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| Photo | Jimmy Viola |
Music often ferries us off to faraway places or shines a new light on old memories, but there are few artists like Toubab Krewe, whose music — especially live — is a living, breathing, constantly changing collective experience. Their songs are adventures: Afro-rooted hoedowns, chill Southern blues, surfer rock. Rarely are two measures the same.
I spoke with Krewe percussionist Luke Quaranto following their performance. Decked out in long black traditional African garb, he sported a fist-sized silver medallion that looked like it was lifted off the neck of a witch doctor over his stomach. His presence onstage amplified his role beyond pounding the djembi. He was a shaman, eyes shut and brow furrowed, entranced by the rhythm of his palms against the canvas.
The five-piece's performance meandered every which way, but they still managed to stay intertwined via a central heartbeat that was impossible to pinpoint to a single instrument. Being well-rehearsed is one thing, but knowing where a syncopation or improvised nuance will land before it even happens borders on telepathy. Such preemption, Quaranto said, comes from years of living, eating and sleeping with his bandmates. Embracing change is also important, he went on to explain, as those unexpected moments born of spontaneity lead to new, exciting ventures.
For two full sets their music washed over a swaying, ecstatic crowd. The set list fluctuated between heavier, groovier, more guitar-based new stuff and their older material, which often sounded new because they experimented with it so often. All five musicians united on drums for a 20-some-minute-long percussion piece at the end. If you wanted to shuttle off to the Serengeti, all you had to do was close your eyes.
Toward the end of our conversation, Quaranto quoted a recent article that summed up his band as a "a futuristic, psychedelic neo-greo frenzy" (In Malian culture, a greo passes on stories and traditions through song and dance), which the most accurate description of Toubab Krewe as any — if such a band can even be defined.
I'll put it more simply: See them before you die.
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