Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Fela Kuti pioneered the Afrobeat movement, a fusion of jazz, funk, hi-life, rock, and traditional West African music. Thanks to “Fela! The Musical,” a Broadway show based on Kuti’s life, as well as reissues of his albums, there’s been a resurgence of interest in Kuti’s music in recent years. Here on the Seacoast, Shango, a 17-piece Afrobeat orchestra, has carried on Kuti’s legacy.
Shango’s live show is a three-hour whirlwind of captivating rhythms and exuberant dancing. At the center of it all is musician Jonny Peiffer, Shango’s founder, bandleader, arranger, percussionist, and “dance commander.” The Sound recently caught up with Peiffer ahead of Shango’s next show at The Dance Hall in Kittery, Maine, and asked him about Kuti’s legacy, the life of music, and the power of a good dance party.
Jonny Peiffer of Shango (photo by Nevin Brown)
How did Shango form? Were all the players familiar with the music of Fela Kuti? What are logistics of rehearsal like?
I had been a huge fan of Fela since my early 20s, and I had seen “Fela! The Musical” twice when it was on tour in Boston. Then I saw Gnarlemagne perform “Abbey Road” at Fury’s and I decided it was possible to attempt to recreate the Fela Kuti-Tony Allen Africa 70 sound with the incredible talent that exists in this area. Once Stu Dias (lead vocals), Brett Gallo and Eben Hearn (percussion) caught wind of what I was up to, we met to discuss how to proceed. Stu was essential and I went after him first, and then everyone I subsequently approached as I gathered the band basically begged me to be involved. Mike Effenberger (keys), Matt Langley (tenor sax), Stu and myself (as conductor) together essentially attempt to fill the roll embodied by the one and only Fela. The bass role proved elusive at first, but after a few personnel changes Nick Phaneuf filled in in a pinch and has happily stayed there ever since. I called upon Liz Fowler (a Seacoast teacher of West African dance) to gather some dancers, filled out the rest of the rhythm and horn sections without much difficulty, and, at 17 band members, we prepared for our debut set at 2013’s Seacoast Congress of Sound. I’d say about 12 out of those 17 were familiar with Fela’s music at the time. Now we number anywhere from 18 to 22 on any given performance. We’ve managed to fit (mostly) on the Fury’s and Press Room stages, and perform regularly at The Dance Hall. Rehearsal logistics are a nightmare, but thanks to Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, and Chris Chase when we were preparing for that debut performance, we have had a regular space that accommodates all those musicians.
Your next show features a guest vocalist from “Fela! The Musical.” How did that come about, and what can we expect?
We are all extremely excited to be joined by Ismael “Bonfils” Kouyate next month. We have Liz Fowler to thank for that connection. She was already planning to bring him to the Dance Hall for a day of workshops and a performance on Jan. 17. If you saw the musical, you would recognize him as the vocalist responsible for the “call to prayer” and other chanting. We will be learning several tunes by Salif Keita, a pop-star from Mali, for Bonfils to sing, and he’ll likely be joining us on our Fela material, much of which was in the Broadway musical.
How do you choose which songs to perform? It seems like you play a mix of hits and deep cuts.
As we were preparing for that first show we had to decide what were going to learn. I think “Water Get No Enemy” is one of Fela’s most recognizable tunes, so that was in. “Kalakuta Show,” one of those deeper cuts, was Stu’s first choice and remains one of our favorites. “Open & Close” is not political at all and focuses on one of the aspects that are essential to this group — dance. It literally is a dance lesson. We felt we needed to perform songs like “Zombie,” “Lady,” “Egbe Mi O” and a few others for the folks who know and love this music. So it’s a balance of what we love to play and what folks love to hear, which turn out to be the same thing.
Where did you find your amazing dancers, and how is their choreography developed?
Liz Fowler has been teaching West African dance in the Seacoast for years, and started holding a regular class at The Dance Hall as soon as its doors opened to the public a few years ago. Namory Keita, who usually performs with us as well, teaches a West African drumming class in connection with (Fowler’s) classes and leads the drummers for her class. They are responsible for a very important drum and dance scene on the Seacoast. As far as what they bring to a Shango performance, it’s all pretty organic. They’ve watched a lot of Fela concert footage, and Liz also saw the national tour of (“Fela!”), so they use that as inspiration, but aren’t confined to that — they bring whatever they feel like. And they look great, too, better than the rest of the band by leagues.
Is there an improvisational element to Shango’s arrangements, or are you attempting to replicate what is heard on the albums?
I transcribed every rhythm section and horn part from the recordings, because if you listen to those tracks, the bass line, for example, does not change a single note in 15 minutes. I intentionally did not transcribe any drum set parts or give much direction to Stu because those elements need to sound alive and I needed those performers to internalize their parts, which only comes from personal listening. But more than half of all these tunes involve improvised solos, and horn backgrounds come in and out, and the horn section has now gotten into the lovely habit of creating their own extemporaneous backgrounds on occasion. So the music has its own life, and we add our lives to it.
How does Shango fit in to the Seacoast music scene?
People want to dance. People have proven they resoundingly approve that a band this size exists and is playing music that will force them to shake their thing on the dance floor for nearly three straight hours. If that weren’t the case, even if the music itself was burning, this band wouldn’t exist — we need the immediate feedback of bodies on the dance floor to sustain the energy we put into the music. And those bodies keep showing up.
Why is the music of Fela Kuti is still so resonant today? What does it mean to you?
Musically and culturally, it has never left our ears. Artists like David Byrne, Antibalas, ?uestlove, and tUnE-yArDs, among many others, as well as his sons Femi and Seun, have made sure of that. Fela was a genius synthesizer. He took already great sounds — funk, jazz, Afro-Cuban, High Life — combined those with traditional Nigerian folk and religious music and created something that is untouchable in its infectiousness and intricacy. It is appealing on every level. His lyrics are brilliant in all their pigeon-English cleverness. And all of the things he was protesting against with his songs are unfortunately still present today: corruption, discrimination, neglect, brainwashing, brutality, and inequality perpetrated by governments and corporations all around the world.
What is your favorite Fela album?
This is impossible to answer. All of the classic Fela records are just two songs, full sides each. The best album is probably “Expensive Shit” because both sides are so strong. The reissues have been good about pairing two albums together. But even “The Best of the Black President,” which includes few, if any, original full-length recordings, doesn’t include som