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An underground afrobeat act.
Brooklyn’s Kaleta & Super Yamba Band are fronted by Afrobeat and Juju veteran Leon Ligan-Majek a.k.a. Kaleta. The singer/guitarist from the West African country of Benin Republic lived his adolescent life in Lagos, Nigeria where Afrobeat was born. Kaleta's guitar chops earned him decades of touring and recording with Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Lauryn Hill and more. Now based in New York City, Kaleta has been leading Super Yamba Band since 2017. Their debut album "Mèdaho," released by California indie label Ubiquity Records, draws on the group’s shared reverence for the raw, psychedelic sounds that captivated Kaleta as a music loving kid in 1970s Benin. Mèdaho means "big brother," "elder" or "teacher" and is dedicated to Kaleta's late brother Ligan-Ozavino Pascal who introduced him to funk and soul music at a very early age. Kaleta and his band have erupted onto the stages and video screens of major music festivals and music publications across the North America. The band appears in the ABC/Hulu series High Fidelity staring Zoe Kravitz. They performed at the historic Apollo Theatre in 2019. They even prompted Action Bronson to stop his own show on VICELAND TV just so he could hear more Yamba. They also performed on Adult Swim’s Fishcenter Live show in 2019. They rocked Paste Magazine’s Emerging Music Festival in 2017 and after that performance Afropop Worldwide fell in love with Kaleta, saying “his James Brown grunts have got to be some of the best in the business!”
Kaleta & Super Yamba Band plays high-energy afro-funk and psychedelic afrobeat inspired by 1970s West African sounds, releasing music through independent labels like Ubiquity Records.
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Kaleta & Super Yamba Band is based in Brooklyn, New York, drawing heavily on the musical heritage of Benin and Nigeria.