(upbeat music) - Welcome to "11th & Grant."

I'm Eric Funk.

Tonight, BoZambique performs an energetic set, with music from Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, and the Sahara Region of Africa.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Infused with American rhythm and blues, jazz and rock, it's a sound this band calls Rocky Mountain Highlife.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - I take what's ordinarily a melodic instrument and play percussion.

The drums are, they're supposed to be like this, but he's thinking in terms of melody.

And that drives us, brings us joy.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) And so we feel that if it brings us joy just making this music and being part of that music, other people are gonna pick up on that too.

(upbeat music continues) - [Eric] BoZambique, next on "11th & Grant."

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "11th & Grant" was made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, Montana State University Office of the President, Quinn's Hot Springs Resort, Donna Spitzer-Ostrovsky, in loving memory of Jack Ostrovsky, the godfather of "11th & Grant," Gomez and Mary Routhier, great music will blow the dust off your soul, Iris Model, Sanbell, Betty Clauson, honoring Bob and Suzy Sterling, Regina M. Wunsch and Walter G. Wunsch, Music Villa and Gibson guitar, the Utzinger Family, Bill and Jane Gum, Rob Maher and Lynn Peterson-Maher, Nancy Thompson Flikkema, and by these generous donors.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (rhythmic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (no audio) (rhythmic music) (lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (rhythmic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (rhythmic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Our music is a fusion of American music, the influences of blues, jazz, rock and roll, R&B.

We've got that in our musical DNA.

And then specific to highlife music, because of the history of highlife being really a matter of, you know, through slavery, when African people were brought during those dark times, you know, 500, 400 years ago, came into the Caribbean, you know, and through South America, and obviously in America here.

The predominant influence musically that emerged in Cuba was different than what emerged here.

More of the agrarian parts of Africa, the influences of music from that part, was our primary basis and roots, where blues came out of, you know, the Delta music, and then from there grew into jazz and rock and roll.

And then Cuba, they had much more of a West African influence, where the clave came into play.

'Cause that 3-2/2-3 clave wasn't here originally.

So then you've got this mixture of influence between Cuba and the United States, a lot being in New Orleans.

- It's just like a breath of fresh air.

It's like, where did this come from, even though it's very old.

And, you know, it's gone through all these permutations exponentially, and over time, now this version.

Because I don't think there's ownership.

No, this is the way it's supposed to be.

This is the way we do it.

Oh, that's cool.

This is the way we do it.

- [Ben] In fact, we call it Rocky Mountain Highlife.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's what we describe our music is Rocky Mountain Highlife.

And that's that (indistinct)- (Blaise - The Ski Bum Version) - Right, the ski bum highlife music.

The other thing that I think is interesting is we play acoustic instruments.

We're plugged in, but we're playing acoustic instruments.

It's the hollow body, and you're playing a hollow body.

So we're kind of reintroducing and bringing back that organic acoustic sound.

- And we're not actually technically playing these highlife songs, you know, in the, we're not trying to be an authentic- - [Doug] We're not a cover band of the old recordings.

- We're not an authentic highlife band.

So we inject a lot of stuff, like stuff from country music or whatever.

And we're kind of just taking the rhythms and the basic idea of these highlife songs and then just sort of injecting them with whatever we feel like sounds good- - Right.

- In the moment.

So there's a lot of- - With all our influences.

- Influences from all the different styles of music that we listen to that go into the songs.

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Everybody's just bringing it.

So honest, so there, so in the pocket.

I mean, there were times when I was watching you play those bass lines where you were, like, hypnotized.

You're just laying down this mesmerizing line and then, dang, that's just so tight.

You know, to be able to, and to count on that and know that that foundation is there, so that when you're gonna solo, you know, do ornamented things, you know that you don't even really have to think about the groove pocket, you can just play 'cause it's being carried.

So you just, here's the stage.

What is it that you would like to say on your soliloquy, right?

And so I just kept experiencing that and everything felt very fresh and very alive.

So it would be kind of interesting to hear you guys talk about what it's like from the inside of that.

