The Almighty Groove
Feat Tapha Gaye
Frere d’Afrique
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Finding the Groove: John Hollis’ Transatlantic Musical Journey
John Hollis has spent decades chasing rhythm across continents. Known for weaving heartfelt melodies with boundary-defying soundscapes, the musician’s newest chapter arrives under the banner of The Almighty Groove. More than just a project name, it’s a guiding philosophy: music should ignite the body, uplift the soul, and create genuine human connection. Hollis calls this elusive force “the groove,” and his life’s work is a search to bring it to light wherever it hides.
At the center of this quest is Frère d’Afrique, an album that takes its pulse from Colombia’s beloved tambor drum. The tambor, a cornerstone of cumbia and Caribbean coastal traditions, provides the rhythmic foundation upon which the project was built. Hollis invited longtime collaborator Mustapha “Tapha” Gaye—an expressive Senegalese guitarist—to join the sessions. Gaye’s intuitive playing, steeped in West African tradition, glides through the percussive backdrop with warmth and vitality. The result is a sound that bridges two continents, highlighting the unspoken dialogue between Africa and Latin America.
Hollis’ own path began in the world of reggae before expanding outward into collaborations with African, Cuban, and Colombian artists. Along the way, he noticed a common thread: the persistent echo of African heritage within the rhythms of the diaspora. Nowhere was that more striking than in Colombian cumbia, whose cadences seemed to echo voices he had once heard on Senegal’s shores.
Tapha Gaye and Paolo Hollis
Photo": John Hollis
That realization took root in 2017, when Hollis entered the studio with a collective of Colombian tamboleros. Together they built a rhythmic landscape of bullerengue, mapalé, and other coastal traditions. Once the percussion tracks were in place, Gaye’s guitar entered like a natural counterpart—its Mandinka, Wolof, and Pular influences weaving seamlessly through Latin grooves. What emerged wasn’t a fusion forced into being, but an organic meeting point of kindred spirits.
The sessions unfolded with spontaneity. Musical ideas grew into full pieces, creating a sound both expansive and grounded—uplifting, but with a reflective undercurrent. “I like to play from the background,” Gaye explains. “For me it’s about listening, blending, and finding energy with the other musicians. Connection is the goal.”
That ethos runs throughout Frère d’Afrique. It’s less an album than a voyage, moving across the Atlantic between Senegal and Colombia, two coastal cultures shaped by migration, survival, and creativity. Spacious arrangements leave room for each tradition to breathe, yet the heartbeat of groove keeps everything in motion.
For Hollis, the project also carries a deeply personal resonance. His first visit to Cartagena in 1992 came after time living in Senegal, and the sense of familiarity struck him instantly. Standing outside San Pedro Claver Church—once a sanctuary for enslaved Africans—he realized he had traced an invisible triangle: Gorée Island in Senegal, Bristol in his native England, and Cartagena on Colombia’s coast. Each corner bore the weight of the transatlantic slave trade, a history he could suddenly feel in his own footsteps.