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<\/p>\nToubab Krewe launched in 2005 with a unique synthesis of African and Western musical textures. Drawing on tradition infused with a contemporary approach, the group debuted on record that same year with a self-titled album. Right out of the gate, Toubab Krewe connected with both lovers of so-called \u201cworld\u201d music \u2013 the sort of listeners who thrilled to the music of Ali Farka Tour\u00e9 \u2013 as well as with aficionados of the jam band scene. Twenty -plus years later, they\u2019re still expanding on that foundation.<\/p>\n
Two more albums followed: 2008\u2019s Live at the Orange Peel<\/i> captured the group onstage in a hometown show in Asheville, N.C., and TK2<\/i> in 2010 found the band broadening its already wide-encompassing musical vision to incorporate surf and indie rock styles without losing the qualities that made the group special.<\/p>\n
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After nearly a decade of relentless touring, the band took a hiatus. The individual members remained as busy as ever; each would continue to be involved in multiple projects outside the framework of Toubab Krewe. But the break was never intended to be permanent, and by 2017 Toubab Krewe was back together for recording and live performances.<\/p>\n
And even with Toubab Krewe\u2019s busy schedule, each of the musicians finds time for myriad other musical pursuits. At the time of this interview, percussionist Luke Quaranta was at JFK for a layover on his way to play dates in London, Madrid and Paris with Weedie Braimah and The Hands of Time.
\n\u201cDrew [Heller, guitarist and keyboardist] plays with Floating Action,\u201d he says. \u201cOur drummer, Terrence Houston has also been playing with George Porter Jr. for a decade and a half.\u201d Bassist Justin Kimmel is a veteran of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings; he\u2019s also a member of Brooklyn-based Afrobeat ensemble Antibalas. Multi-instrumentalist Justin Perkins plays with other groups as well.<\/p>\n
But none of those outside activities prevent Toubab Krewe from focusing on their core musical mission of bridging African musical styles with rock. Even if one of the members can\u2019t make a gig, the group\u2019s unique character endures. \u201cThis lineup has been together since January 2014,\u201d Quaranta says. \u201cOnce in a while we do shows as a quartet. And we\u2019ve gotten comfortable as a four-piece; the continuity remains intact.\u201d That will be the case for some of the West Coast dates (including Santa Cruz), as Houston will be on the road with Porter\u2019s band.<\/p>\n
In between their other commitments, the five musicians of Toubab Krewe are gearing up to begin work on a new studio album, their first since 2018\u2019s Stylo<\/i>. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a hard drive full of 30-plus ideas, seeds of songs,\u201d Quaranta says. \u201cThe next step is to get the five of us together for a couple day of arranging, and then a studio session.\u201d In his view, Toubab Krewe has even more source material to work with than they had for Stylo<\/i> or TK2<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But first, there\u2019s the band\u2019s spring and summer touring schedule. Toubab Krewe launched their 20th<\/sup> anniversary tour in mid 2025, and it continues through a good portion of this year. A run of dates across the U.S. will keep the band busy into April; those are followed by a succession of festival engagements leading into early fall, including some additional bookings not yet announced at press time.<\/p>\n Keen listeners may spot some new, as-yet-unrecorded material in Toubab Krewe\u2019s sets this year, but the group is also fond of reaching back into its catalog. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to go a little deeper,\u201d Quaranta says, \u201cbringing in other stuff that hasn\u2019t been in the touring repertoire.\u201d And when they revisit those tunes, they\u2019ll bring a fresh approach. \u201cMaybe those tunes that we haven\u2019t been playing in awhile will be re-arranged,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s fun, too.\u201d<\/p>\n As a seasoned group of adventurous musicians, Toubab Krewe is always up for a challenge. Quaranta recalls a recent two-night engagement at the Green Parrot in Key West. Each night featured three 90-minute sets. \u201cSo we played nine hours of music inside of 30 hours,\u201d he recalls with a laugh. And the band played each night\u2019s set without repeating any songs.<\/p>\n Not only were those gigs a success, they helped prepare Toubab Krewe for this tour. \u201cBefore that gig,\u201d Quaranta says, \u201cthere were some songs we hadn’t played in a long time, where we felt, \u2018Oh, these aren\u2019t ready for the stage.\u2019\u201d Now they are. \u201cWe felt super-tight coming out of there. But even more importantly, we stretched out on the tunes.\u201d He says that in some songs, \u201clittle things happened\u201d that he predicts may find their way into the band\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Quaranta says that the Santa Cruz date will be special among the West coast engagements. \u201cSanta Cruz is always such a great time, and this time Lespecial is joining us.\u201d The prog-tronic power trio from Connecticut makes music that\u2019s dark and heavy, a contrast that actually pairs well with Toubab Krewe\u2019s style. \u201cThey\u2019re technically supporting us,\u201d Quaranta says, \u201cbut it\u2019s more like a double bill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toubab Krewe launched in 2005 with a unique synthesis of African and Western musical textures. Drawing on tradition infused with a contemporary approach, the group debuted on record that same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,76],"tags":[3292],"class_list":["post-31016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-world","tag-toubab-krewe","cat-41-id","cat-76-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31018,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31016\/revisions\/31018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}