Kumasi, Togetherness (Independent)

Kumasi smacks you in the booty with Fela Kuti. And that’s a good thing. The nascent New Orleans collective acknowledges “the late musical genius for creating afro-beat music” in the liner notes to its infectious debut album, Togetherness. Having now morphed from the salacious bowels of beatific Ninth Ward house parties to gigs of increasing stature, Kumasi chose as its band name the ancient vibrant city in present-day Ghana that served as cultural center of the enchanting pre-colonial Ashanti Empire. Fela Kuti’s immortal meld of traditional West African chants and rhythms with the swing of Ghanaian/Nigerian highlife were sprinkled with flourishes of jazz, funk and psychedelic rock to pioneer Afrobeat. Kumasi clearly draws mightily—in terms of both tempo and tone—from the late Nigerian musical mastermind, revered today for his iconoclastic political activism as much as his genius compositions and soul-stirring performances. Eschewing righteous vocal harmonies that permeate Kumasi live, Togetherness supplies 40 minutes of all-instrumental grooves. Bass guitarist Jonathan Solomon (founding Gravity A member) and drummer Logan Schutts (BateBunda) are credited on all five compositions on the album, produced by Schutts, recorded Uptown at Parlor Studio and released in a lush vinyl format (digital download included). “Marigny Monday Morning” in the second slot jolts the rock-steady repetitions with five-horn blasts of second-line strut syncopation and deep-groove drumming so identified with New Orleans street beats, so connected to the city’s ancestral ties to West Africa. Simple wood block pumps the intro to “Zipper” before the tune rises to utopian climaxes. Flipping over, side two slides in with silky guitar weaves during “Odo Seine.” A sprawling opus just shy of 11 minutes, “Trinity Gritty” soars on jazzy horn improv, funky organ strokes (Joe Boucha) to close an aspiring album evoking a voice and vibe much needed in today’s troubled times.