Chop and Quench (The Fela! Band), The Admiral

CHOP AND QUENCH, “The Fela! Band”, is comprised of members of the cast and band of FELA! the musical. Individually, the musicians are some of the finest in New York, having performed with The Roots, India Arie, Elvis Costello, and many others. Lead singer Sahr Ngaujah was nominated for a TONY Award for his performance in the Broadway show and has been featured on film and television. As a unit, the band has gotten to accompany performers such as Beyonce, Femi Kuti, and Angelique Kidjo. Known for their straightforward performances of classic Fela Kuti compositions, they have branched out, bringing their own original music to the stage. After performing around the world, they recently performed at the Sundance Film Festival in conjunction with the premier of Alex Gibney’s film “Finding Fela”. They are now back home in New York preparing new material to take into the studio for their first recording since the Fela! Broadway cast recording, and looking forward to starting a weekly Monday night residency at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.


https://soundcloud.com/lukeriverside/africa-mijkstape-march-2015

In hopes of finding the true sonic vibration of the universe, The Admiral fashioned an inter-dimensional vessel he named The Aria. On it’s maiden voyage he set a heading straight into the heart of the Bermuda Triangle: in hopes of recording the “Song of the Sea” that fishermen in the vicinity had reported hearing just prior to the disappearance of the last 8 boats. Once inside the Triangle the Admiral recognized his folly: but it was too late. The Aria was tossed about like a paper airplane in a hurricane. With the navigation instruments damaged he found himself trapped in space-time maze where he was doomed to jump his vessel blindly into different chronological and geographic locations. Losing hope, the Admiral put aside his skepticism and began an international-interdimensional-temporal search for the legendary “Onyx Canticle”. A lost song alleged to be so undeniably danceable that it crosses all cultural and historical barriers. With this piece of music he can finally align the Aria’s quantum fold engine with the vibrations of the universe: allowing him to finally return to his own time. Now he travels from through time to all all the corners of the globe in hopes of finding a recording of the canticle. Every week he takes his findings and jumps his ship until he finds a dance floor where he can play his latest specimens to see if any of them are actually the “Onyx Canticle".