Full Steam Ahead
The Afromotive brings new sound to Boone April 17

By Frank Ruggiero

The tracks may have changed, but the train’s still on time.

The Afromotive, which once filled stages with its 10-member ensemble alone, now has a core group of only three.

But like its music, this Asheville-based Afrobeat ensemble continues building on a strong foundation to create something exclusively different, uniquely funky and all its own.The High Country gets to see for itself Friday, April 17, when the Afromotive makes a stop at the DragonFly Theater and Pub.

Featuring third-generation djembe player Adama Dembele, bassist Ryan Reardon and saxophonist Ryan Knowles, the Afromotive also includes what Reardon calls a “rotating cast of musicians,” offering area artists an opportunity to join in the music and maintain the band’s established ensemble spirit.

“Getting a lot of people together, we almost think of it like a collective,” he said.

Reardon, himself, became involved in the music when he moved to Asheville after a trip to West Africa.

“I didn’t really have any intentions of starting an Afrobeat band at first,” he said. “I got here and met a bunch of people that were really into West African music, people from West Africa, and it was just sort of the natural thing.”

Reardon comes from a background where he’s played bass in bands since the age of 19. “So it was just a natural thing to combine those two,” he said. “I’d been into Afrobeat music for a while, and just all those things came together.”

Ideas were formed and shared among band members, inspired by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Band members learned West African music, much from former lead performer and djembe Kevin Mayame and Dembele.

“We developed that style, developed or own sort of traditional Afrobeat style at first, but now that we’ve really learned and dove into it, now we’re finding our own voice and creating it ourselves,” Reardon said.

The Afromotive’s music is built on a strong foundation, from the traditional, politically-charged Afrobeat of Kuti and upward, the type of music Reardon finds powerful. “You can tell that’s what we’re inspired by,” he said. “To me, that’s what makes really good music, when you can kind of sense the inspiration of the band.”

Still a fairly young genre of music, Afrobeat grew in popularity in the 1970s, prominently featuring polyrhythmic percussion, horn sections and keyboards.

“Afrobeat didn’t really come into its own as a style of music until Fela Kuti came to the states, saw James Brown and the late 1960 funk bands … which were based on West African rhythms,” Reardon explained. “So, once he came here, that’s when he really developed his own style, and then went back to West Africa to develop his type of music, and now it’s back here.

“That’s kind of our thing, getting these West African rhythms and then combining them with American funk and dance music, and we’re making it all our own nowadays.”

Kuti’s music was charged with political and social commentary, as was the Afromotive’s during its early days. While Kuti’s songs dealt with political injustice in Africa, the Afromotive offered commentary on the Bush administration.

“It’s not necessarily like we’re playing Afrobeat music, so we have to call people out, we have to talk about Bush; no, not because Fela did it. He was doing that, he was singing about what’s going on in his life and environment, and that’s what we’re doing,” Reardon said.

What’s been going on lately for the Afromotive is change. With numerous band members having left the collective, including singer Mayame, the group had to reconsider its music.

“He was our lead singer, and Kevin leaving … changed us in that everyone had to step up in their own musicianship,” Reardon said. “Now that not every song has a lead vocal, that makes the instruments take that vocal role – the horns kind of take over the lead melody, but when the vocal part does come, it adds to it. I think it makes the music stronger.”

The music also bears a more upbeat and optimistic sound, something less serious, less dark.

“We just want to make people dance; we don’t want to make them come out and hear a bunch of political banter,” Reardon said. “Making people dance is inspiring to us, that we can play this music and people have a great time to it. We’re doing what we love, and people get to do it at the same time. That’s our outlook on things now, rather than trying to take ourselves too seriously.”

Reardon admitted the band wasn’t sure how this evolution would occur, but then again, it’s been the Afromotive’s modus operandi to just let things happen.

“We’re just keeping that central vision in the music number one, and everything else just comes naturally like that,” Reardon said.

The Afromotive will play at the DragonFly Theater and Pub Friday, April 17, at 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.theafromotive.com and www.dragonflytheater.com on the Web.