Count Five: Antibalas' Favorite World Music Albums

The dozen or so members of the Brooklyn-based ensemble Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, as you may guess from their moniker, play a style of music steeped in the sounds of Nigerian musical legend Fela Kuti. But as to be expected from a group living in polyglot New York City, Antibalas' sometimes politicized, always danceable music also takes on Latin, jazz, funk and Caribbean shadings. Frontman and sax player Martin Perna runs down his five favorite albums that fall under the catchall designation of worldbeat.

1. 'Os Afro Sambas,' Baden Powell: Baden Powell is one of my favorite Brazilian guitarists. This project was from the '60s, I think ... really lushly orchestrated music of the Afro-Brazilian orixas.

2. 'Cymande,' Cymande: One of my all-time favorite bands -- Caribbean expats in London in the late '60s making West Indian hippie music. Find dozens of famous hip-hop samples on this album.

3. 'Best of ...,' Victor Jara: Jara is the Bob Dylan of Chile, except that he was kidnapped by the army, tortured, dismembered and killed in front of thousands of other political prisoners during the CIA-funded Dirty War.

4. 'Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense,' Fela and Egypt 80: One of my favorite Fela tunes -- full of subtlety and sophistication. At this point, he had stopped calling his music "Afrobeat" and referred to it as "African Classical Music." This album will show you why.

5. 'Concepts in Unity,' Grupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino: An incredible summit of legendary Afro- and Afro-Caribbean musicians throwing down on the ultimate diasporic fusion record that doesn't sound like fusion at all. 'Chocolate's Guajira' is one of my all-time favorites

Want more Antibalas?

• Watch the DL Show hanging at the House of Antibalas
• Download an MP3 of 'I.C.E.'