Friday, February 16, 2018
By Max Reinhardt
Aug 05, 2013 Fela Kuti – Shakara (Ossie’s Bump Edit) Where this remix succeeds so well is by bringing Fela’s distinctive rhythm up to date for a UK dancefloor. Not that Fela’s rhythms sound dated in the slightest, but Ossie injects new life while being sensitive to the original. Fela Kuti – Roforofo Fight (Auntie Flo Remix). Gentleman (1973) by Fela Kuti, released 02 February 2010 1. Fefe Naa Efe 3. Igbe The title track of this excellent album has often been hailed as Fela’s masterpiece. Musically innovative, melodically addictive, Fela got it all right in this politically scathing song in which he opposes Westernization and those who imitate Western. No slavish Fela Kuti copycats these, but rather Afrobeat and other specific African tempos and rhythms used as a blueprint, a buildingblock for new directions in Brazilian music. Full worldwide press and digital media campaign Exploring the African roots of Brazilian music Compiled by respected World Music specialist and DJ John Armstrong Many.
Afrobeat is seeing something of a resurgence – with the release of a Fela documentary and new albums from two of the genre’s greats. Max Reinhardt gets into the groove and highlights ten of the best albums.
1
TONY ALLEN
Film of Life (Jazz Village, 2014)
Tony Allen’s unique ‘highlife meets hard bop meets funk’ drum patterns underpinned and inspired Fela’s Afrobeat. This album finds Allen still an unstoppable force of rhythmic genius in his mid-70s.To quote my review: ‘an instantly enticing nu-Afrobeat groove, in which funky horns, squelchy synths, repetitive guitar and even ukulele catch you in a compelling slipstream’.
2
ANTIBALAS
Antibalas (Daptone, 2012)
One of the finest fruits of Fela’s posthumous Afrobeat realm. From 1998 onwards, baritone saxophonist Martin Perna’s Brooklyn-based Conjunto Antibalas live the music, the sonics, the rhythms and the politics of Afrobeat. This CD is an eruption of tuff, brilliant songs, deliriously powerful playing and potent vocals from Amayo. Reviewed in #87.
3
THE FONTANELLES
Horns of Freedom (First Word Records, 2013)
The band that grew out of the onstage musicians for the London run of Fela! The Musical. This debut is an instrumental Afrobeat tour de force with a pile driving jazzy edge, to which they’ve added Caribbean and swinging Addis grooves. Its many highlights include ‘Afrocat’, ‘Pinprick’ and ‘Horns of Freedom’. Reviewed in #98.
4
ALHAJI K FRIMPONG
Kyenkyen Bi Adi M’awu! (Ofo Brothers, 1976) Euromax 360i hd new software.
This album from Alhaji K Frimpong and his Cubano Fiestas is a mid-70s Ghanaian gem clearly influenced by Afrobeat grooves and rhythms though still very much a late period jazzy highlife album. ‘Kyenkyen Bi Adi M’awu!’ itself remains a dance floor classic.
5
ORLANDO JULIUS & THE HELIOCENTRICS
Jaiyede Afro (Strut Records, 2014)
Until Fela’s return from the US in 1970, Orlando Julius and his Afro-funk tunes were the summit of cool for young Lagosians. Then Fela’s Afrobeat, non-stop struggle and legend eclipsed Orlando for decades, but this album is his finest hour. In the company of London’s funky jazztronicists, The Heliocentrics, he creates an Afrobeat sound that you want to climb inside for a week at a time. Reviewed in #103.
6
FELA RANSOME KUTI & AFRICA 70
Expensive Shit/He Miss Road (Knitting Factory Records, 2013)
An explosive, musical and lyrical Fela peak, this is the CD reissue of two of his early 70s vinyls. Originally, the scatological, subversive Afrobeat classic Expensive Shit was backed with the haunting metaphysics and beautiful melody of ‘Water Get No Enemy’, while He Miss Road’s three tracks include the portrait of his city ‘Monday Morning Lagos’ and Tony Allen’s polyrhythmic tour de force ‘It’s No Possible’.
7
FEMI KUTI
Shoki Shoki (Barclay, 1998)
This is the fourth album by Fela’s oldest son Femi, who over the last 25 years of non-stop touring has been keeping the flame of Fela’s legacy burning. This is probably his most memorable set of songs, from the sex with a smile on its face of the track ‘Beng Beng Beng’ to the accusatory ‘Sorry Sorry’.
