PUTNEY — Afrobeat and funk supergroup Kaleta and Super Yamba Band perform at Next Stage Arts on Sunday, Dec. 12, at 5 p.m.
The concert features internationally recognized singer/guitarist/songwriter Leon Ligan-Majek - a.k.a. Kaleta - who was born in the West African country of Benin Republic and raised in Lagos, Nigeria.
“The arts are an opportunity to experience rich and diverse cultures. Kaleta and Super Yamba Band offer this region an opportunity to experience Afrobeat's unique musical power that doesn't normally make its way to our nook of Vermont,” Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release.
The Afrobeat genre, “which fused American blues, jazz, and funk with traditional Yoruba music,” according to Brittanica.com, is credited to Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.
“Kaleta and Super Yamba are a natural extension of that history and culture, and we couldn't be more proud to present them,” Marks said.
Kaleta got his start in the late 1970s performing in church and was soon after picked up by iconic Juju master and world music pioneer King Sunny Adé.
Kaleta would go on to tour the world playing guitar for Kuti, “the King of Afrobeat,” in his storied band Egypt 80 through the 1980s and into the 1990s.
Now based in New York City, Kaleta has been leading Super Yamba Band since 2017. The band's debut album, Mèdaho, which was released by California indie label Ubiquity Records, “draws on the group's shared reverence for the raw, psychedelic sounds that captivated Kaleta as a music loving kid in 1970s Benin,” according to the group's website.
“Mèdaho” means “big brother,” “elder” or “teacher” and is dedicated to Kaleta's late brother, Ligan-Ozavino Pascal, who introduced him to funk and soul music at a very early age. The album was included on Bandcamp's “Best Albums of Summer 2019” list, and two of the songs were chosen for the ABC/Hulu series High Fidelity, starring Zoë Kravitz.