If there’s one fixture in Taipei’s ever-changing live music circuit, it’s Nbugu Kenyatta. Since arriving 16 years ago, the drummer and singer has been rocking Taipei with the groove-oriented music of his hometown, New Orleans.
Nowadays the 54-year-old plays with his band, the Kenyatta Trio, at the Tavern every Friday and Capone’s on Saturdays. The group covers many styles, ranging from R’n’B and soul to reggae and funk.
In the early 1990s Kenyatta made a splash as part of the house band at the now-defunct club TU, breathing fresh air into Taipei nightlife with the sounds of traditional New Orleans jazz. Later on, club owner Ted Su (蘇誠修) asked Kenyatta to bring his electric band, ARRK, which played classic funk and R’n’B in the spirit of acts like the Meters, Dr John and the Neville Brothers.
They played up to four hours a night, seven nights a week, and Kenyatta loved every minute of it. “They actually had to ask us to stop playing and take a vacation because … being from New Orleans we’re used to playing 24 hours, 24-7,” he said, sipping on a beer at Capone’s.
Kenyatta, also known by his original name Abe Thompson, developed a passion for music at the age of 10, when he would spend hours waiting for his brother to give him a turn on the drum kit. The first song he learned was James Brown’s Cold Sweat.
By high school he was practically eating and breathing music. He sang with his five brothers and two sisters in a Motown-style group called the Tempressions (inspired by the Temptations and the Impressions), played the snare drum with his high school marching band, and performed psychedelic rock and R’n’B with the Energy Funk Band, another group formed with his family.
Kenyatta continued to study music while earning his education degree at Southern University at New Orleans, which he says gave him the opportunity to share the stage with greats such as jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist Carl Le Blanc and avant-garde jazz composer Sun Ra.
One of his most valuable experiences was playing the clubs on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street starting from the age of 17, he said. He became proficient in many different styles, including reggae, R’n’B, funk, jazz and blues, all of which are an important part of playing music in New Orleans, he said. “You have to play more than one style. You have to be versatile … You have to play all of it.”
“Fulfilling” is how Ray Anthony, current guitarist for the Kenyatta Trio, describes playing with Kenyatta. “You’re playing with people that really enjoy playing the music,” he said.
Kenyatta met his wife of 10 years, Kim Wei (魏宣愉), in Taipei. He sees himself as a “liaison” between New Orleans music culture and Taiwan and likes the occasional times when he gets recognized on the street by past audience members. “It gives me such a great feeling that — hey, people know me.”
Lately the Trio’s set has included Jimi Hendrix tunes, reggae and several original songs by Kenyatta, which he wrote just after recovering from a stroke nearly two years ago.
The health scare hasn’t changed Kenyatta’s feelings about playing on stage, which he describes as “heaven.”
Besides, what would he do without music? “It’s a part of me. I can’t live without it.”
— DAVID CHEN
Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 Over a breakfast of soymilk and fried dough costing less than NT$400, seven officials and engineers agreed on a NT$400 million plan — unaware that it would mark the beginning of Taiwan’s semiconductor empire. It was a cold February morning in 1974. Gathered at the unassuming shop were Economics minister Sun Yun-hsuan (孫運璿), director-general of Transportation and Communications Kao Yu-shu (高玉樹), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) president Wang Chao-chen (王兆振), Telecommunications Laboratories director Kang Pao-huang (康寶煌), Executive Yuan secretary-general Fei Hua (費驊), director-general of Telecommunications Fang Hsien-chi (方賢齊) and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Laboratories director Pan
The consensus on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair race is that Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) ran a populist, ideological back-to-basics campaign and soundly defeated former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), the candidate backed by the big institutional players. Cheng tapped into a wave of popular enthusiasm within the KMT, while the institutional players’ get-out-the-vote abilities fell flat, suggesting their power has weakened significantly. Yet, a closer look at the race paints a more complicated picture, raising questions about some analysts’ conclusions, including my own. TURNOUT Here is a surprising statistic: Turnout was 130,678, or 39.46 percent of the 331,145 eligible party
The classic warmth of a good old-fashioned izakaya beckons you in, all cozy nooks and dark wood finishes, as tables order a third round and waiters sling tapas-sized bites and assorted — sometimes unidentifiable — skewered meats. But there’s a romantic hush about this Ximending (西門町) hotspot, with cocktails savored, plating elegant and never rushed and daters and diners lit by candlelight and chandelier. Each chair is mismatched and the assorted tables appear to be the fanciest picks from a nearby flea market. A naked sewing mannequin stands in a dimly lit corner, adorned with antique mirrors and draped foliage
The election of Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) as chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) marked a triumphant return of pride in the “Chinese” in the party name. Cheng wants Taiwanese to be proud to call themselves Chinese again. The unambiguous winner was a return to the KMT ideology that formed in the early 2000s under then chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) put into practice as far as he could, until ultimately thwarted by hundreds of thousands of protestors thronging the streets in what became known as the Sunflower movement in 2014. Cheng is an unambiguous Chinese ethnonationalist,
RSS