Results for "Fela Kuti"

Fabio Morgera: tradizione e progresso

by Angelo Leonardi
May 27, 2020

Tornato a vivere in Italia alcuni anni fa, dopo un lungo periodo di studio e attività professionale negli Stati Uniti, Fabio Morgera è uno dei massimi trombettisti della sua generazione e s'è imposto per lo stile estroverso, caratterizzato da intenso feeling e marcato groove. Eclettico per natura, alla leadership in progetti di taglio contemporaneo—anche intrisi di ...

The Funky Side of Sonorama

by Jakob Baekgaard
May 26, 2020

If you look up “funk" in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, you get the following definition: “A style of black American popular music which developed in the mid-1960s out of soul music. It is characterized above all else by complex, interlocking, syncopated rhythmic patterns in duple meter." As suggested in the quote, funk can be ...

Etuk Ubong: Purpose Of Creation / Etuk's Ritual

by Chris May
April 18, 2020

Lagos-based Etuk Ubong is part of a long line of fiery Afrobeat-rooted trumpeters which stretches back to Tunde Williams, a founder member of Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band in the 1960s. The lineage's foundational provenance is centred around players such as Lee Morgan and early period Freddie Hubbard. Ubong made his own-name debut in ...

Glastonbury 50

by Ian Patterson
April 5, 2020

Glastonbury 50 Michael Eavis & Emily Eavis 304 Pages ISBN: 978-1-4091-8393-8 Trapeze 2019 Published in time for Christmas 2019, Glastonbury 50 was intended as part of the build up to the legendary festival's 50th anniversary in 2020. That was before COVID-19 changed everything. Glastonbury 2020 was cancelled, with the ...

Camilla George: Warrior Charge

by Chris May
February 13, 2020

In 2017, alto saxophonist and composer Camilla George's band was the support act for a Dee Dee Bridgewater gig at the London Jazz Festival. After George had finished her set, Bridgewater, who had been listening in the wings, came onstage, took the mike, and announced: “The world is safe because we have Camilla." Others in Cadogan ...

Fela Kuti

Born: October 15, 1938

Fela Kuti was one of Africa's most controversial musicians and throughout his life he continued to fight for the rights of the common man (and woman) despite vilification, harassment, and even imprisonment by the government of Nigeria.

Born to Yoruban parents, Kuti was strongly influenced by both parents, his mother being Funmilayo, a leading figure in the nationalist struggle. Practically all of his records are dominated by political events and discussions from the approach of Pan- Africanism.

In 1954, Kuti joined the Cool Cats as a singer in that highlife band (highlife being the rage of the Lagos music scene at the time). During this period Kuti developed his own unusual sound which he described as highlife-jazz. In 1968 Kuti announced the arrival of Afro-beat, within the year was promoting his sound all over the USA on a 10- month tour where he became influenced by American jazz. He did some recordings in that came to be known as the “'69 Los Angeles Sessions,” that were remarkable, an indication of a maturing sound and of the raucous, propulsive music that was to mark Fela's career. When he returned to his homeland he opened a nightclub, the Shrine, and changed the name of his band to Africa 70 (and later to Egypt 80).

Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra at the Jazz Cafe

by Chris May
January 28, 2020

Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra / Yung Afriqa Pioneers The Jazz Cafe London January 24, 2020 Time was when if Londoners wanted to hear authentic live Afrobeat they needed to take a flight to West Africa, preferably Nigeria. Not anymore. All they need do in 2020 is take the ...

London Afrobeat Collective: Humans

by Bruce Lindsay
November 8, 2019

Hard-driving, politically-charged, rhythmic, irresistibly-danceable music; what else could be expected from a band that mixes influences from Fela Kuti, Parliament/Funkadelic, Frank Zappa, and Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards into one exciting and uplifting musical pot? Such expectations are high, but the London Afrobeat Collective meets them with ease. There have been a few personnel ...

Michael Leonhart: Suite Extracts Vol. 1

by Angelo Leonardi
October 21, 2019

Credo proprio di non esagerare ma è dall'uscita di There Comes a Time di Gil Evans che non ascoltavo un album orchestrale così eclettico nella sintesi di materiali diversi. Il nuovo disco di Michael Leonhart segue il debutto di The Painted Lady Suite (Sunnyside 2018), il maestoso affresco musicale che evocava l'impressionismo del primo Evans, con ...

Jazz In Marciac 2019

by Martin McFie
August 9, 2019

Jazz In Marciac Marciac, France July 30, 2019 to August 4, 2019 How does a remote village in South West France end up hosting an international jazz festival for 42 years? The logistics come later, but the answers to most questions about Jazz in Marciac lie in the superb quality ...