ASHANTI

Description

Driven by a West African tribal tradition, Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe unveil the radiant works of Ashanti, a masterpiece activated by pandemic jam sessions. Panama-born, New York-based Santi Debriano shies away from simplicity. The bassist-composer, who immigrated to the U.S. from Panama at age four and earned an ethnomusicology degree from Wesleyan University, has made it a point to transpose Afro-Caribbean tradition into his compositional oeuvre. His latest mark, Ashanti, finds West African language and ritual at its heart. Alongside his Arkestra Bembé, Debriano harnessed the power of the Yoruba tribe’s bembé — a celebratory gathering that included food, drink, music, and dance — and manufactured his own similarly intimate, pandemic-inspired jam session tradition. Innumerable weeks of bembés yielded Ashanti, the ardent bassist’s eighth release as a leader.