“Stylistically — as it was necessary for keeping the music interesting,” he said. “We would pass solos around such as you do in jazz music and improvise quite a bit. When Kaleta joined the band in 2017, our sound pretty much stayed the same, but we started focusing more specifically on grooves from Benin and Nigeria — where Kaleta grew up — and the Afrobeat and juju music that Kaleta spent his career specializing in.”

And they deliberately started arranging music so as to feature Kaleta as the front man, Yount said.

Kaleta, aka Leon Ligan-Majek, is a singer and guitarist from Benin in West Africa. He lived his adolescent life in Lagos, Nigeria, where Afrobeat was born.

He got his start in the late ’70s performing in church, but his guitar chops have earned him decades of touring and recording with juju master and world music pioneer King Sunny Ade, among others.

A few years later, Fela Kuti came calling for the emerging musician, and Kaleta joined the Afrobeat king, playing guitar and touring the world in the storied band Egypt 80 through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

“Fela said that ‘music is the weapon of the future,’” Yount said, “and as a band, we know that with all of the awful stuff going on in our country right now we must use our voice to fight for those who are marginalized.

“Sometimes we have to speak up and be very vocal about certain issues,” he said. “Other times, we have to let the music speak for itself and give audiences a safe space to dance and enjoy themselves and connect with their community.”

Often, the music brings forth an Afro-psychedelic sound that carries the legacy of ’60s and ’70s pop culture.

“We’ve definitely homed in the Afro-funk sound and also the psychedelic sound,” Yount said. “As a mostly American band performing music with deep African roots, it makes sense for us to let the American funk come through in the music.

“Afro-funk was created because West African musicians were checking out the ’60s and ’70s American pop music and incorporating their own styles,” he said. “So there’s now there’s kind of this back-and-forth of inspiration being shared, passed back and forth between the two continents.”

Yount added that one of Kaleta’s loves is bringing those funk elements into the music he grew up on.

“We’re always trying to ‘funkify’ different styles and traditional grooves from Benin and Nigeria,” Yount said.

Fela Kuti is unquestionably an integral influence on the band, but Yount said Kaleta and the Super Yamba Band is not the only group carrying the torch for tribal beats and percussion.

“There are several ... and we look up to them quite a bit,” he said, “whether it’s Fela’s sons Seun and Femi fronting their respective bands or guys like Ebo Taylor and King Sunny Ade, who are still making music and touring.”

With Afrocentric roots prevailing through their rock ’n’ roll rifts, percussion is a driving force for Kaleta and the band.

“Percussion is a very important part of the music,” Yount said. “In a way, all of the instruments are playing percussion parts, covering specific syncopated rhythms that are critical to the overall groove. Most of the breaks come directly from the drumming traditions of Benin, Nigeria and Senegal.”

To bring those rhythms to the stage the band uses a large cache of instruments — two guitars, bass, drums, sax, trumpet and a few different keyboards — that included some that many in the audience have never seen, let alone be able to name. There are congas, shekeres and talking drums.

“The rarest instrument in the band is probably the tama, which is a Senegalese talking drum played by our percussionist Evan Frierson,” Yount said.

Whitney Oppenhuizen, marketing director for the Center for the Arts, said the team is excited to host such a musical powerhouse.

“Every year we aim to have a variety of acts and music on our stage, and we’re thrilled to be bringing in a band that is so well known for Afro-funk and juju style,” she said. “All of us at the Center are looking forward to this show. It’s going to be a night of fun and funky vibes for all.”

No matter what the band sets out to do, Yount said, it always leaves a little room for some magic.

“In our live show, the arrangements are very much a set, but within those arrangements, there is a lot of room for improvising,” he said.

“We are always listening, following and reacting to what Kaleta sings and what he plays on the guitar. He keeps us on our toes!”