Arts Festival review: Antibalas

ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post

A WORLD OF SOUNDS: Lead singer Amayo and the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra had the audience on their feet.

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THE BOYS FROM VENEZUELA: Los Amigos Invisibles, from left, Juan M Roura, Julio Briceno, Maurigo Arcas, Armando Figueredo, and Jose R Torres.

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Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
Pacific Blue Festival Club, Tuesday

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, formerly just Antibalas, is a 10-piece ensemble dedicated to the groove-heavy Afrobeat genre, essentially a melding of jazz and funk rhythms - but from there it is a palette open to a world of sounds.

And this multicultural New York group daubs in Cuban and African drumming styles, improvised and structured call-and- response chants and dub-reggae keyboard vamps.

It is music to move to, infectious as the rhythm evolves, bubbling from a slow beginning to happy bursts of sound-colour. Fortunately, one brave audience member leapt from her seat after the first lengthy piece; she was soon joined by another keen dancer.

From there the aisles flooded - there must have been well over 100 audience members in front of the stage, people dancing down the stairs, no longer confined to jellying shoulders, no longer constrained by the appalling decision to have a band this funky play to a makeshift seated arena.

Lead singer and conga player Amayo thanked the dancers and it was clear the band lifted its already high-energy performance as a result of having so many of the audience at their feet, fully engaged in the weave and flow of the tunes.

Leaving rhythmic and melodic parts stewing in a melting pot of funk, jazz and reggae, the grooves bubbled over, stretching out beyond conventional song length.

As the audience became more eager with each piece, the band continued to lift the energy, issuing call-and-response parts to sides of the auditorium and encouraging audience members up on to the stage.

Fela Kuti and his Africa 70 group, so clearly the impetus behind Antibalas, were acknowledged with a closing cover. Baritone saxophonist Martin Perna rightly called Kuti the Godfather of Afrobeat; he would have been proud of his godchildren, based on this performance.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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