Local musicians will convene in Northampton this weekend for a celebration of Afro-diasporic and Latin American music and culture.
Global Groove Fest will be at the Academy of Music on Saturday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 p.m. It’ll feature the Latin funk fusion band TapRoots; the roots and reggae band ReBelle, which performs in Wolof, English, Creole, French, and Hebrew; and the Afro-Puerto Rican dance and music company Bomba de Aqui, which hosts educational programs in western Massachusetts and central Connecticut.
Matthew King, leader of TapRoots, said that a key part of his inspiration for creating the event (which began in 2019) was a desire to celebrate and foster unity.
“In these times that we’re living in now, where there’s so much political division, there’s so many things pitting people against each other, it’s about finding those common roots between us all,” he said. “I felt like art and music was a great way to explore some of those commonalities.”
His band, in itself, could be considered a de facto celebration of unity; a press release calls the 11-member group’s music “Deep Tracks with Deep Roots for the Body, Mind and Soul” with a “unique and complex mix of funk, soul, salsa, afrobeat, reggae, Afrocuban jazz, rock, samba and the folkloric and spiritual traditions of Ifa/Lukumi.” The band members themselves also live throughout the Pioneer Valley and the surrounding area: namely, Amherst, where King lives, as well as Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Northfield, and Windsor, Connecticut.
King’s interest in Afro-diasporic music is, in part, because of its historical context: “There’s a spirit to the music that has endured centuries of oppression, of exile, of persecution, that still remains at the core of this music today, and I think it’s something very beautiful, something to celebrate. It’s something that can touch all of us as family on this planet Earth.”
Some of TapRoots’ music is about social issues, including climate change and police violence “Music can be both an echo chamber and the kitchen table around which we all sit and figure out how to move forward in a good way together,” King said.
ReBelle, likewise, led by husband and wife Manou Africa and Kalpana Devi, performs music focused on liberation with the mission “Love for Humanity and Gaia.”
“The music we do, every time we play, it brings people together,” said Africa. “It brings tears to their eyes. It brings people to tell us, ‘This is what needs to be played on the radio, because the music is full of messages.’”
“When we speak, when we play, the people come together,” Africa said. “The room becomes one room, one people, one justice for everyone.”
Beyond a sense of fostering human connection, Afro-diasporic and Latin music is “really about the rhythm,” King said, with “intense polyrhythms that, once you hear them, you just can’t help but move to the beat.”
“As a musician, as a composer, as a participant in various musical events, there’s always that sense that when there’s a call, the music responds to it,” King said. “When the drum calls, the community responds to it, so there’s this interplay between musicians and the audience that I think is almost always inherent in this music, and I think it does become a community event of sorts.”
To that end, Global Groove Fest will, naturally, facilitate some audience participation. The Academy of Music is made for seated performances, but King said the festival will have “opportunities and encouragement to spill into the aisles and to let the music move you in whatever way that it does. Certainly, dance has always been a huge part of it. People have a hard time sitting still, and I would never want to confine them to their seats if the spirit moved them otherwise.”
“It’s not about, ‘Okay, we’re here, we’re the artists, we’re the performers, we’re going to be elevated up on the stage, and you’re going to sit there, and you’re going to wait for your moment to applaud us,’ and so on,” he said. “At a TapRoots show, we always try to blur the boundaries between the band and audience and invite them into the band in the practical sense, sharing an outpouring of the spirit that celebrates life.”
Tickets are $25.16 (including fees) at aomtheatre.com, at the box office, or by phone at 413-584-9032 ext.105. Card to Culture tickets are available.
Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.