Afrodizz
Encyclopedia
Afrodizz is an eight-member afrobeat
/afrofunk band from Montreal
. Their music is a modern mix of afrobeat, jazz
and funk
, that has been described as having nuances of The Herbaliser
and Tony Allen
.
, Gabriel Aldama—who also serves as the band's chief songwriter. Aldama was first introduced to afrobeat as a university
student, when a friend played him some vinyl recordings
by the genre's pioneer, Fela Kuti
. Aldama has also credited the Beastie Boys
' 1996 jazz-funk
instrumental compilation The In Sound From Way Out!
as an album that greatly influenced him.
The other members of Afrodizz include vocalist Vance Payne—who performs songs in English, Yorùbá
and other languages of Nigeria
—as well as François Plante (bass
), Jean-Philippe Goncalves
(drums), François Vincent (percussion), David Carbonneau (trumpet
), Frèdé Simard (tenor sax), and François Glidden (baritone sax). Goncalves and Plante are also part of the electro-jazz trio, Plaster
and Goncalves is also one half of the electronic music
duo Beast.
in 2003. The band played the Montreal International Jazz Festival that same year and was named "Revelation of the Year" at the event. Andy Williams—an English-born
Montreal DJ known internationally for his vast knowledge of jazz—brought the band's EP to the attention of Adrian Gibson, owner of the UK Label Freestyle Records and programmer for the Jazz Café
in London
. The band was then invited by Gibson to record their first album in London on the Freestyle label. The album, titled Kif Kif was also distributed by Do Right! Music in Canada, however Afrodizz seemed to find a bigger following in Europe, than back home. At the height of their popularity they were able to sell out shows at the prestigious Jazz Café, a venue known for hosting many up-and-coming jazz bands.
In 2006 the band released their second album Froots on Montreal's C4 label. Montreal rock artist Deweare
also appears as a guest vocalist on the song "Fashion Terroriste" in a Gainsbourg-esque
performance. The album went on the win Best Worldbeat
/Traditional
Album at the 2006 GAMIQ Awards (Quebec Independent Music Awards), and also won Best Artist in the Cosmopolitan category of the Montreal International Music Initiative Awards (MIMIs), an honour which is given to the best "roots, intercultural and new musical language" artist.
Afrodizz performed the song "Africa Music" on the tribute album
Les machines à danser (dancing machines) released in June 2010; the album is a compilation of songs originally performed by French West Indies
/French Guianese
pop band La Compagnie Créole
and includes covers
by artists such as Ariane Moffatt
and Dubmatique
.
According to the band's official website, Afrodizz is also set to release its next album, titled From Outer Space, in the summer of 2011 at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...
/afrofunk band from Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Their music is a modern mix of afrobeat, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, that has been described as having nuances of The Herbaliser
The Herbaliser
The Herbaliser is a jazz rap band formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba London, England during the early 1990s. Although currently signed to !K7 Records, they were one of the best-known acts from the Ninja Tune independent record label...
and Tony Allen
Tony Allen (musician)
Tony Oladipo Allen is aNigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who currently lives and works in Paris. He is currently writing his autobiography "Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat" with author/musician Michael E...
.
The band
The band was formed in 2002 by Montreal jazz guitaristJazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...
, Gabriel Aldama—who also serves as the band's chief songwriter. Aldama was first introduced to afrobeat as a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
student, when a friend played him some vinyl recordings
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
by the genre's pioneer, Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
. Aldama has also credited the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
' 1996 jazz-funk
Jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat , electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers...
instrumental compilation The In Sound From Way Out!
The In Sound from Way Out! (Beastie Boys album)
The In Sound from Way Out! is an instrumental compilation by the Beastie Boys, released in 1996. The title and cover art concept were borrowed from the Perrey and Kingsley album of the same name.-CD version:#"Groove Holmes" – 2:33#"Sabrosa" – 3:30...
as an album that greatly influenced him.
