AfroBeat Concert with Armo

This is a celebration of JUNETEENTH.  Juneteenth is recognized as the nation’s second independence day, celebrated primarily within the African American community but largely unknown to many Americans. Our purpose on this date is to make sure that the promise of freedom for all people is heard in the music of Armo.

Founded by longtime Antibalas bandmates, ARMO consists of trumpeter/percussionist Jordan McLean, percussionist/vocalist Marcus Farrar, guitarist/keyboardist Nikhil P. Yerawadekar, drummer Kevin Raczka, Justin Kimmel, & Dave “Smoota” Smith on trombone/keyboards. The band creates spontaneous arrangements of the music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Tony Allen, Ebo Taylor, William Onyeabor, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Amayo, and original rhythm based compositions.

This 5-8 piece band features a revolving cast from the Daptone Records family and NY Afrobeat Scene. Collectively the members of Armo have performed thousands of concerts around the world working with such luminaries as David Byrne, Angelique Kidjo, Public Enemy, TV on The Radio, Sharon Jones & The Dapkings, Ornette Coleman, and in the band for the Tony Award winning musical FELA!

With the goal of expanding the New York Afrobeat Scene, the band held a monthly jam session at the legendary Bitter End in NYC’s West Village in 2023. Armo served as the house band for
the City Winery/Carnegie Hall afterparty tribute to Paul McCartney, have restarted their years-long residency at Brooklyn’s famed Bar Lunatico, and were featured in the opening festival.

From its inception Afrobeat has been a music of resistance. The music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti has historic ties to the civil rights movement in the United States, and the importance of art in fueling social movements is as vital as ever. This weekend long celebration of rhythm and joy will embody the ideals of embracing our shared humanity to the fullest.

*Understanding the Significance of June 19th. 

On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country, awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. 

Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.

But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. 

Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas. 

* Source: The National History Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth#:~:text=Freedom%20finally%20came%20on%20June,newly%20freed%20people%20in%20Texas.

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