Trio Mokili play music from across the African continent, with original arrangements that embrace the traditional and the exploratory, the canonical and the experimental. The musicians bring their many years of work in African musical forms, but also embrace their backgrounds in the genres of jazz, avant garde music, and underground rock.

The project was started in Chicago by guitarist Nathaniel Braddock in 2013. For many years Braddock had led the African styles group, the Occidental Brothers Dance Band Int’l, but the group had grown to the point of only playing larger events, and he wanted to be playing more frequently and more expansively. He invited OBDBI drummer, Makaya McCraven, to join him in the project, and they then invited Chicago bassist, Junius Paul. Their repertoire drew from Braddock’s work teaching African guitar music, as well as his many collaborations with musicians from Congo, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Uganda, Zambia, and Mozambique. The group’s name is inspired by a piece written for the OBDBI by Braddock and Congolese singer, Samba Mapangala.

Braddock moved to Sydney in Australia in 2014, and the group resumed playing when he returned to the US in 2016. The group recorded two sessions in that time at Electrical Audio—the first engineered by Kris Poulin, and the second by Greg Norman. As Makaya became increasingly occupied with his own project, other drummers and bassists from the Chicago scene would fill in with the Trio, but this record captures the group at its creative peak. The included performances are arrangements of pieces by Mulatu Astatke, Fela Kuti, Thomas Mapfumo and Jonah Sithole, Boubacar Traore, and Francis Bebey.

Makaya leads his own projects and records for International Anthem and Blue Note Records. Junius performs with Makaya, Roscoe Mitchell, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Nathaniel also leads the Accra Quartet, Occidental Brothers, Maison Électronique, and the Palmwine Session. He photo blogs his travels in DRC and West Africa on Instagram.

This album is available digitally and on LP through BandCamp, and is not offered on SPOTIFY or any other streaming platform.

MUSICIANS

Nathaniel Braddock: guitar, piano, percussions
Makaya McCraven: drums and percussions
Junius Paul: contrabass

RECORD INFORMATION

• Tracked at Electrical Audio, Chicago
  Engineered by Kris Poulin and Greg Norman

• Additional tracking at the Soul Shop, Medford, MA, Engineered by Elio DeLuca

• Editing by Makaya McCraven

• Mixed at Go-Home Records, San Diego, by Kris Poulin

• Mastered by Carl Saff

• Produced by Nathaniel Braddock

• Cover painting by Daniel Marcellus Givens