The Aşé Ensemble assembles music in a way that brings cultures and languages together.

It’s pronounced “ah-shay” and ensemble leader Jayson Fann wants everyone to know that. Not because he’s a stickler for linguistics, but because Aşé is a Yorùb word from West Africa that encapsulates the meaning of a sacred life force within music, words and action.

The number of bandmembers in the Aşé Ensemble fluctuates from four to 12 members. He has been the leader of Aşé for over three decades and he has taken the group on international tours during that time, but continues to root it locally.

Groovy and simple beats are the common language of the band with a repertoire that has links to jazz, Afro-Cuban, soul, funk, traditional Brazilian and West and Southern African sounds. “What defines our sound are all of these confluences of culture, music, language and a really rich history,” Fann says. “When you look at the history of the United States you see how this music traveled up the rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri.”

Aşé’s music references those tributaries often as a metaphor for how it has traveled among in and out of the band itself. The band is finally working on an original album, but like most travelers’ tales, many pieces do not get written down. When the band performs, a series of beats and grooves echoes out to listeners in the form of a worldly jam band.

Aşé’s ensemble can include the likes of Latin Grammy-nominated Cuban bassist Celia Jimenez, guitarist and professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU Monterey Bay D’Jer, lead guitarist and jazz artist Glenn Bell and featured vocalist of both the titular ensemble and Songbird Meadow duet Shannon Casapia, among several other collaborators that Fann contacts depending on the gig. Over the decades, that collaboration has included about 50 different musicians, all coming from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Unlike a traditional music business approach of working with promoters, Fann builds sets and gigs for Aşé to perform on their own terms. He acknowledges that this can mean fewer public or ticketed gigs, but he feels it has the opportunity to create a more immersive experience for the audience. To him that also deepens the meaning of the project. By providing their own stages and venues, Aşé can communicate exactly what they want through their work.

AŞÉ ENSEMBLE performs 4-7pm, Saturday, Aug. 15 at the 28th Annual Ferrari Event at The Barnyard, 3663 The Barnyard, Carmel.