- I think our music is not layered in the way that, like, rock music is, where it's drum set, bass, guitars, lead on top.

You know, there are certain times when the three of us will have to be the drum section and then Doug will be playing a solo and counter rhythms to us.

So everybody, I think, has to be the part of the drum set at all times.

And I think that helps us lock in a lot.

'Cause there's really no point.

Unless you're doing a solo, there's no point where you're not part of the percussion section.

- I take what's ordinarily a melodic instrument and play percussion.

So again, that's back to that idea of not trying to, we're trying to break down the boundaries of, well, you're supposed to play like this 'cause it's a flute.

Flute sounds like this, you know?

Or the drums, they're supposed to be like this.

But he's thinking in terms of melody, and then that's beautiful.

And I'm thinking, okay, I'm not a melodic instrument.

I'm a drum, I'm a conga.

These different notes aren't different notes, they're different drums.

We're not afraid to experiment.

We're not afraid to go down a path and see what happens because we learn so much from that.

And sometimes it goes down a dead end and doesn't work, but there's, like, this sweet spot.

When the song hits in that sweet spot, it grooves, it just settles.

And that's just the right thing.

'Cause we'll finish a song and we'll all go, "Oh, that was so cool.

That was beautiful."

Like, it wasn't us.

You know, it's like it happens and we stand back and go, "Wow, what happened just there was amazing."

And that drives us, brings us joy.

And so we feel that if it brings us joy just making this music and being part of that music, other people are gonna pick up on that too.

And that gives us a purpose, that gives us a drive, that gives us a reason for being, to bring joy to people.

So hopefully, people, even though we're not speaking words to tell 'em what the song's about, they're still picking up on the joy that we're feeling when we're playing the music.

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(group laughing) - I felt that a couple of times.

- [Doug] Me too.

- Hold on.

- But it can't really because everybody's holding the pocket.

It's the interpretation of it.

But the end result, I mean, it's just another layer of magic.

And that's part, you know, where you, I think if you try to control it too much, it starts feeling contrived.

It doesn't feel, it's not as fun.

The bring it to disaster is scary, you know, and very creative.

Disaster, not so much.

- Right.

But that's what's fun is, do you get through it?

And we just survived the, the plane was going down, but we planted.

We just all (indistinct).

- Yeah, man, we survived it.

Sweet.

- You know, what's ironic for me, you know, when I do stuff in Cuba, and the Cubans are, they don't like you to change the things.

You know, you play it this way and they're very dogmatic.

And everybody knows, if you're off 1/64th, then they'll look at you like, "What'd you do that for," you know?

You know, we get to take that structure and that groove, but we take liberties with it, you know, and mess with that a little bit, you know, in ways in which they wouldn't do, typically.

- You guys take yourselves very seriously and you don't take yourself very seriously.

You take the music seriously.

But there's a playfulness that's there also.

And that's infectious.

'Cause looking, I mean, the predominant facial expression was either contemplative or smiling.

So the magic was working its work, you know, throughout the room.

- It's gotta work on us first.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

But it takes us committing.

I mean, that's the other thing, we commit.

We commit to the song.

Once we kind of figure out what it is, we all just completely commit to it.

And that's where the magic happens.

It's also we're riding on the edge of disaster, that's my favorite place, especially in solos.

It's like, okay, how far can I take this and try to ride that edge?

You know, it's like a surfer riding the wave.

- Right.

And it's fun when you're in that mindset and you're playing like that, things come up that might not come up when you're trying to plan things, or at practice, when we're just making sure we know where all the parts are and whatnot.

When you're playing live, again, this improvisational music, anything goes and it's fun, and then you might tap into something that turns into an idea for another song, or, "Hey, that was cool.

Let's keep that or make that a part or do things like that."

There's all these little subtleties within all that, or just as a solo player, I'm gonna remember that little thing I did because that was pretty cool.

And you build on that.

But it's just such a cool wild west of going out and just seeing what works and playing with it and having fun.

You know, sometimes that's risky, so, you know, that could crash and burn, or sometimes it's awesome and you land the plane.

- The magic happens, yeah.

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