would never overshadow the music. “We don’t do it to define ourselves,” says Perna. “It’s not like that. This is how I grew up. I saw my grandfather running for congress on an anti nuclear platform during the Reagan era. In Mexico, Trotsky was staying at my parent’s house in Mexico City at different times while people were trying to assassinate him. I don’t think it would be possible to make music that doesn’t have those (political) sentiments behind it because those are the sentiments that guide me.”
While Perna has found like minded companions in Antibalas, those sentiments never supplant what matters most to the group. The members of Antibalas – all twelve of them, or more, depending on the tour – are musicians first and foremost. Their love of music has them playing in countless side-projects, and playing for little money (they may be three times the size of the average rock band, but they do not command three times the fee). Yet, their spirit is undeniable, and their appeal covers a broad spectrum of music lovers.
“We’ll have 50-year-old Nigerian guys come out who were regulars at Fela’s Africa Shrine,” says Perna. “We’ll have kids who go into Afrobeat listning to house music and hearing samples of Fela. We’ll have people that are into hi-hop, now that hip-hop is incorporating different Afrobeat samples and syncopation. We’ll have a lot of people who are into the jam band scene, though we’re not a jam band per se.”
African, European, hippie and hip-hop fan – an Antibalas audience is diversity and unity, much like the band itself.
“America’s an extremely segregated country, despite the image it likes to project,” Perna says. “It’s our goal to make the best music possible and whatever good comes from that is icing on the cake. Anything you do can be political.”For Antibalas, taking a political stance does not mean being reactionary of anti-American.
“I don’t think anyone in the group wants to see America destroyed,” says Perna. “(America) has give us the opportunity to make this music, and I think for that everyone is extremely grateful, but at the same time, there is so much dehumanizing stuff that goes on here and we shouldn’t just accept that as part of the package. The sad thing about privilege is that it really blinds you, unless you make an active effort to step up and look over the wall.” 04/09/03
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