As the frontman for the Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band Antibalas, Amayo helped bring the Afrobeat sound to a broad audience. Now, operating solo, Amayo explores the sonic soundscapes of African and Chinese ancestral rhythms, extrapolating and combining the elements to create a sound and style of transcendence, grace and groove. As an anointed Orisha-Awo and a Sifu of Jow Ga Kung Fu School of Martial Arts, Amayo takes audiences through traditional Nigerian spirituals as he accentuates them with kung fu. Though something like a mix between Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Sun Ra, Amayo evades easy labeling, inhabiting a musical space entirely his own instead.
Sun, 3:30pm, Free
St. James Park, San Jose
