JP’s Music

by James Pasinsky

Afro Yaqui Music Collective | Maroon Futures

The award-winning, multilingual jazz band, Afro Yaqui Music Collective have recently released a new six-song album titled “Maroon Futures.” The band is led by frontwomen Gizelxanath Rodriguez, who takes her experiences of growing up Mexican and American along with her ancestry as an Indigenous Yaqui woman and mixes that with a group of elite musicians to create some truly unique and exciting jams. The album begins with “Nonantizin,” as Gizelxanath scats along with the band on this high-energy introduction track. The music gets more funky and exotic on “Sister Soul,” as you feel the band’s passion for what that stand for in their performance. A Latin sound is spread across “La Cigarra” and a more modern jazz fusion approach is the common thread on “We Refuse To Be Used And Abused.” The album wraps up with the more experimental nature of “Insurrealista,” as each instrument looks to support the direction it wants to go