Next Stage Arts Project will host its annual Gala Benefit Dance Party, to benefit Next Stage programming, featuring the Afro-Celtic Funk band Soulsha on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 pm. The party will include an online auction, great food and a beer and wine cash bar. Ticket price includes dinner by Smokin’ Bowls.
Soulsha is a party, a revolution, and an adventure through different traditions. It brings together some of Boston’s top musicians in Scottish, West African and Funk music to create a sound you won’t find anywhere else on the planet Soulful call and response singing, masterful improvisation, traditional Sengalese and Scottish dancing and incredible energy make every Soulsha show and unforgettable live experience. Intricate rhythms, soaring bagpipe melodies, and New Orleans-infused horn lines come together seamlessly, and the joy of music rises above all the differences, reminding us that were all in this together.
The band formed through a series of serendipitous meetings in the thriving and intersecting multi-cultural melting pot of Boston. Many of the members are virtuosic and highly esteemed tradition-bearers in their styles. In Soulsha, they saw a chance to bridge divides. The music they’ve created is a conversation between cultures that breaks music they’ve created is a conversation between cultures that breaks down all boundaries, moving the audience to abandon their assumptions as they lose themselves on the dance floor. Soulsha will delight lovers of everything from jam bands to bluegrass. While it shares obvious roots with afro-Celt Sound Systems electronic fusion, the funk-inspired sound of Soulsha puts tradition and interchange center stage, bringing the party energy of Rebirth Brass Band and the cultural gravitas of masters like Malian Toumani Diabate. The sound is fun but deep, fresh but familiar, immigrant and yet deeply American. For several years, Soulsha has been developing their sound while bringing audiences to their feet at a string of northeastern US Festivals.
This is purely infectious stuff. It’s fresh, bold and exciting and defies you to listen without moving and grooving to the beat. — Boston Irish Reporter
Don’t miss the party everyone will be talking about!
Tickets are $35 each or two for $60 and at the door, and purchase includes dinner by Smoking’ Bowls, beer and wine cash bar.
