Kaleta and The Super Yamba Band 8/8/19 The State House

Leon Ligan-Majek is a veteran Afrobeat and juju guitarist better known as Kaleta. He is credited with time in Fela's Egypt 80, King Sunny Ade's African Beats, and more recently spending time playing with Ms. Lauryn Hill. Kaleta has located the perfect backing ensemble, Brooklyn's Super Yamba Band. SYB is a loose collective of young Afrobeat acolytes who must have jumped at the chance to support this living lifeline to the originator of the genre. The group of hipsters had conga/ talking drum, drummer ( and band wrangler), bass, lead guitar, sax/ keys, trumpet to provide Kaleta's backdrop. The sound was pure danceable Afrobeat with all musicians double timing it on shakers or cowbells. Kaleta prowled the stage showing off his apprenticeship with the master which was dotted with a Toots Hibbert grunt and Fela-style "everybody say Ya Ya"s. Told a funny story of his brother locking him in a room with James Brown records. Afrobeat is an amalgam of African rhythms mixed in a stew of James Brown and Sly Stone for extended funk soul jams. Show highlight was the Fela cover "Black Man's Cry".