.Worldly Rhythms

The experience of watching a group of artists get together and create something raw and heartfelt is like no other. Some may go so far as to say people are attracted to places like Santa Cruz for its openness to such endeavors.

Such is the case for Elie Mabanza, 42, a musician born and raised in Congo Brazzaville who became smitten by the town’s ocean, forests and people.

Mabanza’s first home in America was in Cary, North Carolina, where he worked as a dishwasher at an Olive Garden, which he says was a new adventure. After three years, Mabanza came to visit a friend in Santa Cruz. He says he fell in love with the town and decided to move closer in 2017.

“Music brought me here. I don’t like to talk about my past life,” Mabanza said when asked why he left Congo. “Sometimes you don’t want to go back, to just close the door and walk away. … I can create something that takes me to the past.”

Almost a decade after leaving his hometown, Mabanza is the frontman in many bands, such as Afro Hi Life and Mokili Wa (which means “World Listen” in Mabanza’s native languages of Lingala and Lari). He lures people in with a sweet voice and a band of skilled musicians.

Mabanza regularly plays with Ryan Price (bass), Spencer Peterson (keyboards), Joe Rayhbuck (drums), Anne Stafford (sax), Drew Pieros (percussion) and Jaime Sanchez.

At each gig, Mabanza and his colleagues improvise a unique set—one that he says “has never been played before and probably won’t ever be played again.”

Mabanza insists that everyone has rhythm within them. “Any person in this world … is like a musician because our body, it’s music. It’s like a clock. Your heart is beating, your clock is moving, everything is in rhythm.”

That is why he says that every musician should learn percussion: “That’s our rhythm, our heart.”

Mabanza says he started playing music in his mother’s womb, his first instrument being his heartbeat. His family was musical, and Mabanza is undoubtedly a gifted singer, songwriter and instrumentalist himself. He allows that his mother was not the one to pass down the singing genes. His father, a pastor, would play the guitar to his mother while she was pregnant, foreshadowing Mabanza’s passion for playing the guitar, in which he is almost entirely self-taught.

Mabanza says he was always the troublemaker growing up.

“I have to say I was really stubborn, I cannot ignore that,” he recalls. “With seven siblings you’re sure to have someone who is the ‘good crazy.’ … I was the good crazy.”

His father was a disciplinarian who kept him “in the loop.” Mabanza remembers many instances in his childhood where his father confiscated his guitar as a punishment and put him in a room with nothing to do for hours.

Mabanza remembers his father as a good leader who supported his community. He has taken on that role himself, both as a father and by being there for others through his musical performances.

“It’s hard to see a lot of people dying and fighting, it’s really hard,” Mabanza says. “No one belongs to this Earth; one day we’re gonna die. Why not put our ego away and be there for everybody?”

Elie Mabanza plays in Santa Cruz on Sept 27 at Chaminade and Sept. 28 at Abbott Square. For details on these shows and others in the future, visit eliemabanza.com.