ZUBA About

ZUBA’s BASSA BEAT

“A highly danceable message of tolerance, hope and happiness”
Sue Wilson, Sunday Herald

Zuba’s Bassa Beat is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual testament
to hope, humanity and the sheer joy of a good melody.
The Scottish based 7-piece band present their new album Allez!

“Absolutely superb” Bob Harris, BBC Radio2

Zuba wrote and rehearsed Allez! in the basement of a disused sandwich factory in the centre of Glasgow in the long, wet summer of 2004. The following recording sessions ran through to November. The main idea of recording these songs was to define, refine and capture Zuba’s existing live sound – a sound borne of a fusion of different cultures but not defined by them. Zuba’s Bassa Beat is global cosmopolitanism almost by accident of birth. The band members were friends, who just happened to be musicians from different parts of the world , before they were a band.

Take a lead singer of Liberian griot lineage with a throat full of reggae and gospel, a Hebridean guitarist with a background in folk fingerpicking and 60s psychedelia, a Parisian percussionist who had travelled and drummed extensively in the world’s Latin quarters, an Aberdonian bassist with a fixation on finding the groove that would link Peter Gabriel’s world fusion and The Who, a Paisley-born jazz-inflected drummer who studied in Berklee, Boston, a Ugandan singer with a soul voice and an obsession with melancholic 70s singer-songwriters, and a Ghanaian dancer with one foot in the R’nB bag and the other dragging it away to African Gospel harmony choir recitals… stick them together in the back of a transit van for six years or so, lock them in a sandwich factory for a while and then entomb them in a smoke-filled recording studio and you have this album.

“Allez! is the most stunning mix of western and African music since Paul Simon's Graceland”
John Dingwall, Daily Record ****

Zuba’s Bassa Beat is grounded on a melody and percussion driven sound – interwoven vocal harmonies vie with contrapuntal guitar lines over a backdrop of simmering rhythmic tension. Worldbeat flavours, afrobeat influences and traditional folk-based lyrical tales are basic ingredients in Zuba’s global melting pot. Gritty vocals, overheating valve amps and congas struggling to maintain tension against a constant onslaught inform the sound, while the basic live essence of seven people playing and singing together creates the atmosphere. This atmosphere is a humid blend of sunshine and shadows – the weather systems of Africa and Northern Europe. Liberia, France, Uganda, Scotland, Ghana – a new alliance.

“ a stunning piece or work! … simply mind-blowing!” Peter J Brown, 10/10

Allez! was released on 11th June and is available now at www.zuba.co.uk , www.cdbaby.com and www.iMusicStage.com, in Fopp and Lost in Music in Glagow and Avalanche in Edinburgh.

Allez! is distributed all over the web: iTunes, Napster, YahooMusic…

ZUBA –The Band

“clever arrangements carry the imagination from Africa to Scotland, making other surprising stops along the way” ToxicPete, Rhythm and Booze

The name Zuba comes from a Liberian term translated roughly as “Forget about your troubles and cheer up”. The trademarked ‘Bassa Beat’ tag comes from the popular Liberian dialect, Bassa or Bassan.

“Expertise that spans continents” The List

Originally formed for a one-off concert in aid of Scottish International relief in 1998, Glasgow-based Zuba have been on the road ever since. They have supported Manu Chao, Femi Kuti, Papa Wemba, Salsa Celtica, Martyn Bennett, Ifang Bondi, Abdul T-Jay and many others. They have played in notorious venues and festivals including the Barrowlands, King Tut’s, Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Usher Hall, Towersey, T in the Park, Brampton.

“Zuba occasionally call to mind Peter Gabriel or the Afro-Celts but with a sound that is so confidently their own.****” Sue Wilson, Sunday Herald

Zuba are a musical collective functioning as a self-financed, self-managing unit. They have used their music to support Amnesty International, Fairtrade, The Big Issue and many other charities. Lead singer Jerry Boweh launched the African Youth Development Action Project (AYDAP) in 2004.

“…an infectious hybrid of influences which has earned Zuba critical acclaim and full dancefloors wherever they play” John Dingwall, The Daily Record

Zuba’s previous recordings – the ‘Zuba’ EP, ‘Chameleon’ and the ‘Mangowanda’ EP are regular fixtures on Liberian national Radio and Radio Scotland. Zuba’s music has been aired on World Music radio throughout the world. Their track “Tomayziyi” is part of ‘Glastonbury Unsigned Bands 2004’ (Concrete Recordings) and ‘Songs of Freedom’ (MOJO/Big Issue Scotland) compilations, ‘Moonlight’ is on ‘Welcome’ a ROOT8 compilation and “Allez! Allez!” has been picked up for the Freeness compilation.

“One of Britain’s best world music acts” The Daily Record