Fela KUTI - Fela with Ginger Baker Live! 1971

Fela KUTI - Fela with Ginger Baker Live! 1971

Jazz

It's hard to go wrong with Fela Kuti's work from the 1970s, and LIVE!, which features the Afrobeat innovator backed by his powerhouse band Africa '70 and ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, is no exception. Like all of Fela's recordings from the era, LIVE! consists of just a few tracks, each of which approximates or exceeds the ten minute mark.

Yet the arrangements are so dynamic on these tracks, the criss-crossing polyrhythms so absorbing, and Fela's incantatory vocals so entrancing that the long running times never seem a factor. Every cut crackles from beginning to end with its mixture of funk, jazz, and traditional Nigerian music, underscoring once again Fela's revolutionary, indelible contribution to world music. Fans of Ginger Baker will want to take note that the drummer is not showcased except on a bonus track, which pairs the drummer with Fela percussionist Tony Allen for a smokin' sixteen-plus minute drum solo.

Live! was recorded in 1971 with Fela's group at the time, the Africa 70. Due to its demanding performance schedule, the band is remarkably tight. Interlocking rhythms drive keyboard and guitar vamps, propelling instrumental soloists on trumpet and saxophone. There's a nice jazzy feel here, manifested both in an elastic sense of time and in an ensemble approach to performance. Improvised passages lie interspersed between statements of the theme, with Fela improvising on voice or delivering some rather frank lyrics in English and Yoruba. For example, the message of the opener: Let's get it on! (This piece features Ginger Baker sitting in for Tony Allen on drums, and he does quite well. Baker trades his usual heavy-handed approach for a lighter touch, dancing in and around the beat.)
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Fela Kuti- (Vocals);
Ginger Baker- (Vocals, Drums);
Peter Animashaun- (Guitar);
Igo Chiko- (Tenor Sax);
Lekan Animashaun- (Baritone Sax);
Tunde Williams, Eddie Faychum- (Trumpet);
Maurice Epko- (Bass);
Tony Allen- (Drums);
Henry Koffi, Friday Jumbo, Akwesi Korranting- (Congas);
Tony Abayomi, Isaac Olaleye- (Percussion).
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01. Let's Start 7:47
02. Black Man's Cry 11:38
03. Ye Ye De Smell 13:16
04. Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want to Die) 12:40
05. Ginger Baker and Tony Allen Drum Solo 16:21
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Fela Kuti -Jazz Side of Fela Kuti 1999

Fela Kuti-Jazz Side of Fela Kuti 1999
Label: Victor

Jazz

Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti
Born: 15 October 1938, in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Died: 2 August 1997, of AIDS and heart failure in Lagos, Nigeria.

He formed his first group Koola Lobitos in 1963. The large jazz, funk, and afrobeat collective underwent many changes in the following decades, but the style remained the same thanks to Fela's vision and other key members such as drummer, Tony Allen.

In 1969, after visiting America, Fela returned to Nigeria, opened club Afro Spot in Lagos, and changed the group's name to Nigeria 70. A few years later the name was changed to Afrika 70, which was probably the most famous incarnation as they recorded 17 albums between 1975-77 alone. In 1981, Fela changed the name for the last time to Egypt 80.

Regarding his name change. He was known as Fela Ransome-Kuti until about 1978, when he renamed himself Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the middle name meaning 'he who carries death in his pouch'. He was a human-rights revolutionary who started his own political party, Movement Of The People, to protest the kleptocracy in Nigeria. He had his own compound called the Kalakuta Republic, in Lagos, which he declared independent from Nigeria, where he and his uncountable number of wives lived, and were constantly terrorized by the government. His influence on funk and African music is unsurpassed with approximately 77 albums.

The potent political and musical force embodied by Fela Kuti exploded onto the scene in the late 1960s with a driving rhythmic force that would form Afro-Beat and ultimately change the face of African music. Kuti's explosive music drew on jazz, reggae, traditional African music and a good deal of James Brown soul to create a new style of Funk whose accents shifted in unusual ways. Driven by the percussive drumming of Tony Allen (and at one point, former Cream drummer Ginger Baker), Kuti's music meant the same to the underclass of Nigeria -- and Africa in general -- as Bob Marley's meant to Jamaica. His trumpet, keyboard, tenor and alto sax assisted his vocal shouts, arrangements and brash showmanship as he led any one of his large bands. Though he died in the late 1990s, his music lives on in the band led by his son Femi.

The King of Afrobeat never sold out! All of his music is powerful and very danceable but if I had to pick one album to recommend it would have to be 'Confusion', a symphony of rhythm lead by the aural assault of the awesome drummer, Tony Allen. Also listen for the usual blistering brass-section and magnificent vocals of the man himself, the late, greatly-lamented Fela Anikulapo Kuti. HE WILL LIVE FOREVER!
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01. J.J.D. (Johnny Just Drop. Part 1)  12.26
02. Roforofo Fight  15.38
03. Sorrow Tears & Blood  0.14
04. Water No Get Enemy  10.59
05. Just Like That  22.59
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