No, Zion80 is not a Jewish agency promoting aliyah to octogenarians.
It is a New York-based band that blends Jewish liturgical melodies with the horn-driven Afrobeat sound pioneered by the late Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
So, does Zion80’s appropriation of sub-Saharan African music qualify as cultural theft? John Madof, the band’s founder and lead guitarist, says no way.
“I understand when someone says to me ‘You’re not African or African American. How can you play this music?’ ” Madof says. “I say I’m not trying to be Fela. I’m white, I’m Jewish, I grew up in the suburbs and I love Afrobeat music.”
Madof and his 11-piece band will spread the love at their Bay Area premiere concert on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Judging from their playlist — which includes “Lecha Dodi,” “V’Shamru” and “Ein K’Elokeinnu” — Zion80 specializes in melodies sung in many synagogues. By wrapping them around twin baritone saxophones, twin guitars and a beat funky enough to get James Brown to do the splits, Zion80 has come up with something out-of-this-shul.
“The [Afrobeat] genre has an amazing mix of stuff,” Madof says. “Fela was a horn player, so he was coming out of jazz. I understood the references. My musical training is in jazz.”
Madof formed Zion80 in 2011, but his Jewish-African musical hybrid had been gestating years before that.
The Philadelphia native grew up steeped in rock and punk, but took to jazz while studying at Oberlin College. After marrying and moving to Brooklyn, Madof discovered his Jewish roots and became observant.
At around the same time, in the early 2000s, he first heard the music of Kuti (popularly known as Fela), who died in 1997. Madof calls that moment “a revelation.”
Madof went on to record a string of CDs with his trio, Rashanim, for the innovative label Tzadik Records, founded by composer and Jewish music innovator John Zorn.
But the notion of a Jewish-Afrobeat mashup didn’t occur to him until 2011. After listening to a Fela CD one Friday afternoon, he switched gears after sundown and started humming a Shabbat tune by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the famed composer of Jewish religious melodies.
That’s when lighting struck.
Madof knew that in order to do Afrobeat right, his new band would have to be horn heavy. But he wasn’t sure exactly what instruments he needed.
“Zorn told me to think about the people I’d be most excited to play with,” Madof says. “If that’s three tubas, a drummer and an opera singer, then that’s what it is.”
Instead Madof opted for a five-horn, two-guitar front line, backed by keyboards, percussion, bass and drums. He lucked out in recruiting trumpeter Frank London, whose work as a solo artist and with bands such as the Klezmatics had made him a Jewish music fixture.
Zion80 developed its style after a summer-long residency at Zorn’s New York club, the Stone. From there, the band recorded two albums — one mostly of Carlebach tunes, the other consisting of Zorn’s music — and performed around New York. They also performed at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto and the international jazz festival in Saalfelden, Austria.
As big a sound as the band possesses, Zion80 has no vocalist and only rarely includes any vocals. That is by design. Madof says his initial concept of the band included no singers.
“I’m going to trust that intuition,” he says. “When I hear this music in my head, it has no words. But [vocals] are something I’d like to explore more.”
Meanwhile, Zion80 continues what Madof hopes is an upward trajectory. A sterling San Francisco concert is part of that plan.
“The best performances are like a tidal wave,” he says. “It takes you with it and doesn’t let you go.”
Zion80 plays 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at the JCCSF, 3200 California St., S.F. $30-$40. (415) 292-1233 or www.jccsf.org