This guest post is by musician and writer, Amanda Khiri, who has graciously provided our event with its official soundtrack. Amanda, an informal and formal student of jazz since 12, has finally entered into a marriage of the old and new, both lo, and hi-fi. After a stint as half of the duo of Z&A, a Brooklyn-born, electro-soul collaboration with Jake Zavracky in 2013, she started backing up the eclectic afro-funk band, Sinkane; lending her vocals to Sinkane’s 2014 critically acclaimed release, Mean Love, and toured internationally for the next album Life and Livin’ It. Amanda also toured with Luaka Bop’s collective nod to William Onyeabor’s work, with a project called The Atomic Bomb! Band and recorded with that diverse cast when they made their tribute album.
Amanda has shared stages with David Byrne, Money Mark, Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Jamie Lidell, Darius Jones, Jon Cowherd, Danny Fox and Charles Lloyd. In September of 2016, Amanda co-produced a second installment of Women Under The Influence: A Night of Nina Simone, with Jonathan Lam as musical director and a diverse roster of artists like Nancy Whang, Luca Bennedetti, Jon Cowherd, Helado Negro, jaytram and others.
When I got asked to make a playlist, about ‘African Music,’ my first reply was, “Oh..so you just mean, make a playlist with music, LOL?”
Because as we all know, “it” started in Africa. Thanks to all those historical happenings, now “it” is a global reference to that “goodgood,” that fire, that spirit, the music that puts the rhythm in your life.
It is Everything and it is from Everywhere.
Some songs you feel in more than just your feet. Some of these I feel in my back. Some generate memory in my olfactory senses. I feel like I can smell the city in which they were created. Some resonate in my mind’s eye. I can see the 5 o’clock Golden Hour in every country, with the sun making its final descent as the dust settles over a city and my stomach signaling to me it’s time for the last meal of the day. I grew up on some of this music and some I’m growing up on presently.
That’s what “Diasporaaaaah” embraces. “African Music” is less about a place of origin, and more about the destination. Do we ever really reach our destination? Maybe yes, maybe no, but this playlist smooths the road to wherever you’re headed.
