This month is a special one because we are celebrating Fela's birthday AKA Felabration!, touring Jump N Funk's 10 Year Anniversary, enjoying the return of Fela! on Broadway to a nationwide tour, and appreciating a decade's worth of being America's Original Afrobeat Party! No personal preamble this week. Just the skinny on our 10 Year Anniversary parties nationwide, followed by this past week's shenanigans.
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October, 2011 marks JUMP N FUNK's 10th Anniversary, and we are proud to announce that we have tour dates in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia to celebrate with our extended Afrobeat Family nationwide. Love Afro Life, and stay tuned for the new and improved www.JumpNFunk.com coming in October, 2011 as we celebrate our tenth year of bringing you the finest in Fela Kuti and all things aurally and visually Afro global! Hope to see you shaking your nyash on a dancefloor with us very soon. Until then, bless up and Love Afro Life!
JUMP N FUNK, America's Original Afrobeat Party, was born of the collective vision and efforts of Rich Medina, Debbie Sealy and Trevor Schoonmaker in late-summer, 2001. Trevor was curating an unprecedented museum exhibit, "The Fela Project", at a time when many were unaware of Fela Kuti, his music and his legacy. Through a meeting facilitated by Visual Artist, Brett Cook Dizney, Rich, Debbie & Trevor developed the party concept with the sole intention of raising awareness about the King of Afrobeat.
Within three months, JUMP N FUNK grew from an intimate afterwork gathering, to an event avidly attended by hundreds at Shine, (currently the address of The Canal Room). From Shine, JNF moved around New York City for a several years, landing in The Coral Room, Cielo, Central Park SummerStage and The Martinez Gallery before settling into a long residency with S.O.B.'s in 2004. By 2006, as Debbie and Trevor pursued other interests, Medina was determined to restructure and reinvigorate the party brand which, while still tied heavily to celebration of Fela Kuti, provided a more expansive view into the burgeoning rebirth of Afrobeat Music. In late 2006 Rich Medina combined forces with his studio production partner Mark Hines (The Marksmen) to expand the JNF experience with live video and instrumentalist performance elements.
With the event re-tooled, Medina and The Marksmen set about touring the JUMP N FUNK party anywhere there was demand. To date, JUMP N FUNK has toured the world, making stops in Catania, Sicily; Tuscany, Italy; London at The Barbican Museum; Manchester's Rich Mix; MC Theater in Amsterdam; Paris with Free Your Funk; Tokyo with DJ Muro and Seiji Hitomi; Brussels; and Tuebingen, Germany as well as numerous nationwide and Canadian tour dates over the years. Beyond touring theJNF brand, Rich Medina has also toured as the Official Tour Date DJ with both Femiand Seun Kuti, Zap Mama, Wunmi, and New York City's Antibalas, further extending the reach of JNF to the masses.
Rich Medina
Founder and Originator
JUMP N FUNK
America's Original Afrobeat Party