Elijah Bostonafrobeat profile picture

Elijah Bostonafrobeat

About Me


"Let's Dance" from Elijah B's recital "Theme and Variations on the Big Bang".

Sean Frenette) began playing with the Boston Afrobeat Society, now called The Superpowers, in its earliest days at the New England Conservatory of Music. Elijah and Adam Clark had both discovered a love for afrobeat music after attending an Antibalas show at the Middle East in Boston somewhen in 2003. Adam threw together a large group of players for the battle of the bands and they won! Less than 2 years later Adam brought a smaller version of the group together for his senior recital and Elijah found himself this time in the audience inspired to dance. The experience was an incredible emotional and spiritual release for Elijah.

As Adam graduated and tried to get the large group up and running, Elijah decided to do all he could to support the effort. In the summer of 2005 this meant gigging every Thursday in Cambridge and working out Fela tunes on the spot. In 2006 this meant more and more gigs, more and more creativity and song-writing, radio recordings, demo recordings, and a 2-week tour of the East Coast.

2006 was big for the group as they expanded their range beyond Boston. From Vermont, Maine, North Carolina, D.C., to Philly, Roanoke, and NYC, the group continued igniting dancers' inner fire wherever they went. The group played the encore of Elijah's interdimensional recital "Theme and Variations on the Big Bang", to the delight of a mixed audience of young and old, who- regardless of their age- danced up a storm.

In 2007 the group recorded and released its first album with Pub Records. In late February, due to physical problems and other difficulties Elijah decided to take time off from the group. Now he lives in the Northwest and only occassionally jumps up onstage with guitar when he's back East. He hopes at the least to continue composing new music for the group and to support them in anyway he is able to.


The music on this page is meant to be a place where new works in progress can be listened to by the members of BAS/The Superpowers. All music here is copyrighted by Elijah should hopefully not show up in any other afrobeat band's repertoire! Enjoy!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 14/10/2006
Band Website: www.myspace.com/thesuperpowers
Band Members: see www.myspace.com/thesuperpowers for the full and current line-up.
Influences: Fela Kuti, James Brown, Antibalas, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Hindustani music, birds, waterfalls, ...
Sounds Like: Afrobeat-minimalist-orchestra-jazz-a-roo-ha-ha-Hindu-raga-da nce-a-holic madness
Record Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Haitus

As of late Feb. I began a haitus from the group. I had a number of physical problems that needed to be taken care of, as well as some pretty heavy life changes to deal with. I'm not sure if and w...
Posted by on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:24:00 GMT

Check out this video!

This video is great spot on Boston Nocturnal with cool montages of BAS at Matt Murphy's on sunday night playing "Kosmic Spiral" and "Revival time". Short but sweaty, it catches a taste of the amazin...
Posted by on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:26:00 GMT

Check this for gigs!

Check this for my BAS gigs!
Posted by on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:23:00 GMT