This article originally appeared on ThirdCoastDaily.com

Friday, May 9

Chicago Afrobeat Project at Shank Hall

When one man basically originates and names a genre, as Nigerian legend Fela Kuti did with “afrobeat,” he’d be wise not to encage his creation in rules, and a major attraction of afrobeat is its funky elasticity as well as its jazzy, rhythmic complexity.

So it’s not wrong for Chicago Afrobeat Project to incorporate American sensibilities and styles into its particular version(s) of Kuti’s thing. And it’s quite right for the collective to have celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2013 with Nyash Up!, which rethought Led ZepRadioheadFugazi and Kutihimself. Live, of course, CAP will get more elastic.