Formed in 2005, the members of Asheville, N.C., quintet Toubab Krewe fuse fluid instrumental psyche-rock and worldly jazz with West African rhythms. The band's sound was nurtured over the course of several extended trips to Mali, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, where they absorbed the local cultures, studied and performed with a range of West African musicians and even played the remote Festival of the Desert in Essakane, Mali. Toubab Krewe maintains its authentic Mali flavor by incorporating traditional West African instruments into its sound — among them the kora (a 21-string harp-lute made from a large African gourd), the kamalengoni (a six-string harp-lute that looks like a backward banjo), a soku (a Malian horsehair fiddle) and African percussion in addition to the usual guitar-bass-drum lineup.
Toubab Krewe w/The Bird Street Players, 8 p.m. Fri., June 20, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $15, statetheatreconcerts.com.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2008.