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This article originally appeared on the Afrobeat Blog Spot.

Chicago Afrobeat Project’s performance at The Urban Lounge on Nov. 1 comes at a bright time for Afrobeat music in the United States.

The critically claimed Broadway musical “FELA!” (co-produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith) is in the midst of plans for a national tour, while impressive young bands such as Vampire Weekend and The Budos Band are spreading the joy of Afrobeat to the masses.

“I think it may be moving toward its peak,” said Kevin Ford, keyboardist, producer and founder of Chicago Afrobeat Project, which began in 2002.

“Afrobeat is getting more recognition,” agreed Angelo Garcia, tenor saxophone player of the ensemble. “It could be as popular as hip-hop.”

The proposition that Afrobeat — hard-driving African polyrhythms blended with Western concepts such as spiky guitar licks, muscular bass lines and jazz improvisation — could rival hip-hop for American prominence anytime soon is unlikely.

But there’s no mistaking that the danceable, energetic and combustible sound is ready to accept new converts in Utah.

The collective has toured the Beehive State before, but not since the group added its first permanent vocalist, Squair Blaq. Blaq joined the group about nine months ago, and is featured on Chicago Afrobeat Project’s upcoming album, “Nyash Up,” a collection of covers that further traces the connection between African and Western music.

Ford and Garcia said the addition of an emcee wasn’t necessarily a bow to become more commercial, but rather a way for the instrumental band to better inhabit the spirit of Fela Kuti. He’s the Nigerian singer and bandleader who pioneered Afrobeat in the 1970s before his death in 1997 at age 58.

“We’ve always wanted to do it,” said Davis of adding a singer on top of occasional chants that are part of the group’s sound. “We could never find the right person.”

“We’ve been selective,” Ford said. “We had a mish-mosh of auditions [over the years], and we hadn’t pursued it aggressively.”

But when group members approached Blaq and asked him to audition, they knew they had their musician.

“We had our identity, but we hadn’t had anyone to deliver it,” Ford said. “It was good to have someone who could connect.”

Besides having a frontman who could break down the wall of instrumental music, with Blaq the band was able to convey its political point of view. Kuti was known as a political maverick, and calls for change were just as important as percussion in his brand of Afrobeat.

The band’s liberal viewpoint had come across in songs such as “March of the Uninsured”( which proclaims a chant of “You can’t go to the doctor because you’re uninsured”), but with Blaq the band believes it’s continuing the mission of Kuti. “Our shows are better with [Blaq],” Ford said.

The elevated status of Kuti has shown up in Chicago, with the June 2009 opening of The Shrine, a nightclub in Chicago’s South Loop. The venue takes its name from the personal nightclub of Kuti, which was destroyed in raids from Nigerian soldiers in response to Kuti’s human-rights activism. “I’ve got this feeling that there will be an Afrobeat scene in Chicago,” Ford said.

A large, thriving Afrobeat scene in mostly white-bread Utah is unlikely, but Chicago Afrobeat Project hopes to ignite a desire for more multicultural music throughout its tour.

Setting contemporary Pop to an African beat is threatening to overtake baseball as the Great American Pastime (I’m talking to you, Vampire Weekend and Extra Golden), but there are plenty of practitioners out there who are hybridizing genres in unique and original ways (I’m not done with you yet, Vampire Weekend and Extra Golden). Among them is the Chicago Afrobeat Project. Formed in 2002, they honed their skills playing the Windy City’s loft party scene, earning a solid reputation as a complete live experience and accruing a rabid fan base.

Over the past eight years, CAbP has released three acclaimed albums — 2005’s self-titled debut, 2007’s (A) Move to Silent Unrest, 2008’s Off the Grid — and been nominated for a number of Chicago Music Awards.

Part of CAbP’s broad appeal is the diversity of their music, containing elements of Rock, Funk, Afro-Cuban music, Juju, Highlife, experimental Jazz and pure Afrobeat, a style that rose from the political and social unrest that gripped Nigeria in the ’60s and ’70s, characterized by the huge popularity and brutal persecution of Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti.

Paying that debt forward, CAbP offers a similarly tempered ability to translate political and cultural concern into danceable, thinkable music (“The March of the Uninsured,” “116: The Hotter the Temp, the Longer the Wait,” “Tibet on It,” “(A Warm) Global Warning”) and celebrates its roots by combining their musical performance with frequent accompaniment from Chicago’s Muntu Dance Theatre.

Trade in your winter cap for your thinking cap, wear the tight pants so your ass doesn’t get lost when it’s danced off and prepare to be educated and entertained: The Chicago Afrobeat Project is here for your groove therapy. No insurance card required.

 

This article originally appeared on Gapers Block.

Sunset was at 4:21pm on Saturday, but that didn’t stop the lineup at at Martyrs’ from playing into the wee hours of Sunday morning, winter doldrums be damned. The James Brown tribute band Get Up With The Get Downs kicked things off with their stellar brass section, front man Izzy’s endless energy, and a guest drummer who filled in at the last minute with just a few hours to rehearse. The band roused the audience into singing along with Cold Sweat and Hey! Hey! I Feel Alright!, and secretly I hoped there would come a moment when Izzy collapsed onstage, only to be rescued by a cape-bearing well-wisher strategically waiting in the wings. Get Up With The Get Downs play every 3rd Thursday at the Cobra Lounge, and will be playing at the Hideout January 2nd. Catch them if you can, they put on quite a show.

Chicago Afrobeat Project took the stage next, with up to 14 people performing at once, including vocalist Antar Jackson, and dancers Tosha Alston and Imania Detry from The Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago. This was CAbP’s first time performing in Chicago in several months, and the audience was clearly glad to see them. Between the dancers and the hypnotic mix of funk, rock, jazz and Afro-Cuban music, the energy was unstoppable. Each song was its own production, and it was early Sunday morning before they finished their set.

You might have to wait a bit to catch CAbP in Chicago again, they’ll be on tour beginning in late January in Missouri, Alabama and a few other states, returning to their Chicago home base in late winter. If you can’t wait that long you can order CDs from their website.

DJs Radiohiro and Warp of Bombay Beatbox rounded out the evening by transforming the boisterous energy of the room into an atmosphere of 2am electronic contemplation. I wondered for a moment at how they managed pull that off, and then realized that it was, in fact, 2am when they started their set. That may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but I haven’t stayed out that late in years.