Toubab Krewe review

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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JamBase has it:

A tinkling of rough hand bells and razor sharp, West African flavored guitar cut the air, followed by a double-time reggae beat that dissolved into a ferocious jazz-fusion style workout. On the surface, Toubab Krewe seems like a pack of Asheville, North Carolina boys drawing heavily from the Mother Land but right out of the gate in Santa Cruz, if you listened to the sinewy connective tissue between Luke Quaranta’s blindingly diverse percussion and the traditional African string plucking, slapping and gorgeous mangling of Justin Perkins (kora, Kamel Ngoni and more), there was a slippery blur of genres picking up their feet inside this exciting, very engaging music.

Often anchored to David Pransky’s burbling, simply joyous bass instead of the complex, forceful percussion of Quaranta and trap drummer Teal Brown, the Krewe recalled African pillars like Ali Farka Toure, Manu Dibango and Toumani Diabaté in their reverence and disregard for tradition. Like these legends, these are men who’ve learned the ancient modes and molds and then wet their hands to shape something new, old clay under their nails and fresh, neon dreams behind their eyes. It’s a wrestling match that added positive tension to their loping, impossible to categorize compositions. Perhaps the slogan on their MySpace page says it best: “Western trajectories underway.”