pianist | electronic musician
beatmaker | rhythm bonesman

‘Kafari’ is the alias of Portland, Maine based classical pianist, old-time percussionist, ambient beatmaker, sound healer, and teaching artist Ahmad Muhammad (he/him). Kafari performs with an electric piano, sp404 beat sampler, and two pairs of rhythm bones – an archaic percussion instrument popularized in America through blackface minstrelsy which he frequently distributes to and teaches his audiences.

His work as a community artist in Portland extends from Preble Street Teen Center where he has been a weekly piano teacher for over three years, to the Center for Grieving Children, where he and banjoist Jake Hoffman facilitated a series of workshops in which elementary students learned the bones, the banjo, investigated these instruments’ histories and talked about culture, cultural exchange and cultural appropriation.

Kafari comments on his most recent release, ‘Blanket of Black’ (Aug 2021): “My music represents how I want to feel in the world and reflects the world I would like to live in. In late 2020, deep winter pandemic sadness and comfort-seeking drove me to a hard drive filled with old piano recordings, captured on a piano that I loved for its warm, gentle sound. Crafting loops and beats out of these recordings became a healing practice for my mind and spirit, and a way of imagining a world that I felt at home in. I created 'Blanket of Black' through many seasons of change and transition, with the belief that healing is possible and that our grief is worth our time.”

His 2018 release ‘Beholding’ consists of 14 serene piano meditations which the pianist described as a “self-care tool for coping with the bitter Maine winter.” His 2016 release ‘Knockturnes’ is a dream-like, hypnotic tribute to the Bill Evans trio, each song an experimental re-sampling of a different loop taken from the legendary jazz group. In Spring 2019, Kafari made his film scoring debut in ‘Mack Wrestles,’ which follows Mack Beggs, a young transgender athlete and activist from Texas. The documentary, which premiered at SXSW, features an original electronic score from Kafari.

TEDx Dirigo

Bones and Banjo: Confronting Cultural Appropriation
Kafari + Jake Hoffman