On The Verge

TriBeCaStan

New York, N.Y.
American World Music
www.tribecastan.tv

When you hitch a ride with TriBeCaStan, you never know where you’re going to touch down. “People don’t think of American music as world music,” says John Kurth, the band’s main composer. He started TriBeCaStan with multi-instrumentalist, percussionist and fellow folk-freak Jeff Greene in 2007. “Yusef Lateef said labels are segregation—a way of saying black, white or Latino without being direct. Musicians in Africa, India and Latin America have been influenced by funk and rock, but Americans feel like we have to apologize if we borrow from another culture.” TriBeCaStan plays a jazzy, global folk hybrid inspired by New York City’s cross-pollinating musical and cultural community. They blend free jazz, Afghani rhythms, boogie-woogie and Balkan wedding music with an effortless grace that’s always musical and often danceable. “I grew up listening to Don Cherry’s world jazz, Dylan and the Master Musicians of Jajouka,” Kurth explains. “It’s all one big, planetary stew. That’s why we call our album New Deli. In the delis of New York, you have floor to ceiling shelves with spices and food from all over the planet. In our New Deli, you get free jazz, American roots and folk music from all over the world.”