Hamsa Lila Live in Santa Cruz (Avila Records Avila1969, 2007)
American Jam bands have been drifting towards world music in recent years. The United States is experiencing an explosion of exciting collectives, most of which are afrobeat oriented. Hamsa Lila, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, prefers to go further north in Africa for its inspiration. The band frequently uses Moroccan Gnawa instrumentation and chanting in some its extensive world beat trance improvisations. In addition, there are elements of Indian, Australian and Caribbean music as well as dreamlike electronica and hip hop.
Hamsa Lila's latest album is a fascinating double CD recorded live in Santa Cruz (the California Santa Cruz, not the capital of the island of Tenerife) that showcases its electrifying tribal dance beats.
The core group is formed by multi-instrumentalists Nikila Badua, mj greenmountain, Deja Solis, Vir McCoy, Inkx Herman, and Evan Fraser. For this live performance they were joined by Ganapati, Eenor, John Villa and Ian de Queiroz.
Highly recommended.
Get the CD from http://www.hamsalila.com.
World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/hamsa_lila_live_santa_cruz