at the recommendation of alan the sound guy, i paid chelsea’s another visit last night to see afrissippi.
afrissippi is an amazingly fascinating band from oxford, mississippi featuring the songwriting of guelel kumba.
guelel is from senegal, but he settled in oxford about six years ago. ole miss used to have a blues history course that traced the roots of the music back to africa. there was a particular professor (he’s since died) who taught the class for years, and he used to fly in musicians from africa to inform the class. not a bad gig, eh? anyway, guelel was one of the visitors, and he ended up staying.
eric deaton, afrissippi’s guitarist, was put in touch with guelel through a mutual friend. eric’s story is also pretty interesting … he left his home in north carolina after high school to move to mississippi for the music. he ended up meeting kinney kimbrough, junior kimbrough’s son (and drummer of afrissippi) and played at junior’s place every sunday night until junior passed. kinney and eric also backed up holly springs legend and blues explosion collaborator r.l. burnside until r.l. passed. the worst part of this great night was hearing all these stories end with the deaths of incredible american artists.
so it goes …
afrissippi is touring the west coast in a few weeks. they’re playing the elbo room for those of you in the mission. and somewhere in portland. myspace = details. get yourselves free of commitments and check them out. wonderful guys, all … killer set, too. my rather anglo point of reference was the music paul simon was making in the late 80s/early 90s if it was played very loudly in a humid garage in the hill country. yes yes.
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