Last night I saw something at The Echo that I had never seen before: the dance floor was being used as an actual dance floor! When I got there at 9:30pm, the small space usually reserved for stylish hipster crowds was overflowing with all manner of folk young and old. I was glad I had purchased tickets ahead of time, not even considering the possibility of the show selling out. The stage was already full with twelve members of Zongo Junction, an Afro-beat band consisting of a drummer, auxiliary percussionist, hand drummer, bassist, keyboardist, two guitarists, trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, alto sax, and bari sax. The very first note hit me in the face with a wall of sound and didn’t stop until they finished, each member of the band grooving along with the audience for the duration of their performance. The sheer stamina of the rhythm section was staggering, though the horns didn’t exactly get a lot of downtime. Each member’s part was equally important to the group as well as equally difficult, and there didn’t appear to be a weak link in the group because there really was no room for error. It reminded me of Galactic: while the rhythm section lays down the horns pass solos around jocularly, riling up the crowd with their dancing. They had a lot of style too, the horn players all wearing sunglasses along with the auxiliary percussionist.  They may have performed in a style that was reminscent of Galactic, but what they were actually playing was pure Fela Kuti.

Zongo Junction‘s “Elephant and Mosquito”was perhaps my favorite, the reggae-style bass line just one of the many hooks in the song. In fact, most of their songs began with a killer bass line before an equally groovy accompaniment by the drums and guitars, naturally evolving into layering complex polyrhythms from the keyboard, percussion, and horns in a way that seemed very much like spinning very different plates. The firey sax solos stood out against the cool, soothing sounds of the organ but somehow made peace with the sizzling sounds of Cuba coming from the trumpet and trombone. For the last song, the auxiliary percussionist even jumped into the audience and made his rounds, successfully maintaining the jam until the very last note. Whereas Zongo Junction was like a constantly boiling concoction, headlining band Turkuaz (pronounced TUR-kwaz) was more like tossing a lit match into a dumpster full of fireworks. Each song hit you with a full blast of good old American funk, the big fat bass lines supporting breakneck guitar skanking and keyboard vamps.

Turkuaz could have gotten by on pure swagger and style alone, but they also happen to be as proficient musicians as they were performers. It was a total party band like George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, but that didn’t mean that they sacrificed artistic skill for flair. Each section had their own choreographed dance moves, but several members would move around to other sections to keep the stage energy natural and loose. The horn section was dressed in red and blue mechanic jumpsuits, and the two female singers defied the definition of ‘backup vocalists’. The lead male singer played a gorgeous Explorer guitar, his hippie-style cherubic countenance belied by lightning-fast guitar solos and vocal delivery.Their song “Back to Normal” was by far my favorite, ending with the entire band running in place and the female singers hitting sky high octaves as the audience waved their hands in appreciation. It’s easy to understand why Turkuaz and Zongo Junction are great tour mates: both bands have an equal appreciation for skill and performance, and I’m sure that their subsequent shows and endeavors will be just as incredible. Their next show together is this evening in San Diego before they head back to the east coast for a show on January 15th in Brooklyn. For more detailed information on the tour, please visit Turkuaz‘s Myspace page.