Meet Mausiki Scales | Band Leader & Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mausiki Scales and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mausiki, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Through our performances and other community activities , we enlist the power of African and African Diasporic music to heal, sustain and uplift the community. It’s an honor to contribute to the effort to preserve and expand upon this rich legacy. If you’ve been to a Mausiki Scales & Common Ground Collective show, you know that it’s an experience; one that connects people to one another and to the river of culture and energy that brought us here, has sustained us and carries us forward. I believe that makes a difference for individuals, the community and the world.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a musician, professor and founder of the band, Mausiki Scales & the Common Ground Collective. I’ve been part of the Atlanta indie music scene for two decades and going! Like the “griot” or “djali” who is the oral historian, storyteller and musician in traditional African cultures, through our music, teaching and performances, we explore the thread that links the music of Africa and the African Diaspora. We connect the dots between Afrobeat, Funk, Hip Hop, Soul and Jazz; and we do it all in a single performance. My latest album is called, “WestWest Africa,” featuring the single “Kaleidoscopic Universe”; and I just released a new single, featuring Speech from Arrested Development, called “Callaloo & Collards.” We also do an annual parade and concert called “No Tables, No Chairs.”

One thing in particular that the Collective is known for is our unique delivery of Afrobeat, a musical style created by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti. Afrobeat is characterized by high energy, endless grooves, traditional African and African Diasporic rhythms, a dynamic horn section, jazz solos and call-and-response chants. It’s an invigorating and immersive experience!

I’ve been playing piano since I was eight years old in Gary, IN, and grew up listening to music like Earth, Wind and Fire, Gil Scott Heron, the Emotions, Stanley Clarke and local Chicago radio. One day I heard Parliament Funkadelic’s “Flashlight” playing on the boombox and started playing along. I never got it out of my system! I performed in several bands prior to founding Common Ground Collective. There have certainly been a myriad of obstacles throughout my journey, and with each one, like my Ancestors before me, music edified and sustained me. I pour that into my compositions. And, it inspires my intention to create music that is healing, intergenerational, removes social barriers and touches the heart and soul of the community.

One lesson I’ve learned is that it takes a great deal of flexibility to organize creative people! Creating the conditions that allow artists to express themselves while simultaneously executing my vision is no small feat. As I get better at resolving both personal and band challenges, it creates space for more robust expression that translates into heightened musician and audience engagement.

One thing that I’ll share is that I don’t use set lists. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock and a freedom song leader during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, said “The song that you’re supposed to sing that suits the occasion comes up in you if you’re in the occasion yourself. So you don’t have to make a list if you yourself are part of what’s happening…” So, at a Mausiki Scales & Common Ground Collective show, I’m calling tunes in real-time based on the flow of energy in the environment and that leaves our audiences moved and moving!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a HBCU graduate…shout out to my Tuskegee University family! So, I would definitely take them to the AU Center, the largest consortium of HBCUs. We’d stroll through West End, hit some of my favorite spots and be sure to check out Kebbi Williams’s Gallery 992 to check out the art and hope to capture a live performance by Kebbi and Quinn Mason. And, we’d hit up JB’s Record Lounge. We might pick up some fresh veggies from Patchwork City Farms and then convince my daughter Chef ZaZa to hook us up with one of her phenomenal homecooked meals.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ve been supported by so many in the community, but some of the people who I’ll shout out here are: Mamaniji Azanyah, Dr. Folami Prescott-Adams, Mtumwa KMT, Professor Willie Fluker, the Common Ground Collective, my wife, Talibah, and my family for their inspiration, grounding conversations and vision. Some key books that have inspired my work are “Blues People” by Amiri Baraka and the works of Sterling Stuckey. Musically, I want to recognize, Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Nina Simone, James Brown, Oludara, Oscar Brown, Jr., Abbey Lincoln, and countless others.

Website: www.mausikiscales.com

Instagram: @mausikiscalescommonground

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CommonGroundCollective

Image Credits
Lamarrous Shirley, Daniel Minter, Steve Eberhart, Michael J Media, Brandi Pettijohn