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Local afrobeat band builds community

Afrobeat is music of the world, yet calling it “world” music is like using the word “alternative” to describe rock ’n’ roll.

It falls so short, cheapening the style and the work musicians have done researching and listening to what has inspired them to make the music they do.

Afrobeat encompasses so many different genres of the world. It has so many ideas that it’s even impossible to dislike, lest you choose to dislike percussive, heavy rhythms that extend to reggae, funk, soul, jazz and rock.

It truly is a melting pot of music, containing the aforementioned styles with horn-heavy lines and rock guitar. Its influence has extended into Southwest Colorado in the form of the band Afrobeatniks, a trio that hopes to grow into a community of musicians.

The Afrobeatniks, whose core is Danny Quinlan on guitar, Alexxii Carrey on bass and Bradley Hoessle on drums and percussion, will perform Saturday at The Balcony Backstage, where they’ll be joined by Easton Stuard on keyboards and Dean Mullen on percussion.

The trio has done time in other bands, coming together with a mutual admiration for Fela Kuti and other music sourced in Africa, an influence that goes both ways. Afrobeat’s rhythms have found their way to America, and American rock has found its way to afrobeat.

“Afrobeat in itself reflects all of the other world styles, and vice versa. There’s a lot of trading back and forth across the Atlantic. Those rhythms go back and forth, and we hear it all reflected in other styles,” Quinlan said in an interview at KDUR. “Fela Kuti was listening to James Brown; that was a huge portion of how afrobeat came to be. You had Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic music, all this stuff going back and forth. We’re listening to that and getting inspired by that.”

Afrobeat bands generally are large, multi-musician affairs, and the Afrobeatniks are building a community of players who can come and go from show to show.

“We’re trying to find people who have the same passion, who want to have a big sound,” Hoessle said. “We’re trying to find those players, and we’d like to have a community of people we can pull in when they’re available. ... The idea is to have a community feel, because, really, what it’s all about is getting people together and dancing and lifting the energy of the place.”

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.

Bryant’s best

Friday: Elder Grown and GrooveSession, 9 p.m., $10, Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive, 799-2281.

Saturday: West African jazz and funk with Afrobeatniks, 10 p.m. No cover. The Balcony Backstage, 600 Main Ave., upstairs, 764-4083.



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