Ackamoor’s route to Afro-Futurist jazz began in the US in the 1960s, but was fast tracked in 1972, when he and the band, then a trio, began a year traveling and performing in Africa.
From Morocco, the group set off through Senegal for Ghana, before crossing the continent and traveling in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Along the way they experienced at first-hand the ritual power of music and its ability to bind communities together—the twin tenets of first-wave Afro-Futurist jazz, which combined science fiction-inspired magical realism with black consciousness-inspired sociopolitical activism.