DafinaRoots Band performing live in Harlem, New York City

DafinaRoots Band

Harlem Afrobeat with roots in Burkina Faso

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Our Music

Facia – debut album by DafinaRoots Band

Facia — Debut Album

Facia is the debut album from DafinaRoots, a West African jazz fusion record built on Dafin rhythms from Burkina Faso, balafon and djembe, and the improvised voices of saxophone and guitar. Music that honors the past while speaking to the present.

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About DafinaRoots Band

DafinaRoots is a Harlem-based Afrobeat and West African fusion band founded by master percussionist Mamoudou Konate Simbo, who brings the music of Tissi, his village near Bobo-Dioulasso in western Burkina Faso, to audiences in New York City and around the world. The name says it all: Dafin is the language of Mamoudou's people, and these are its roots. The rhythms he grew up with — Bengati, Filani Fila, Badineba — played on djembe, dundun and balafon at ceremonies, harvests and celebrations, are the foundation of everything the band plays.

Those roots run deep. In the Manding world of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Senegal, music has been the keeper of memory for over seven centuries: the hereditary djéli, or griots, carried history, genealogy and the great epic of Sundiata Keita in their songs, passing them from parent to child. The balafon at the heart of that tradition — hardwood keys over calabash gourd resonators, each fitted with a buzzing membrane — is the ancestor of the marimba and one of the oldest melodic instruments in Africa, recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Around Mamoudou's rhythms, DafinaRoots weaves saxophone, guitar, bass and drums. This is not a foreign addition: the saxophone entered West African music a century ago through the highlife orchestras of Ghana, and after independence the great national bands — Bembeya Jazz in Guinea, the Rail Band in Mali, Volta Jazz in Bobo-Dioulasso — put horns alongside balafon and djembe, while Fela Kuti made the saxophone the voice of Afrobeat. DafinaRoots carries that lineage to Harlem: village music from Burkina Faso in conversation with jazz, Afrobeat and the sounds of New York.

Meet the Band

Mamoudou Konate Simbo, founder of DafinaRoots Band, master percussionist from Burkina Faso

Mamoudou Konate Simbo

Founder, Percussionist and Vocalist

Master percussionist from Tissi, Burkina Faso, and founder of DafinaRoots. Mamoudou grew up inside the Dafin drumming tradition of the Bobo-Dioulasso region, and his djembe, dundun and voice carry the rhythms of his village into every performance. His energy and his deep connection to West African tradition are the heart of the band.

Makane Kouyate playing the balafon with DafinaRoots Band

Makane Kouyaté

Balafon

Makane is a djéli from the Kouyaté lineage, the oldest of the Manding griot families, which traces its line to Balla Fasséké Kouyaté, the personal djéli of Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire in the 13th century. The Kouyaté family still keeps the sacred Sosso Bala, said to date from that era, in Niagassola, Guinea. When Makane plays the balafon with DafinaRoots, he is not performing a repertoire he learned — he is continuing a conversation his family has been having for seven hundred years.

Remmi Nicole, vocalist and percussionist with DafinaRoots Band

Remmi Nicole

Vocals and Percussion

A powerful vocalist and percussionist whose soulful voice and rhythmic expertise add depth and richness to the band's West African soundscapes.

Charles Caldarola, drummer with DafinaRoots Band

Charles Caldarola

Drums

Charles' dynamic drumming provides the rhythmic foundation for the band, bridging Afrobeat grooves and jazz precision with electrifying energy.

Moussa Drame playing West African guitar with DafinaRoots Band

Moussa Drame

Guitar

Moussa weaves the intricate, interlocking guitar lines of West African music with modern influences, a signature element of the DafinaRoots fusion sound.

Jens Pierre, bassist with DafinaRoots Band

Jens Pierre

Bass

Jens anchors the band with groove-filled bass lines that lock in with the djembe and dundun, giving every performance its deep foundation.

Marco Chelo playing saxophone with DafinaRoots Band

Marco Chelo

Saxophone

Marco is an Italian-born, New York-based saxophonist whose expressive sound and improvisational skills bring a unique voice to the band. In 1995, as a young saxophonist, he traveled to Lagos with his friend, the late film director Michele Avantario, to visit Fela Kuti at Kalakuta — the compound that was home, rehearsal space and republic all at once. He spent time with Fela and his family, including a very young Seun Kuti, and experienced the concerts at the Shrine, which were as much spiritual ceremonies as they were performances. Those days shaped how he understands the saxophone: not as a jazz instrument borrowed by Africa, but as an African voice in its own right. Playing with Mamoudou, Makane and DafinaRoots is, for him, a way of closing a circle that began in that courtyard thirty years ago.

Live Performances

DafinaRoots performs regularly in Harlem at Shrine World Music Venue and Silvana, and at festivals and cultural events across New York City, New Jersey and beyond. Come hear live Afrobeat and West African music in NYC.

Catch us at our two Harlem residencies: Silvana on first Fridays and Shrine on third (sometimes fourth) Saturdays.

Upcoming Shows

10 more dates in 2027

Past Performances

2026 — 11 shows
2025 — 19 shows

Watch Us Perform

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Booking DafinaRoots for your venue, festival, private event or cultural program? We bring live West African music and Harlem Afrobeat to stages across NYC and the tri-state area. Fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you.

Or email us directly at [email protected]