MANCHESTER, NH – When Toubab Krewe started out in 2005, their West African influenced brand of folk-rock was very much an outlier in the American music realm. Through this approach, the quintet of multi-instrumentalists Justin Perkins and Luke Quaranta, guitarist and organist Drew Heller, bassist and keyboardist Justin Kimmel and drummer Terrence Houston garnered a dedicated following while performing with a variety of different acts.
More than 20 years later, they’re still at it, and it’s been cause for celebration. This has been the catalyst for their current 20th anniversary tour, which is being extended to April 10 at Jewel. The show starts at 7 p.m. with Jatoba and the Silver String Slingers rounding out the evening.
Quaranta and I had a talk ahead of the performance about what he’s most proud of over the past 20 years, having a unique collaboration with an influential artist, and working on a new album.
Rob Duguay: Looking back on the past two decades, what would you say are some of your favorite accomplishments of being part of Toubab Krewe?
Luke Quaranta: Honestly, probably the biggest thing is being 20 years plus deep with guys who are all my really good friends. We were friends well before the band or we even thought of the band with the history of the band being a couple of the guys growing up together, a few more of us spending our college years together, and then we all started traveling West Africa together. It really came about just from a love of West African music, discovering drumming and dance music from the area, and moving it into the string instruments that we played. Then we discovered a lot more of the contemporary expressions of it in West Africa and around the world, so that’s one of the biggest things, honestly. Coming up together, falling in love with this music, going to West Africa numerous times numerous years, and then, ultimately, knowing that we had to start a band because we saw that we’d be able to mix everything that we had studied with the traditional and contemporary styles.
Also, just being open to putting the music that we grew up with into it as well to create something unique that’s our own. Looking back, that’s the biggest thing and we’re still at it, just bringing the music to people all over the world. We’ve played in 48 states and six countries, so it’s been a ride. During the first decade, we were on the road for 200 shows criss-crossing the country in a bus, and then over the past decade, it’s been a lot more flying, festivals and 10 or 12-day runs and stuff, so we’ve done everything from Bonnaroo to world music festivals overseas. For me, the biggest thing is the fact that we’re still together 20 years later making some of the best music we’ve ever made, that’s the real accomplishment.
RD: I can totally see that, that’s all great. When did you guys collaborate with Umar Bin Hassan from The Last Poets?
LQ: We met Umar in Columbus, Ohio. We were playing a festival together, he just happened to see us at soundcheck and he asked, “What are these dudes doing?” We started talking and he started listening to our music, so honestly, we just stayed connected. I think we played in Baltimore, he was there and he sat in and we had the opportunity to be part of this remix project for a Youssou N’Dour song that we included him on. Ultimately, he came down to Asheville for a two-night New Year’s run at the Orange Peel going into 2008, which is around a 1,000 capacity room.
We sold it out both nights and we ended up putting out our second album from those two shows in ‘08 after we put out our debut in ‘05. It ended up being a live record and two of the songs had Umar on them where he did two different poems.
RD: Going back to West African music being a central influence in Toubab Krewe’s sound, that area has experienced a resurgence in modern music over the past decade with artists like Bombino and Mdou Moctar having a lot more visibility in the American music consciousness. What are your thoughts on these different artists who are playing the same music that you guys are influenced by and getting a unique spotlight?
LQ: It’s amazing. When we started the band, we tried to draw a lot of attention to our teachers, the style, and we’re trying to look at Toubab Krewe as an entry point. American audiences who might not be familiar with African music, but they’ve heard us, we get a lot of questions and we’re able to show people which rabbit holes to go down of so many great artists who have influenced us. During that process, from when we started in ‘05 to today, it’s been this continuous growth with these artists that are touring here, playing festivals, and everything like that. Everything from Toumani Diabate, who did a show at Bonnaroo in ‘09 with Béla Fleck, to King Sunny Adé to Amadou & Mariam, it’s been amazing, and more recently with musicians like you said with Bombino and Mdou Moctar amongst others.
It’s become very popular over the past 20 years and it’s great that we’ve been able to be part of the whole movement of this music with a lot more artists touring in the States. The only thing that seems to make it a challenge is the situation with different administrations and the visa thing being tenuous. There’s been situations where bands can’t come over, but it’s been amazing to watch the growth of it over the time we’ve been doing it while bringing more and more awareness of the styles to American audiences.
RD: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. You’re going to be having this show coming up at Jewel, and it’s your first time playing there and first time playing Manchester in general, so what are your thoughts on coming up here?
LQ: We love New Hampshire. We’ve been coming up there over the years along with Vermont, Massachusetts and the whole Northeast, so we’re psyched. It’s going to be part of a nice weekend before we conclude our tour at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. We first played there in ‘06 after the city was first starting to open back up after [Hurricane] Katrina and we fell in love with the city immediately. We’ve been coming there ever since, so it’ll be really cool. We’re also looking forward to coming to New Hampshire, it’s been a little while since we’ve been back.
RD: Yeah, it should be a great time. Looking towards the future, what are Toubab Krewe’s plans in terms of recordings? It’s been a few years since you guys put out an album.
LQ: We’ve been doing a bunch of sessions over the past couple of years and we’ve been getting together to write a lot. We got a hard drive full of new ideas, stuff that’s in some form more than others, but we got a really good group of songs and ideas to pull from for this next record. The plan is to do it as soon as we can after this 20th anniversary tour while balancing it between festivals on the weekends, so we’re going to focus this summer on getting together and keeping the process going.