EMEFE spent nine years watching “Sun Spat” live a life they never planned for it. Written by saxophonist Jas Walton and tucked into the band’s 2015 self-titled album as a deep cut, it was never released as a single, and never backed by any promotional machinery. It just moved. Slowly, through streaming algorithms and word of mouth, the track gathered millions of plays, a quiet breakout for a New York horn-led ensemble that had already gone on indefinite hiatus in 2016.

The live version captured here, “Sun Spat Live in Brooklyn,” was recorded at The Sultan Room in Bushwick and filmed by Isaac Gillespie. It appears on the band’s new four-track EP Sun Spat 2026, released 22 May. The performance features a nine-piece lineup: Walton on tenor sax, Lynn Ligammari on baritone sax, Julie Acosta on trumpet, Aani Kisslinger on trombone, Miles Francis on drums, Doug Berns on bass, Jake Pinto on keys, Harry Terrell and Tim Allen on guitars, and Javier Ramos on congas and percussion. Mixed and mastered by Shiftee, the Brooklyn-based mix engineer and two-time DMC World Champion, with live recording by Sharif Mekawy.

EMEFE formed in 2009 when Francis, then a 19-year-old freshman at NYU who had just joined Antibalas and was studying under afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, assembled a group of jazz school classmates drawn to Fela Kuti’s rhythmic architecture. Over time, the band folded in funk, new wave and neo-soul, keeping the horn section as the ensemble’s lead voice and Berns’s bass as its anchor. Members went on to tour with Mark Ronson, David Byrne, The Roots and Sharon Jones during the hiatus years, but “Sun Spat” kept pulling people in. When EMEFE reconvened for their 2025 album FORWARD and played sold-out rooms, Francis asked the crowd who was seeing the band for the first time. Most of the room put their hands up. But when the band played “Sun Spat,” every one of them already knew the words.