Kafari

'Kafari’ (he/him) is the alias of Cincinnati, OH born, Portland, ME based pianist and rhythm bones-wielding beatmaker Ahmad Muhammad. Kafari’s music synthesizes his love of ambient piano music, instrumental hip-hop and acoustic percussion, taking inspiration from Detroit, Michigan jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, Detroit beatmaker J Dilla, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who in a 2014 performance sparked Kafari's interest in traditional music and the Irish rhythm bones - a percussion instrument popularized in America in the 1800's through Blackface Minstrelsy. Kafari often distributes and teaches the rhythm bones at his performances, inviting his audiences to workshop basic rhythmic techniques and to share in the joy of bones playing.