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Jujuba
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Jujuba is a Portland group led by Nigerian immigrant Nojeem Lasisi, a master of the talking drum and a former member of King Sunny Ade's African Beats, one of West Africa's most illustrious bands. This 12-piece band plays High-energy, funky Afrobeat music and features four horns, percussionists from Nigeria and Ghana, and a rhythm section reminiscent of James Brown and Fela Kuti.
Marty Hughley of The Oregonian writes "...by a few songs into Saturday's opening set by the band Jujuba, what had been a half-dozen dancers had transformed into a floor full of fans, deeply engaged in the groove. Its set on Saturday featured long, churning grooves built atop burbling bass lines, with cross-thatched rhythm guitar and multiple layers of percussion. Dynamics came from Lasisi's emphatic accents on talking drum -- a pitch-adjustable drum, also called kalungu, that mimics the tonalities of speech -- and charging horns that split the difference between battlefield heraldry and James Brown-style funk. Sprinklings of jazz-inflected solos and Lasisi's occasional vocals in Yoruba completed the recipe, but the heat and flavor was all in the groove".
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