 | Tulum funk & soul band makes its D.F. debutBY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
The vibraphone's mellow chime, the saxophones' funky notes and smooth, powerful vocals fill the stage as La Femi's thumping rhythms pulse through the audience at the band's first concert in Mexico City.
The Tulum-based funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop group on Wednesday played for the first time outside its Yucatan Peninsula hometown, blasting its fusion of Latin and West African rhythms into the Foro Shakespeare concert hall in Colonia Condesa.
La Femi is set to play again this Saturday at the Black Horse bar in Condesa, rounding off its debut in the Federal District and kicking off plans to play all throughout Mexico's biggest cities.
The six-member band will also record its first album, "Children of the World," in Cuernavaca at the end of the month. Release dates and places to buy the disc will be posted on its MySpace page in September.
FORMING LA FEMI
La Femi first formed in late 2008, although the members had all met each other the year before.
Ale, the lead vocalist who is originally from Seattle, explained that Tulum is such a small, connected community that it is easy for musicians and artists to gravitate towards each other.
"All the musicians get together and have jams. It's like a family of musicians," she said before the Wednesday concert, bouncing her 10-month-old daughter Femi, the band's namesake, on her lap.
"Femi" is Swahili for "love me," she said, adding that she and her husband Angel, the band's Cuernavacíborn drummer, picked an African name because of his training in West African drumming and traditional rhythms.
The band first started playing together after Ale and Gabo, the bass guitarist from Mexico City, met up with Angel in the Tulum group Guadalup. Soon after, the trio was joined by three French jazz musicians: Jacques, who plays the vibraphone and keyboards, and Adrian and Sebastien, who both play saxophones.
"We want to create a new fusion and a completely original product," Jacques said. "We all come from different places and have different styles of music, so we want to make something brand new."
And La Femi does achieve a unique style, one that borrows from various genres but offers a fresh sound that is both captivating and entertaining.
Back at the mid-week show, the band's performance of "Use It" blends catchy saxophone solos with Ale's smooth voice, her melody forming a harmony by tapping a loop pedal on the ground. She then bursts into a dynamic rap accompanied only by the drums and bass until the keyboards and saxophones join in again.
The next song, "Legs," is slower, more seductive number, opening with Ale's cabaret-style voice as the vibraphone steadily chimes in and subtle drumming sets a sexier vibe; suddenly the vocals erupt into a throaty, forceful chorus.
In each song Ale channels the beat of the drums and bass into expressive dancing, moving easily with the rhythms and inspiring those in the audience to do the same. And in every song, the mostly English-language lyrics have an upbeat vibe, reflecting the group's creed of looking at life with a positive attitude.
OUT OF TULUM
For the band, this week will have marked the beginning steps in their journey to spread their funk, jazz and hip-hop sounds across Mexico. The band left Tulum in May to escape the oppressive heat and low tourist season and intends to return at the end of the year.
While La Femi has become a well-known group in Tulum and getting gigs has been easy for the sextet, their competition outside the coastal artist community is much larger and far more intense.
"We've ventured outside Tulum to get a better name for ourselves and to get better work," Ale said, adding that the group has their sights set on cities like Guadalajara, QuerActaro, San Luis Potosí and San Miguel de Allende.
She said La Femi has also found success playing concerts and jam sessions in the streets, shows she called gratifying exhibitions that in the past has attracted outdoor crowds of around 200 people.
"All I want is for us to get invited to festivals worldwide, and if La Femi can play year-round, then we've reached our goals," she added.
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