One of the first places Junichiro “John” Imaeda visited in Japan after a three-month stay in West Africa in 2008 was the Koenji Awa Odori, one of Tokyo’s largest summer festivals. Seeing the dance troupes, musicians and partygoers who filled the streets after his trip caused an aha moment.
“It made me realize that all people share musical similarities, that we all have rhythms that we move to and that we share,” Imaeda recalls. “Then I started Ajate.”
Imaeda, 43, and eight other artists have used Ajate as a way to explore the intersection of West African melodies with Japan’s festival-style sounds, powered by taiko (Japanese drums), shinobue (Japanese flute) and other traditional local instruments. The group’s latest album, “Dala Toni”, offers a particularly ecstatic example of his ‘Afrobayashi’ – a portmanteau of ‘Afrobeat’ and ‘o-hayashi” (traditional Japanese music).
