Fela Kuti is one of my major influences, and playing guitar in Afrobeat bands for 10 years has left a bit of a mark.

Elements of Afrobeat

Playlist photo is of my guembri (Gnawa bass lute), custom built by Hassan Laarousi at Yellowworkshop.com in Essouaria, Morocco

World Music Grooves and Fusions

70's Oakland funk in the style of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters band / Tower of Power, with an afrobeat intro/bridge section. Ideal for a 70's period film or TV show. Licensed to Berkeley's UCTheatre Renovation Timelapse video: https://vimeo.com/calsowncalzone/uct

East Bay Spank

Dark, dirty atmospheric film cues that swell into Fela-style lamentation grooves. Written for The Hustler, a short film shot in Freetown, Sierra Leone by The Genuis of Marian director Banker White/WeOwnTV: https://vimeo.com/calsowncalzone/thehustler

The Hustler: Afrobeat film score edit v3a

Percussive Abandon

Latin / Indian Fusion upbeat theme 1

A fun afro-latin loop with toy piano and fretless bass, intended for a kids puzzle game

Toy Montunito

Game loop driven by a soukous style guitar line, produced to accompany a dancing chicken doing the moonwalk

Soukous Moonwaddle

Nigerian Royal Scam is a vintage, up tempo afrobeat instrumental in the style of Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band. I reworked the drums and added horns in honor of Tony Allen, Fela's pioneering drummer on the anniversary of his death. Attempting to emulate his slinky, flowing groove and trademark tumbling-down-the-stairs drum fills felt like time well spent in his presence. Cheers to the rhythmic architect of afrobeat, thanks for the inspiration.

Arrangement features a heavy horn section, deep layers of hand percussion, funky interlocking guitars, vintage psychedelic keys

RIYL Fela Kuti, Budos Band, Antibalas, James Brown, Manu Dibango, King Sunny Ade, Mulatu Astatke, Ebo Taylor, Bob Marley, Miles Davis

Nigerian Royal Scam

Here's a high speed car chase groove with Middle Eastern percussion and shred guitar, which crashes into a 5/4 metal section with melismatic female vocal. 

CalZone on electric guitar and bass.

Middle Eastern Car Chase

The first half is a study in using speed fades, and editing, processing, and reharmonizing a vocal track using Logic's Flex mode, plus Time and Pitch Machine. Much of the percussion sounds and the distorted guitar like effects were created by time expanding and re-amping the sound of the vocalist clearing her throat at the beginning of the take. The second half explores manipulating segments of the vocal track with Logic's ESX24 sampler, and triggering the ES2 synth from a sidechain, all over an afrobeat groove in 7/8 time.

Desert Nightmare / Afrobeat Fever Dream

Cal Reichenbach produces eclectic music for film, TV, and video games. An accomplished guitarist and composer, Cal specializes in emotionally dynamic, rhythmically compelling scores that enhance visual action and propel narrative flow. His work spans a broad range of genres including rock, funk, jazz, afrobeat, Brazilian, orchestral, electronic, and world groove. Cal plays an array of guitar styles as well as bass, mandolin, ukulele, and guembri (Morroccan/Gnawa bass lute) in his productions.

Areas of scoring expertise include show open themes, emulations of any given reference track/musical genre/era, and the integration of ethnic music styles from any desired corner of the world. Tongue-in-cheek musical satire is another CalZone specialty: ironic cover arrangements, over-the-top genre parodies, and other feats of comedic scoring--from subtly sardonic to outrageously hyperbolic--are served with extra relish. 

Cal has worked with Subaru Asia, Bully Entertainment/Cosi Games (for Pelé: Soccer Legend, >7mm downloads), Pilot (for FX, AMC, CMT), Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Men In Blazers (VICE Sports), Organic, Brass Ideas, Cibo, Evolve Media, Disher Sound (for PlayStation Magazine/Gran Turismo 4), and director Banker White/WeOwnTV.

After a decade of touring, recording with, and producing an array of rock, funk, and jazz bands including the award winning Bay Area afrobeat ensembles ALBINO! and Aphrodesia, Cal earned an MFA in music production for visual media at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.