Down in Arden, and we are talking back before the turn of the century, there was this room. At one point it had belonged to Urquhart Chin, organist and choirmaster at St. Joseph’s Chapel. Despite a series of intervening residents, the room came to me still bearing the essence of it’s musical heritage. Because it was available, and because the rest of the apartment was so damn awkward, I put my stereo in there. It’s the only time I have had a dedicated listening room.
It was also the only time I had a group of music nerds in my dorm. They brought all sorts of music in to the room: Beastie Boys; Bill Frissell; Medeski, Martin, and Wood; The Melodians. I’d like to think I held my own with some Ali Farke Toure and Ry Cooder; Santana; Coltrane; and Taj Mahal. In fact, Taj put out an album about that time with the legendary kora player Toumani Diabate. We would take all of these records as they came, not worrying so much if the genre was right but rather if the music sounded good.
Which is a fine thing to do in a dorm with teenage boys, but a much harder thing to pull off if you are a touring musical group. That is, however, exactly what Toubab Krewe appears to be reaching for with their latest release, “TK2.” (The “2” signifying that this is their second studio album, although they have some live stuff out too.) And before we assume that the Krewe’s world fusion vision is a symptom of over-reaching hubris, let’s keep in mind the name of the group. “Toubab” means “visitor” in such a way that is not prejoritive so much as it is an acknowledgement of having newly come to a place. Toubab Krewe are checking out new lands to see what is there, not to become colonial masters. The “Krewe” is as in the Krewes of New Orleans, who make Mardi Gras jump.
And there is no doubt that the Krewe can make you jump. After five years together, Mssrs. Brown (drums), Heller (guitar), Perkins (kora, kamel ngoni, guitar), Pransky (bass) and Quaranta (percussion) have definitely found a groove. And if groove is what you are looking for, you will not be disappointed. Toubab Krewe does not make any apologies for playing jams, and one senses that the 5 or so minute length of each track is in some ways a snapshot of something much longer that could happen on a live stage. Their jams, however, are not at all formulaic in the way some played by more acquatically named bands can be.
For instance, they have a goddamn kora in the band. And in answer to that question rolling around in your head, a kora is a 21 string harp found in traditional Malian music. That country of Mali and its capital, Timbuktu, were supporting a thriving culture when my cracker-ass ancestors were still painting on cave walls with sticks is a different story for a different time. Suffice it to say that the kora is an ancient and beautiful instrument that sounds like what a soprano harp would sound like if Trane played harp.
The ngoni is a smaller, newer version with 12 strings. On some tracks, these instruments and an afro-pop sounding guitar are layered over Quaranta’s percussion in such a way that we hear some good, interesting, and fun Americanized takes on West African pop and traditional music. If Toubab Krewe stopped there, this would be a fine record but not nearly so intriguing as the more experimental tracks make it.
These are the tracks that delve more fully into a hybrid of rock, blues, and traditional elements. It gets very interesting to consider, for instance, whether a beat is latin or african or if that matters at all. And do those guitars come from the beaches of the Ivory Coast via Sun Studios or are they straight from Dick Dale’s fingers out in LA? Is that a kora with distortion coming out of a tube amp? Oh, and there’s the Mississippi Delta slide guitar, or is that a Congo Delta sound with an American name? With a such a rock steady rhythm section, does it really matter where these elements are coming from?
Not so much, as long as they hold together. Which they almost always do. The old stereo is now in my living room, and this album demanded that I crank the noble lady back up and re-arrange the furniture in the hopes of recapturing the sweet spot of my youth. That was never going to be a winning cause, but the attempt was worth it to better hear how close the Krewe could take a couple of track to the ragged edge. The answer is pretty damn close and that this record really deserves to be released on vinyl.
But maybe that would have a limiting effect on it’s appeal, which should be fairly broad, except with those folks who absolutely demand singing with their music. There is no singing in Toubab Krewe. Instead there are laid-back, open, airy tunes. There are also dense, hard rocking, and soulful tunes. When a group is on the “Nat Geo” label, it’s hard not to think of them as “world music” but that only works if you allow that fitting into a genres doesn’t matter so much as fitting in to a little room down in Arden. Which Toubab Krewe definitely would.