After playing at summer festivals including Symbiosis and opening up for Tinariwen, the Dogon Lights return to Ashkenaz with a high-energy world fusion repertoire. The Dogon Lights is an exciting project featuring Guinea’s master of the djembe drum, Alpha “Bongo” Sidibe, and members of the award-winning band Hamsa Lila (Ian “Inx” Herman, Vir McCoy, and Evan Fraser), with Yaquelin Laporte delivering her Afro-Cuban vocals over the top. They create a funky and energetic dance atmosphere that takes the listener straight to the stars, using traditional skin and wood instruments played over grooves and inspired traditional vocals. The Dogon Lights brings together a blend of instruments such as the sintir and guimbri from Morocco, the kamale n’goni (similar to the kora), calabash and djembe drums of West Africa, and bass, guitar, keys, sax, and flute from the West. The word “Dogon” comes from the Dogon people of Mali who believe they are descendants of the Sirians – thus the Dogon Lights.

Carmen Gutierrez is Mama Crow, a New York-born, East Bay-based musician, healer, activist, and singer-songwriter. The self-taught guitarist’s sound is a fusion of funk, folk-rock, gospel and neo-soul, mixing rhythmic finger picking and string slapping, guttural blues belts, and quick lyrical flow with insidious phrasing. She affects listeners on a deep level, singing, as she explains, her “life’s stories that derive from adversities, empowerment with twists of analytical perspectives of the world we live in.” Tonight she brings her full band for a full-on soulful funk experience.