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Jazz Articles about Fela Kuti
Which African Jazz Artist Most Merits A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award?
by Ian Patterson
Better late, they say, than never. Twenty-nine years after his passing, Afrobeat legend and fearless political activist Fela Kuti received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins an illustrious pantheon of jazz artists similarly recognized in the afterlife. A partial list includes Louis Armstrong (1972), Charlie Parker (1984), Billie Holiday (1987), Charles Mingus (1997), John Coltrane (1992) and Lionel Hampton (2021). Significantly--and incredibly--Fela Kuti is the first African artist to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award--63 ...
Continue ReadingFela Kuti & The Africa 70, Takuya Kuroda, Redtenbacher’s Funkestra, Allexa Nava, John Beltran & More
by Tony Poole
One hour of nothing but the freshest new releases and pre-releases. Join Tony Poole for the freshest worldwide jazz grooves from across the globe. Playlist Fela Kuti and The Africa '70 “Let's Start" from Live with Ginger Baker, 1971 (Knitting Factory Records) Christelle Durandy “We Were Born To Drum" from Salsa de la Bahia Volume 3: Renegade Queens (Patois Records) Takuya Kuroda “Hung up On My Baby" from Everyday (La Reserve Records) Redtenbacher's Funkestra “The Jungle Line" (featuring ...
Continue ReadingFela Kuti: Coffin For Head Of State
by Chris May
From the late 1970s onward, Fela's lyrics became longer, more complex and ever more confrontational. Coffin For Head Of State, first released on Kalakuta in 1981, is an outstanding example. It is one of several albums on which Fela responded to the Nigerian army's destruction of his Kalakuta Republic compound on 18 February 1977, and focuses particularly on the outrage's contribution to the subsequent death of his mother. Attacked by an estimated 1,000 soldiers, Kalakuta was burnt ...
Continue ReadingFela Kuti: Yellow Fever
by Chris May
Yellow Fever was originally released in 1976 on Decca's West African imprint, Afrodisia, and both its tracks were hugely controversial in Nigeria. The title track is one of Fela's greatest masterpieces. Sung in Broken English, the language Fela adopted in order to make his words understood beyond Yoruba speakers, the lyrics rail against women's use of skin whitening creams, a fashion which, sadly, still persists today. Side One: “Yellow Fever." Yellow fever was the nickname Lagos residents ...
Continue ReadingFela Kuti: Army Arrangement
by Chris May
Fela only occasionally used outside producers on his albums. Mostly, the results were good: EMI producer Jeff Jarratt's Afrodisiac (EMI, 1973), British dub master Dennis Bovell's Live In Amsterdam (Polygram, 1983) and keyboard player Wally Badarou's exceptional Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (Philips, 1986). But on one occasion it was spectacularly bad: avant-funk bassist Bill Laswell's insensitive remix and overdubbing of 1985's Army Arrangement (Celluloid), executed in New York while Fela was in jail in Nigeria. It ...
Continue ReadingFela Anikulapo Kuti: Original Sufferhead
by Chris May
Original Sufferhead was the first album Fela released under Egypt 80's name, having disbanded Afrika 70 in 1979; the only musician held over was baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun, who had been with Fela since 1965 and who took over from the departing Tony Allen as bandleader. The album was recorded in early 1981, shortly after Fela received a particularly savage beating from the Lagos police—the only beating, he said later, among the many that he received over ...
Continue ReadingFela Anikulapo Kuti: Perambulator
by Chris May
Until now one of the lost treasures of Fela's recorded legacy, the history of Perambulator is as arcane as the sleeve credit to Egypt 80 on the Lagos International label's original release is misleading. Far from being recorded by Egypt 80 in 1983, as claimed by Lagos International, both tracks were actually recorded by Afrika 70 in 1977, four years before Egypt 80 existed and with an entirely different lineup aside from baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun. The ...
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