Shokazoba & The Gaslight Tinkers w/ Choc’late Allen @ The Stone Church

Shokazoba is a nine piece horn driven funk powerhouse! They began in 2005 as a Fela Kuti tribute project and now produce original work aiming to inspire greater human awareness through conscious funky fusion jazz with progressive topical lyrics. Voted “Best of the Valley” five times, nominated as “Live Act of the Year” by the New England Music Awards, and recognized with several honorable distinctions by the African Jazz Review, Shokazoba performs top quality, high energy music designed to move your feet, inspire the mind, and activate our souls!

The Gaslight Tinkers’ blend of global rhythms creates a joyously danceable sound around a core of traditional New England old time and Celtic fiddle music, merging boundless positive energy with melody and song. African, Caribbean, Funk, Reggae, and Latin grooves meet traditional fiddle music and American roots. It’s the genre-bending future of the music of the past. Since its formation in 2012 the band has lit up the East Coast, the West Coast, and the Caribbean, headlining clubs, dances, and major festivals.

Playing what The Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA) describes as Music that consistently fizzes and pops with unexpected textures and turns, The Gaslight Tinkers’ shows are packed with delightful surprises, elated crowds, exuberant musicianship, and lots of dancing. The sound and energy of Audrey Knuth, Jopey Fitzparick, Garrett Sawyer, and Peter Siegel are universally irresistible.

The Gaslight Tinkers were born when seasoned musicians of the traditional folk, Caribbean, old time, Celtic and rock scenes gathered to craft a sound that brought world traditions together. Collectively, members of the band have played and recorded with world renowned artists like calypso king Kurt Allen, The Trinidad band Atlantic, Pete Seeger, Michael Daves, Noel Paul Stookey, Judy Collins, John Cohen, Dar Williams, and Senegalese hip-hop band Gokh-Bi System. In April, 2016, the Tinkers toured Trinidad, appearing on national TV as a genre-bending calypso band, widening the perception of Caribbean music.

Choc’late Allen is a home schooled student, who, as a toddler, showed qualities of determination and enthusiasm towards learning. This led to her being a consistent A+ student and heavily involved in cultural, sporting and social activities. In 2001 Choc’late began touring the region as an actress, singer and dancer with the organization Caribbean Vizion. She was now exposed to different Caribbean cultures, history, people and was having direct contact, relations and negotiations with prime ministers, presidents, political figures, NGO’s and the private sector. But according to Choc’late, it was at age eleven that she began to identify a direction for her existence.

In 2009, Choc’late and her organization produced an audio disk entitled Children MUST be Seen and HEARD. This disk was the result of her Creating a vision for our future workshop; an extensive tour of schools, communities and institutions in all 40 parishes in Jamaica. The tour was supported by many organizations including, UNESCO, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, and UNEP; and was executed over a period of two years. The audio disk was endorsed by the then Prime Minister (Mr. Bruce Golding) and then Minister of Education (Dr. Andrew Holness); and was implemented as a training tool for teachers, guidance counselors, peer counselors, and students; in all schools on island.