Quanti Bomani

Career

Quanti Bomani, born Yusufu Quanti Bomani on May 26, 1956, is an American jazz musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer, lyricist, and bandleader of the Urban Insight Group. He plays tenor, soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones and is also a member of Prodigal Posse, an Eastern Caribbean diaspora band based in Dominica. His parents are Luqman Abdul-Malik and Nana Bomani.

Raised in Harlem and Queens, New York City, Bomani attended college in Virginia. His mother introduced him to jazz, and he later adopted Afro-Caribbean sounds. British saxophonist Gary Windo inspired him to take up the saxophone in New York. Early on, he played straight-ahead jazz with Maurice Miller, and in the 1980s he performed with Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s East meets West ensemble. He has appeared at the World Creole Music Festival and Creole in the Park alongside Delmance “Ras Mo” Moses and the Mo n’ Mo Music Project. With Urban Insight Group, Bomani has toured the United States and internationally. A 2005 trip to India and a later visit to Vietnam shaped his 2011 album Africans on the Rooftop.

Bomani’s music carries political weight. “Candy Bar” critiques war and its toll on families and children. “Don’t Let Nobody Put the Big Britches on You” targets media lies and war propaganda. “We’re Falling” speaks out against drug violence and the exploitation of natural resources. His concerts feature frequent political commentary. In 2010, he joined a California Jazz Foundation fundraiser supporting a musician health care fund. In 2012, he headlined the Children’s Heart Fund benefit at Dominica’s Old Mill Cultural Center with Arturo Tappin and Ronald “Boo” Hinkson.

His album View of the World (2005) was recorded at Bay Bridge Music, an affiliate of Bay Bridge Records, and debuted at Oakland’s Paramount Theater. Later shows included San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, Yoshi’s jazz club, and Velma’s Jazz n’ Blues Club. In 2013, Bomani performed with Michele Henderson at the Jazz n’ Creole Festival in Fort Shirley, Cabrits, Dominica, after they played together at Rodney Bay during the St. Lucia Jazz Festival.