.Worldly Rhythms

Music brought this Congolese guitarist to Santa Cruz

Another date this could be pegged to: Oct 19 at Woodhouse

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.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Hello Editor
    This is an IMPORTANT message:
    according to Chas Crowder who is the booking agent for Chaminade, he has not talked to either Ryan Price nor Elie Mabanza in ‘six months’ and that they are NOT on the schedule for Fri, 9/27.
    Of course, the Chaminade’s website has been showing Ryan, Elie and Steve Robertson for Friday, Sept 27 for more than one month’s time but Chas Crowder decided to cancel them w/o telling anyone (including the musicians them selves) and slotted in his own new trio (w/ a crappy name).
    Does the business know that Crowder did this unilaterally??
    It seems clearly down and dirty on Crowder’s part.
    This letter needs to be published so that other talented musicians do NOT get caught in that spider’s web.
    Elie’s music, whether it is solo or with any combination of other equally talented musicians, is simply out of this world and deserves to be heard worldwide by as many people as possible.
    He is one of my Heroes; thanks for publishing this article.

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  2. Even when Elie’s music is instrumental, it is so uplifting ! Glad that he is featured here; he deserves much success.

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  3. chas crowder, booking agent for Chaminade, sucks for canceling Elie and Ryan Price. Many people wish to see Elie and Ryan.
    Richard Stipes

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  4. What a joy to discover this write up on Elie. He’s a local treasure and a galvanized force for so many talented musical acts. If you haven’t seen him yet (in one of his many bands) get out there and experience the joy.

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  5. Hi Chas Crowder here.
    I not only have a copy of a text from Elie, which has been a friend of mine for years and if any of you actually played music for a living you’d know that.
    But you don’t.
    I also have a copy of a live conversation with Georgia. About this I also have a copy from the Chaminade. Emails hate speech coming in my direction.
    You want to talk with me let’s talk. Sounds like a bunch of old bored women her name is Georgia with nothing better to do, then to whine about someone they know nothing about and an event they know nothing about. I submit 30 shows a week to good times and I have been for years. You tell me you know my schedule? You know nothing. You know bored old woman. Karen we call you.

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