Kokolo, also known as the Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, is an American Afrobeat band from the Lower East Side of New York City, formed in 2001 by songwriter/producer Ray Lugo. Along with The Daktaris and Antibalas, they form part of the early New York Afrobeat scene that ignited the genre’s current global revival. The band's name was taken from a 1970's term used in Spanish Harlem and parts of the Caribbean, often as a pejorative, to describe Latinos of African descent who were fans of Afro music. Kokolo aimed to invert the negative connotation of the term through the positivity in their music.
Prior to founding Kokolo, Lugo’s musical background was rooted in New York’s downtown hardcore punk and rock scenes, associating with groups such as Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Gorilla Biscuits, Jawbreaker, Youth Of Today, Anthrax, Leeway and Warzone. Warzone’s lead singer, Raymond “Raybeez” Barbieri was a close personal friend of Lugo and an early mentor on the ins-and-outs of independent music, inspiring the DIY ethic that would become a key characteristic of Kokolo.
By the summer of 1995, Lugo ran Underhanded Studios, a recording facility on Ludlow Street which he shared with Mark Anthony Thompson from Chocolate Genius, Sim Cain from the Rollins Band and Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto/Sean Lennon) . While at Underhanded, Lugo befriended Gabe Roth and Phillip Lehman, who soon recorded the first albums for Desco Records at Underhanded and who would go on to release the Daktaris album, which spearheaded the Afrobeat revival in New York. Also during this time, while producing King Chango’s debut recordings, Lugo recruited Martin Perna and Mike Wagner as the group’s horn section. Perna and Wagner would go on to form Antibalas, along with percussionist Fernando Velez (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings), another former King Chango alumni.
Lugo’s search for a new musical direction let him to form Kokolo in the spring of 2001, enthused by the template of his friends in Antibalas and informed by the music of Fela Kuti, James Brown and the Fania All-Stars and by the live power of groups like Bad Brains, The Clash and Mano Negra.
Initially a traditional Afrobeat ensemble, the group consisted of 14 members from various parts of the world, and as a result of a revolving door of musicians coming in and out of the group, the initial months proved frustrating at tightening up the group as a live unit. During this time Lugo met English Trombonist Chris Morrow, the only other original member currently in the group.
In the summer of 2001, Lugo turned to Gabe Roth to produce Kokolo’s debut album “Fuss And Fight”, so called because Lugo wanted to denote the friction and internal bickering going on within the group at that time. Recorded at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, featuring some of the musicians in Antibalas and released on the UK Label AfroKings, “Fuss And Fight” quickly gained the band a following, in particular with European audiences, due in part to the relative novelty of the genre, but also due to their high-energy performances and undeniable talent, and the band soon toured the UK for the first time. Prior to this maiden tour and a result of internal disagreements, most of the initial group left to form the Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble.
Finding themselves stuck with an upcoming tour and no band, Roth came to the rescue by connecting Lugo and Morrow with longtime collaborator and former Fela Kuti/Manu DiBango drummer Jojo Kuo, enabling them to carry on with the tour.
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