Ever since Antibalas emerged as America’s premier disciples of Fela Kuti with their global, post-modern and unmistakably transcendental take on the mighty sound of Afrobeat they’ve operated not so much as a band, but as a thrillingly fluid, freewheeling collective.

See also: Fela Kuti – Beginner’s Guide

Their website names ten current members and a Wikipedia entry lists a further 30 former personnel who have passed through the ranks since 1998 – yet, like most collectives, there is a core nucleus that has sustained their vision, with six of the line-up remaining constant for at least 15 years. These are led by founding member and saxophonist Martín Perna.

Perna formed the collective – whose name is Spanish for ‘Bulletproof’ – in Brooklyn, New York in 1998 with a diverse cast of jazz and funk musicians, including members of the soul band the Dap-Kings.

His initial intention was to fuse the Afrobeat jams of Fela with the Nuyorican Latin funk grooves of the likes of Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente and the Fania All-Stars. “But as we got deeper into Afrobeat, we realised that we were juggling a lot of things, and only really needed to have one thing on our plate,” he recalls.

Watch Antibalas play "Sáré Kon Kon" (Live at the Apollo):

The recruitment in 1999 of the Lagos-born percussionist and singer Duke Amayo further locked Antibalas into the bedrock grooves of Afrobeat, which have remained at the core of the band’s sound ever since. Amayo stayed to perform on all of the collective’s albums, before finally leaving last year following the band’s seventh and most recent release, 2020’s Fu Chronicles.

Another key mover and shaker in the Antibalas mythology is Gabriel Roth, bandleader, bassist, songwriter and producer for the Dap-Kings, the backing group for Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse among others.

Roth played with Antibalas for the first half-dozen years of its existence until he switched to being the collective’s producer and label boss as the co-founder of Daptone Records, on which the last few Antibalas albums have appeared. “At the time, there was not a lot of interest in Afrobeat or in Fela,” Roth recalls of Antibalas’ salad days.

“Because of that a lot of people saw them as pioneers in the second wave of Afrobeat that has since blossomed around the world. There are great Afrobeat bands now in Brazil, in Chicago, in England, in a lot of places – and, alongside Fela, I think a lot of those bands looked to Antibalas as one of their inspirations.”

“It’s about feeling the same way, swinging the same way, anticipating and hitting things the same way”

Roth smartly sums up the key to the group’s success in just one word: rhythm. “That’s what makes a good Afrobeat record,” he noted when interviewed about his production of the collective’s self-titled fifth album in 2012.

“Not just the rhythm section, but the rhythm of the horns, the rhythm of the vocals, the rhythm of the keyboards, everybody’s rhythm… It’s about feeling the same way, swinging the same way, anticipating and hitting things the same way. Everybody hearing the music the same way and being able to turn all those instruments into one voice.”

It’s a near-perfect summation of how the communal Antibalas magic has remained undimmed throughout numerous line-up changes. “Afrobeat is a timeless music based on the West African rhythmic concept of clave,” Perna says.

“It’s not one particular rhythm, it’s a sensibility, like the poles of a magnet or the terminals on a battery – and when you put those two together and weave it into any style of music, it gives a feeling of perpetual motion.”

Watch Antibalas play MTTT, Pt. 1 & 2 (Live on KEXP):

Perna was inspired to create Antibalas in the wake of the death of Fela, age 58, in 1997. “Nobody was really holding the torch for that kind of music besides his son, Femi,” he recalls.

“Afrobeat could not be allowed to die with him, so we decided we needed to keep on doing it.” Yet Perna was equally determined that Antibalas should be more than just a Fela Kuti tribute act.

“It was about the style and the possibilities of the sound and not about worshipping him, but wondering what we could learn from him.”

Antibalas’ debut album appeared in 2000 and was self-released before they signed with Ninja Tune for Talkatif, issued in 2002.

In the early years there was a heavy overlap of personnel between Antibalas and the Dap-Kings, with Roth, Perna (moonlighting as ‘Jack Zapata’), organist Victor Axelrod, percussionist Fernando Velez and trumpet player Anda Szilagyi all playing on albums by both bands.

Once Antibalas began to tour internationally, playing festivals from Glastonbury to Montreux, the overlap was no longer practical and by the time of 2004’s Who is This America?, their third album, the two groups were forced to develop separate full-time line-ups.

With an Afrobeat revival in full swing, there were other demands on the collective’s time, too. When Fela!, Bill T Jones’ musical based on the life of Fela, arrived on Broadway in 2008, the producers turned to Antibalas to arrange and perform the music.

With the collective’s trombonist Aaron Johnson acting as musical director and trumpeter Jordan McLean as assistant, they recreated vibrant versions of Kuti classics such as ‘Expensive Shit’, ‘Zombie’ and ‘Coffin for Head of State’, heard on a fine original cast recording (Knitting Factory, 2010).

The musical received 11 Tony awards and ran for more than two years, which slowed the collective’s recording plans. In the end, five years elapsed between the release of 2007’s Security and its self-titled follow-up in 2012.

The Antibalas horn section was also in demand to perform on Grammy award-winning albums by Angélique Kidjo and Mark Ronson while the collective’s versatility was further evidenced when they were recruited as the house band at New York’s Carnegie Hall, playing the music of Paul Simon, David Byrne and Talking Heads, and Aretha Franklin in a series of tribute concerts.

But playing Afrobeat remains Antibalas’ primary and abiding mission. “It’s a transformative process in so many different ways,” Perna says. “All of us have had to learn to function as part of this huge interlocking net that holds up the music, building the sort of ESP that happens when musicians play together for a long time… Antibalas is a lot more than just a band. It’s family.”

BEST ANTIBALAS ALBUMS

Who is This America? 

Ropeadope Records, 2004

An explosive Afrobeat mix of highlife, jazz and funk spiced with rebel yells against ‘Dubya’ and his war on terror and corporate scandal. ‘Political ass-shaking never felt so good,’ as our reviewer said at the time. Reviewed in the July/August 2004 issue (#25).

Security 

ANTI-, 2007

The collective’s fourth album was something of a departure as Fela-inspired rhythms fused with Manhattan cool and some textured experimental jazz jamming, without ever straying too far from the ensemble’s irresistible groove. Reviewed in the June 2007 issue (#44).

Antibalas 

Daptone Records, 2012

Many regard this six-track set as the quintessential Antibalas album, with their polyrhythms sounding effortlessly tight and as funky as a hot night back in Lagos at the New Afrika Shrine. Reviewed in the October 2012 issue (#87).

Where the Gods Are in Peace 

Daptone Records, 2017

A thematic album honed on the slave trade of US colonialism. Poignant lyrics are juxtaposed with some frenetic playing and dense percussive workouts with the collective’s stellar horn section firing on all cylinders. Reviewed in the November 2017 issue (#132).

Fu Chronicles 

Daptone Records, 2020

Antibalas’ latest release features Black Lives Matter style messages of power and equality over long-form Afrobeat arrangements with blistering horns, funky guitar licks and moody Hammond organ, plus the powerful vocals of Duke Amoyo on his final album with the band. A Top of the World in the April 2020 issue (#156).

This article originally appeared in the June 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today