Antibalas and Zap Mama bring African stylings to town
Brooklyn’s Afrobeat torchbearer teams up with Belgian-Congolese diva for a fabulous double bill.
- Mariana Abadjieff
More than four decades after the American release of Live!, the seminal 1971 album featuring legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker playing with Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band, we find Fela’s enduring, infectious Afrobeat legacy — the butt funky rhythms and grooves; brightly sonorous melodic hooks; big, brash horn arrangements; and swaggering anti-establishment rhetoric — ably shouldered by the Brooklyn-based ensemble, Antibalas. Coupled with the mellifluous vocal styling of Belgian-Congolese diva Marie Daulne, popularly known as Zap Mama, Tuesday’s show will be thick with righteous African juju.
Tues., Jan. 27. Antibalas & Zap Mama, $27.50-$30. 8 p.m. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Avenue, N.E., 404-524-7354. www.variety-playhouse.com.