Afro rock is a style of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

with West African influences. Afro rock bands and artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s included

Osibisa Osibisa are a Ghanaian-British Afro-Rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

Assagai Assagai was an Afro-rock band, active in the early 1970s in London, whose relatively short career produced two albums recorded in 1971. It has been described as "the second best-known African group of the late 60s/early 70s in Britain" after Osi ...

and

Lafayette Afro Rock Band Lafayette Afro Rock Band was an American funk rock band formed in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York in 1970. Shortly after their formation, they relocated to France. Though little-known in their native United States during their recording period, t ...

Style

The style relies on the use of rock

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s (

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

s and electric bass) and guitar effects like

wah wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...

. Songs are based around a rock chordal structure and progression with a horn section, and keyed instruments such as electric piano,

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

, and

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

. The rhythmic elements of the music are drums and bass, but other characteristically African and Afro-Cuban elements are the percussion instruments including congas, bongos, claves, whistles and other Latin percussion. Late 1960s, Super Eagles and Psychedelic Aliens were roots of afro rock. Osibisa and Assagai were founded in England.

Afro rock musicians

Cymande Cymande (pronounced ) is a British funk group that was originally active in the early 1970s. The band name derives from a calypso word for "dove", which symbolises peace and love; "Dove" is also the title of one of their best-known songs. Wi ...

Demon Fuzz Demon Fuzz was an English rock band which was formed in 1968 and broke up in 1972. Its members had all immigrated to Britain from Commonwealth countries. The band's name means "devil's children or bad policemen". The band's music has generally b ...

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Retrieved 19 April 2022 * Monomono *

Remi Kabaka Remi Kabaka (born 27 March 1945) is an Afro-rock avant-garde drummer. He worked with John Martyn, Hugh Masekela, on ''Rhythm of the Saints'' by Paul Simon, and ''Short Cut Draw Blood'' by Jim Capaldi. He was also an important figure in the 1970s af ...

, drummer

Style

Afro rock musicians

References

See also