Toubab Krewe Rocks Rothbury!by Lisa and Kat

Hailing from Asheville, NC, Toubab Krewe creates a dynamic combination of African dance grooves and traditional American instrumental rock that’s good for both soul and body. Their presence was felt multi-fold at Rothbury Festival this year. Kicking off the festival at 6:45 Thursday night, they played their hearts out on the Ranch Arena stage, winning over those early arrivers who had yet to experience their unique sound. On Friday, Luke Quaranta, one of the two percussionists, was part of a greening open discussion panel “The New Green Economy”, before leading a West African Drumming workshop with other members of the group. Saturday night, much to the delight of the crowd, three members of Toubab Krewe (Luke, Teal and Justin) and Jason Hann from SCI appeared onstage during the second set of the Grateful Dead to play a beautiful percussion piece (Rhythm Devils) with the legends themselves. No small feat for a band that’s been together for less than half a decade!

Their considerable talent and passion for West African music goes back much further than the formation of the quintet in 2005. And the friendship between them stretches back over more than two decades, as can be heard in the harmony of feeling that is integral to each song, from the percussive brilliance of “Asheville to Abdijan”, to the rocking underbelly of “Bamana Niya”. Composed of the two drummers, Luke and Teal Brown, Drew Heller on guitar, David Pransky, the newest member, playing bass and Justin Perkins, who set his drums down to play the kora and the kamelengon (an African harp) they are creating the most colorful fusion rock out there right now. If you close your eyes and clear your mind at a show, you can forget for a moment where you are and instead really feel the music intuitively, the way it’s meant to be heard. On Sunday, just after Toots and the Maytals played, I got a chance to sit down with Luke and ask a few questions.

Where is everyone from in the band? Are you all from Asheville?
LQ: Three of the guys are born and raised in Asheville,” (Drew, Justin and Teal). I’m from New York originally. Our bassist is from Vermont. But the band’s home base is Asheville... Two of the guys, they’ve known each other since they were five or six years old. Yeah, our drummer has also known them since middle school so that’s fifteen years or so. I’ve known them twelve years and our bassist…we’ve known our bassist for about eight.

How long have you been in Asheville?

LQ: I went to school in ’97 at Warren Wilson College so it’s been 12 years on and off. I was back in NY for five or six years….So that’s where I met these guys. That’s how we came together.

Located on over 1200 acres, which includes a farm and organic garden, Warren Wilson College provides a unique approach to education that emphasizes not only academics but also an equally important work and service component. Each student is responsible for the day-to-day physical running of the machine that is the school by contributing 15 hours of work a week (or 3 a day) in whichever area they are best suited.

LQ: It’s called the triad……Work, Service and Academics. I loved it. Three of us in the group went to school there. And it taught me a lot. I mean I worked in the organic garden for four years. And it’s just the ethic that…well, your peers are scrubbing your toilets. There’s an ethic of sustainability and accountability built in.

There is also a service requirement, which is evidently a huge part of Toubab Krewe’s lives still, as shown by their dedication to West African causes and specifically to the families of their teachers in Ivory Coast and Mali. The band has been traveling back and forth to Guinea and Mali since ’99,

LQ: Well, we went in ’99, just Teal and I, the other drummer and then two years later, four of us went. We had a big drum and dance ensemble in college (Common Ground). I raised money throughout college to bring fifteen of us there for two months, a month in Guinea, a month in the Ivory Coast and we volunteered with a school (Sabu International School) in Guinea for refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia. We taught all subjects for two hours a day for a whole month. It was a really great trip and I was studying music there.

So you were teaching them and learning from them at the same time.

LQ: Well, we were studying and hanging with our teachers but we also wanted to do something there so we volunteered with the school during the day. It was pretty cool. When I was a senior I was not only writing my thesis but I was also doing this fundraising campaign. We raised almost $25,000. It was a pretty big deal. (smiles)

As a band, what do you guys do while you’re on the road…what kind of steps do you take to minimize your environmental impact?

LQ: Well, we had the van and a trailer for two years and that was just really hard to do much of anything. It was really hard to sustain a diet that wasn’t fast food.

Since we got the bus we’re a lot better off. Everyone stocks up and we cook our own food and eat a lot healthier on the road. We really haven’t gotten into biodiesel yet because it’s a 95 bus…. We’ve been with the bus for two years but that’s one of the things we’d like to do for sure. But we’re doing as much reusing as possible and recycle when we can.

How much are you touring right now?

LQ: We’re probably hovering about 200 days a year…. We’re hitting it hard.

We’re all really conscious about environmental issues but all of our time in Africa has given us somewhat of a focus on that. I mean, we send money back to our teacher’s families there. We’ve had our songs on certain compilation discs where the proceeds have gone to environmental charities or environmental causes. I think greening our own touring is definitely a goal that we’re working toward. I mean, maybe this festie will help us get to where we’re trying to go.

Yeah, I think it will. I mean….you played with the Dead last night. (laughs) I think you’re getting there.
What is your vision as Toubab Krewe? What are you trying to do with your music?

LQ: I think that first and foremost, because our roots are in West Africa and we’ve spent so much time there….I mean, I’ve been there like four times. The other guys have been there 3 and 2 times. Part of it is facilitating the meeting of two cultures. And also bringing more awareness to West African music in general. Because a lot of people, when they think of Africa they think of war and poverty and disease, just mainstream thought. It’s kinda….you know, it can get caught in a box. But Africa is such an amazing and rich and diverse place with so many different cultures and ethnic groups. Just awareness of that. I think that is maybe one of the things that we can contribute also, as we gain some notoriety with our music and we’re obviously bridging the gap between cultures musically…because you know we do have a lot of American styles in our music. We grew up listening to….rock and pop, zydeco, gypsy….all that stuff is in there. There’s a lot of surf. It’s a real fusion. I think one of the things that we want to do is just bring an awareness to that dialogue.

I think you make the African part of it more accessible for kids in the U.S. …

LQ: Exactly. That’s one goal. Is to educate. Another goal would be to find ways to empower our teachers. It’s such a rich musical culture and there’s so much history but the reality is that there’s a lot of poverty. We’d like to give donations. We’ve done it by giving to our teacher’s families but as we go I’d like to do more and do more officially. Just funding projects that are helping the culture there. But also, like microfinancing. Finding ways to finance people over there who have visions but don’t have the skills. Because so much of what is going over to Africa is through IMF or the World Bank and creating massive debt.

How do you think that we can help?

LQ: I just think that traveling over there and meeting the people and traveling the villages, meeting people who are doing good things and funding those projects. A lot of those projects can pay the money back – it’s just the funding to get it off the ground. I think through travels but also through research and just finding those cooperatives or those small businesses that have really good ideas and also have good ideas that are environmentally sound and getting the money to them. We give to some organizations but we’d like to do more. I guess that’s one thing. Musically, we just want to keep going. Have a good time. Play our hearts out and make good music. I mean, obviously it’s instrumental. I think it’s more about the energy. People can read into music what they want to hear. We try to tell stories through our music.

Where are you guys going after this?

LQ: We’re doing a festival in Vermont called Festivus for the Restivus. It’s a great, awesome vibe. I can’t wait! There will be great Jamaican and world music. That’s the thing – we just want to continue to do that. We’re talking about doing a festival down south called Festival for the Rest of Ya’ll. We want to bring as many great artists as possible together.

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Come check out Toubab Krewe at Festivus for the Restivus July 17-19 in Cabot, VT! All proceeds go to the Sabu International School in Guinea. Toubab Krewe is headlining this fun event with Oumou Sangare, Black Sheep, Barrington Levy, Midnite and others.