The other members of Afrodizz include vocalist Vance Payne—who performs songs in English, Yorùbá
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
and other languages of Nigeria
Languages of Nigeria
The number of languages currently estimated and catalogued in Nigeria is 521. This number includes 510 living languages, two second languages without native speakers and 9 extinct languages. In some areas of Nigeria, ethnic groups speak more than one language...
—as well as François Plante (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Jean-Philippe Goncalves
Jean-Philippe Goncalves
Jean-Philippe "Jean-Phi" Goncalves is a percussionist and record producer based out of Montreal, Canada.An active member of Montreal's electronic music scene, Goncalves provides percussion for the bands Afrodizz, Plaster, Le Golden and Beast...
(drums), François Vincent (percussion), David Carbonneau (trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
), Frèdé Simard (tenor sax), and François Glidden (baritone sax). Goncalves and Plante are also part of the electro-jazz trio, Plaster
Plaster (band)
Plaster is an electro-jazz band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their sound has been compared to such artists as Amon Tobin, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Medeski Martin & Wood...
and Goncalves is also one half of the electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
duo Beast.
Albums and awards
Afrodizz released its first independent, 4 song EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in 2003. The band played the Montreal International Jazz Festival that same year and was named "Revelation of the Year" at the event. Andy Williams—an English-born
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Montreal DJ known internationally for his vast knowledge of jazz—brought the band's EP to the attention of Adrian Gibson, owner of the UK Label Freestyle Records and programmer for the Jazz Café
Jazz Café
The Jazz Café is a music venue in Parkway in Camden Town, London, England. It opened in 1990, in the former premises of Barclays Bank, and has been run by Mean Fiddler Music Group since 1992, now a subsidiary of the MAMA Group.-History:...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The band was then invited by Gibson to record their first album in London on the Freestyle label. The album, titled Kif Kif was also distributed by Do Right! Music in Canada, however Afrodizz seemed to find a bigger following in Europe, than back home. At the height of their popularity they were able to sell out shows at the prestigious Jazz Café, a venue known for hosting many up-and-coming jazz bands.
In 2006 the band released their second album Froots on Montreal's C4 label. Montreal rock artist Deweare
Deweare
Franck Deweare , also known by his stage name Deweare, and previously as Franck Marx, is a musician native to Verdun, France, who has been based out of Montreal, Quebec since 2004...
also appears as a guest vocalist on the song "Fashion Terroriste" in a Gainsbourg-esque
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
performance. The album went on the win Best Worldbeat
Worldbeat
Worldbeat is a music genre that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music with traditional/folk or world music influences...
/Traditional
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
Album at the 2006 GAMIQ Awards (Quebec Independent Music Awards), and also won Best Artist in the Cosmopolitan category of the Montreal International Music Initiative Awards (MIMIs), an honour which is given to the best "roots, intercultural and new musical language" artist.
Afrodizz performed the song "Africa Music" on the tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
Les machines à danser (dancing machines) released in June 2010; the album is a compilation of songs originally performed by French West Indies
French West Indies
The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the seven territories currently under French sovereignty in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: the two overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two overseas collectivities of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, plus...
/French Guianese
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
pop band La Compagnie Créole
La Compagnie Creole
La Compagnie Créole is a popular French pop band from French Guiana and the French West Indies, who started singing in the 1980s. They originally started singing in Creole but quickly adopted French as their main language...
and includes covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by artists such as Ariane Moffatt
Ariane Moffatt
Ariane Moffatt is a Canadian francophone singer-songwriter based in Quebec. She has won Félix and Juno Awards and has performed and collaborated with many artists such as Daniel Bélanger and Marc Déry.-Career:...
and Dubmatique
Dubmatique
Dubmatique are a Canadian hip hop group from Montreal. They were the first French language hip hop crew from Canada to break through to Canada's francophone pop charts...
.
According to the band's official website, Afrodizz is also set to release its next album, titled From Outer Space, in the summer of 2011 at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.