EFE BES
Efe Bes, a Central African native, born in Detroit, MI is the founder and lead musician of iBm and Bambuti music and movement group. BES, the culture-shifting New Afrikan Instumentalist, masterfully fuses new-school African polyrhythms with contemporary hip-hop, techno, house, jazz, reggae, & pop aesthetics.
Nearly 20 years ago, while working as an African art collector and curator, Efe became aware of the significance and role of music in African culture; at this same time, he also discovered his natural talent for drumming. Out of this cultural connectivity and ancestral awareness, grew Efe’s inspiration to create music that would emphasizes the African origins of all music styles. Since then, he as become a veritable master of his craft, using his artistic genius to recenter the drums as an integral part of daily life and cultural communication. Thus, he believes that cultural continuity via material culture is the tool that is used for ancestral communication.
Today, as a single drummer or being accompanied by dancers, Efe has performed locally, nationally, and internationally with music notables such as Alicia Keys, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Parliment Funkadelic alum. Efe has been a featured artist at the Henry Ford Museum, Detroit African World Festivals, and was recently announced as a 2016 Detroit Afrikan Music Institution artist-in-residence.