Alma Afrobeat Ensemble with Duffel at The Cedar

Alma Afrobeat Ensemble is Spain’s most accomplished and well-travelled Afrobeat band. They are embarking on their third US tour this summer, and have toured Spain and parts of Europe for the last few years, including appearances in WOMAD, Rototom Sunsplash, and Mercat de Musica Viva de Vic, among others. They have received critical acclaim worldwide, including from Afropop Worldwide (USA), who called their music “As dark and intensely danceable as any African musical experience can be”. Their third album received a 4 star review from Songlines (UK) magazine, and received rave reviews from multiple Spanish national publications. Their fourth record represents what both the band and the city of Barcelona have become- an international melange of different flavors, combining to form a coherent whole. The new LP flows from start to finish, linking the analog compositions of the band with short, electronic interludes built off of stems from the studio sessions, allowing the guest DJ’s to leave their own unique stamp on AAbE’s music. The original compositions from the band itself also feature unique instrumentation, from the bassoon of the four-piece horn section to dobro, banjo and pedal steel, instruments heard quite infrequently on Afrobeat recordings. The new album invokes not only the socio-political legacy of Fela Kuti and Antibalas, but also the sonic legacy of Tony Allen, King Sunny Adé, Ben Harper and others.
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Duffel is an American music group from Minneapolis, MN formed in 2015. The group includes Patrick Horigan on guitar/keys, Joe Christenson on guitar, George Hadfield on bass, and Mark Schwandt on drums.