Nikki Glaspie has announced another tour with her KAMANI supergroup, which features members of Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note, Lettuce, and more. The all-star funk outfit will tour the Southeast this summer with scattered dates in the South and Colorado in the fall.
Headed by The Nth Power drummer, KAMANI also hosts multi-instrumentalist Robert “Sput” Searight (Ghost-Note, Snarky Puppy), bassist Matt Lapham (Roosevelt Collier Trio), and guitarist/vocalist Kat Dyson (Prince, Cyndi Lauper). The lineup is rounded out by a rotating cast of acclaimed keyboardists including Nigel Hall (Lettuce), Xavier Taplin (Ghost-Note), and Shaun Martin (Snarky Puppy). Glaspie formed KAMANI in fall 2020 alongside Lapham, Dyson, and Hall.
The tour is set to begin on August 6th in Chattanooga, TN with Taplin on keys before moving to Atlanta, GA (8/8); Raleigh, NC (8/10); Lexington, NC (8/11); and Charleston, SC (8/12) before Hall joins up with KAMINI on August 13th in Charlotte, NC. Taplin resumes his position August 14th in Asheville and August 15th in Nashville, TN prior to a two-month gap, after which audiences at Suwannee Hulaween get a double dose of keys with Hall and Martin on October 29th.
The tour resumes on November 18th in New Orleans before stops in Houston, TX (11/19); Austin, TX (11/20); and Dallas, TX (11/21) before another short gap prior to the tour wrapping up in Colorado with a show in Nederland (12/17) and finally Denver (12/18). Keyboardists for the fall dates have not yet been specified.
“We play the funk a bit differently because we’ve played with the masters. We’re taking that knowledge and keeping it alive,” Glaspie said in a press release. “I’m a purist when it comes to funk music. There’s no water in this — it’s real, unfiltered, uncut, unadulterated funk. We show up and do what we do best, which is make people dance for two hours. It’s a dance party. That’s my main job playing drums in general, but specifically relating to this band, is to get people moving. Anybody can relate to us because you can’t help but dance.”
Tickets for the upcoming KAMANI summer/fall tour are on sale now through Glaspie’s website.