🇬🇧 After three years of absence on the English side of the Channel, AfuriKo is finally back in Britain this month! We’ll be on a mini-tour of three shows, with stops in Southampton (SMJC), Cardiff (Flute and Tankard Jazz), and Sheffield (Jazz at the Lescar). Don’t miss us if you’re in one of these areas: we look forward to sharing some new music with you, hanging out, and catching up!
🇬🇧 Join AfuriKo at ZumEck in Basel (Switzerland) for an evening of African infused jazz. The venue is a market/bar/café with regular live music offerings located right by the Rhine river. With Nino Wenger (saxophones), Akiko Horii (percussion), Jim Funnell (piano, keyboards). We hope to see you there!
🇫🇷/🇨🇭 Rejoins AfuriKo à ZumEck à Bâle (Suisse) pour une soirée jazz aux accents africains. Le lieu est un marché/bar/café offrant une programmation musicale variée, le tout à deux pas du Rhin. Avec Nino Wenger (saxophones), Akiko Horii (percussions), Jim Funnell (piano, claviers). Nous espérons t’y retrouver !
🇩🇪/🇨🇭 Besuche AfuriKo im ZumEck in Basel (Schweiz) für einen Abend mit afrikanisch angehauchtem Jazz. Der Veranstaltungsort ist ein Markt/Bar/Café mit regelmäßigen Live-Musik-Angeboten direkt am Rhein. Mit Nino Wenger (Saxophone), Akiko Horii (Percussion), Jim Funnell (Piano, Keyboards). Wir hoffen, dich dort zu sehen!
AfuriKo’s third livestream from Saintines (Hauts-de-France). After our recent trip to Bulgaria, we decided to revisit “Sedi Donka” (from our album Style) and “Trace of Peach” (from Tao), and perform them for you algonside a newer arrangement: “Pismo ti e doshlo” (unreleased so far). We hope you enjoy this selection of African infused Bulgarian tunes!
Streamed on October 22, 2022 at 2PM CEST
Program:
🎵 Trace of Peach (Slivenska rūchenitsa) (traditional, arr. by AfuriKo)
🎵 Sedi Donka (traditional, arr. by AfuriKo)
🎵 Pismo ti e doshlo (traditional, arr. by AfuriKo)
The city has been good to Akiko and I. We’ve certainly lived through a lot over these past four years. And now it’s time to move on. AfuriKo is packing up and getting ready for a new adventure: we’re flying off to Reykjavik, Iceland on Monday!
To say goodbye, kick off the year, and celebrate the beginning of this new chapter, we’re playing two sets from our home in Sunnyside, Queens, today at 3PM and 8PM EST. You can watch them live and/or replay them later on YouTube. Just click on the videos below!
Streamed on January 2, 2021 at 3PM EST
Streamed on January 2, 2021 at 8PM EST
Program (both sets):
🎵 In B Town (AfuriKo) – inspired by Bamaya, a traditional Dagomba rhythm from northern Ghana
🎵 Up in the Air (AfuriKo) – inspired by Agahu, a traditional Ewe rhythm from Ketonu in Benin
🎵 Pismo ti e doshlo (traditional, arr. by AfuriKo) – folk tune from Bulgaria
🎵 Kotedjuga (AfuriKo) – inspired by Kotedjuga, a traditional Malinke rhythm from the border area between Guinea and Mali
🎵 Kassai (Ou Yoshida, Taiji Nakamura, arr. by AfuriKo) – solo section set to Kassa Soro, a traditional Malinke rhythm from Eastern Guinea
Back in 2019 (May through November) and then again more recently in July and August of 2020, AfuriKo had the pleasure to invite both Corey A. Wallace (on trombone) and Alex Busby Smith (electric bass) as guest artists as part of our monthly residency at Tomi Jazz (a Japanese bar & grill in Midtown Manhattan that features nightly live jazz). The shows in both trio formats were a blast, and Igneous Alloy, a composition of mine first recorded on Spirit of the Snail (2015), was one of the tunes we played almost every time. So we decided to record a quartet version of it (this time with both Alex and Corey featured on the same track!) to document these good times and make a little something available to those of you who weren’t able to make it out to Tomi’s. The arrangement was refined to suit this particular instrumentation, including trombone melodies, synth counterlines, and a new bass line/riff to support Akiko’s percussion solo. Our friend Laure Lang from the Hauts-de-France region added her grain of salt with a magical mix and crafty video editing. Enjoy!
💽 Support us by getting your digital track on Bandcamp 🙂
Corey A. Wallace – trombone
Alex Busby Smith – electric bass
Akiko Horii – percussion
Jim Funnell – keyboards
Laure Lang – mixing, mastering, and video editing
Recorded in New York, NY in August and September 2020.
Mixed and mastered in Betz, FR in September 2020.
A muffled thud, and
the harlequin butterfly
soars into the light.
The haiku above is an image that came to mind when reflecting on the many emotions Akiko and I went through during the first part of the production process for Tao. It is also a celebration of the transformative powers of the butterfly, and is featured on the poster some of you have chosen as a reward.
Once again, AfuriKo would like to thank Laurent Maget, Charles Frossard, Chris Hayward, Margaux Couet, Diana & Ray Xecu, and Andy ‘Hippy’ Baldwin for their invaluable creative, artistic, and technical contributions to this recording and artwork.
Very special thanks also go to our fans, friends, and families, who generously participated in our Kickstarter campaign, joining us on the wonderful journey of making this music tangible. In alphabetical order: