EPK

AfuriKo is a Queens, NY-based African infused jazz duo comprised of percussionist Akiko Horii and pianist/keyboardist Jim Funnell. Like a modern-day griot, they celebrate traditional heritage from around the world through the prism of spellbinding rhythms and eccentric harmonies. On stage, Jim and Akiko often engage in a quasi-telepathic dialogue between the ancestral stories of the djembe, seamlessly integrated into a full hand percussion set, and the modern voice of a unique digital keyboard/synth bass amalgam. Their new opus Tao (2019), successfully funded on Kickstarter and released to critical acclaim with reviews on London Jazz News, All About Jazz, and Festival Peak, is a shamanic jazz journey from ancestral Africa to NYC, steeped in deep grooves with shades of Funk, Pop, Reggae, Bulgarian, and Enka music. The duo was featured on Congahead and has toured extensively in the UK (London Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott’s), the United States (ShapeShifter Lab), Japan (Kanazawa Jazz Street), France (Sunset Sunside), Uruguay (Jazz a la Calle), Germany (JazzLab), Holland (Theater Vrijburcht), Nepal (Jazzmandu), and South Korea (Jazz Alley). [ long bio available here ]

“… a tuneful, joyous album that brings about a life-affirming sense of sunshine and light.”

– Graham Spry, London Jazz News

“… Tao blends African, Asian, and Western influences into a joyous melting pot of notes and rhythms.”

– Bob Hatteau, Improjazz

“Tao is full of dualities…: simple and complex, exotic and highly listenable, bare-bones in format while busy and full in execution.”

– Geno Thackara, All About Jazz

“AfuriKo’s new music really flies in the face of jazz, opening up your ears to a world of possibilities.”

– Carol Banks Weber, Festival Peak

“Music that breathes, pulsates, bifurcates, trifles. That is unclassifiable and played with exquisite delicacy… Elaborate yet sincere and spontaneous all the while. AfuriKo is an absolutely atypical duo. … I urge you to discover them and slowly enter their world.”

– M. M., Afrique Asie