8
SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80
A Long Way to the Beginning (Knitting Factory Records, 2014)
Seun’s angriest, most fiery album to date, leading the band he inherited from his father when just 14 years old. His ever improving voice, even wittier lyrics (‘lMF’) and catchier tunes (ragged highlife wonder ‘Ohun Aiye’), production by Robert Glasper and guest stars like Nneka, M1 and Blitz the Ambassador, make this a heady brew. Reviewed in #100.
9
DELE SOSIMI
![Rar Rar](https://upsingers.com/images/175/fela-anikulapo-kuti--egypt-80-beasts-of-no-nation.jpg)
Identity (Helico Records, 2007)
Dele really is London’s Afrobeat catalyst. He learned keyboards from Fela himself, played with Egypt 80 for seven years, became their arranger and musical director and then did the same with Femi into the 90s. The complex but compelling arrangements of Identity, its songwriting and funkiest of keyboards, all testify to Dele’s finely honed skills and unstoppable dynamism. Reviewed in #55.
![Rym Rym](https://iciap2007.org/images/179/fela-ransome-kuti--the-africa-70-afrodisiac.jpg)
10
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Red Hot + Fela (Knitting Factory Records, 2013)
A razor-sharp fundraising tool for AIDS awareness that also traces the spread of Fela awareness within the international musical community. The first album, Red Hot + Riot (2002), featured producer and activist Andres Levin at the controls and highlighted Fela’s compositional genius in the hands of a huge cast including Nile Rodgers, Baaba Maal, and Macy Gray. This follow-up moves further out and sweeps luminaries like Kronos Quartet, My Morning Jacket and Spoek Mathambo into the fold. Reviewed in #97.
Twelve years after his death, activity around the legacy of Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti is growing exponentially and the US, finally, is getting in on the act. Choreographer Bill T. Jones' musical, Fela, is to open on Broadway on November 23, 2009, and meanwhile New York's Knitting Factory label has begun a reissue program which will, between fall 2009 and the close of 2010, see 45 Kuti titles released. Jones is a leading light of American modern dance, and brings an appropriate rebel aesthetic to his project, but it remains to be seen how well even he will be able to transfer Kuti's sprawling, multi-faceted life and music to the stage. The Knitting Factory program can, however, be welcomed without hesitation. Its reissue series will mark the first time all Kuti's titles have been released on vinyl in the US—they'll also be available on CD and in a range of online formats—and will include the first official release of the entire catalog of Kuti's 1960s band Koola Lobitos, which began as a highlife and jazz group but which by the end of the decade was playing Afrobeat in everything but name.
The Best Of The Black President is Knitting Factory's opening gambit. The two disc set—the Deluxe Edition also contains a DVD—includes 13 titles made by Kuti, first as Fela Ransome Kuti with Africa 70, then as Fela Anikulapo Kuti with Afrika 70. The same audio compilation has, in fact, been available in Europe, as The Best Of Fela Kuti, on a variety of labels since 2000. Only the packaging has changed, and the handsome Knitting Factory edition includes a solid, broad-brushstrokes Kuti biography by Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam.
As with the European editions, eight of the 13 tracks on the audio discs are edited versions of the original West African releases, omitting some of the extended instrumental jams with which Kuti typically began a song. But the compilation is nonetheless a powerful introduction to Kuti's work and includes full-length versions of five important 1970s' titles: 'Roforofo Fight,' 'Lady' and 'Shakara' from the first half of the decade, 'Zombie' and 'Sorrow Tears And Blood' from the second half. The only other caveat concerns the lack of personnel or recording date information. Knitting Factory's individual album reissues will, however, use the original sleeves, most of which include these details.
The DVD is a Knitting Factory initiative and wasn't included with previous releases of the audio discs. It contains excerpts from documentaries and recorded concerts including parts of Music Is The Weapon, Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, Fela At The Berlin Jazz Festival and Fela At Glastonbury Festival. There is also an interview with Carlos Moore, whose Fela, Fela: This Bitch Of A Life (Alison & Busby, 1982), though written long before Kuti's death, remains in 2009 the most insightful published portrayal of Kuti the man.
Readers wishing to explore Kuti's legacy in more detail may enjoy reading the ongoing AAJ series, The Afrobeat Diaries.
Track Listing
CD1: Lady; Shakara; Gentleman (Edited Version); Water No Get Enemy (Edited Version); Zombie; Sorrow Tears And Blood; No Agreement (Part 2). CD2: Roforofo Fight; Shuffering And Smiling (Part 2); Coffin For Head Of State (Part 2); I.T.T (Part 2); Army Arrangement (Part 2); O.D.O.O. (Edited Version).
Personnel
Not given.
Fela Kuti Roy Ayers
Album information
Title: The Best Of The Black President| Year Released: 2009| Record Label: Knitting Factory