Living Language

Living Language is my small-ensemble Afrobeat jazz group, born at Bar Lunatico in 2018 and continuing to build and evolve since then..

The initial concept of the band involved reducing lesser known Fela Kuti material, including some of his most dense compositions from later in his career, to a six piece format, and focusing on maintaining a balance of interaction and call-and-response to drive the music. As the band name implies, aside from creating sonorous and funky music, a goal of the project is to maintain and develop the musical language of Afrobeat. The group’s original repertoire aims to work with Afrobeat’s grammar while adding new vocabulary, and our debut recording “Eleloji” serves as a good example by using scales and modes not typically associated with Fela.

I’m currently developing more original recordings with my good friend, bassist and producer Vince Chiarito (Black Pumas, Charles Bradley, Ikebe Shakedown). Stay tuned!