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Fela Kuti

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6
Liner Notes

Fela Kuti: Coffin For Head Of State

Read "Fela Kuti: Coffin For Head Of State" reviewed 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 ...

2
Liner Notes

Fela Kuti: Yellow Fever

Read "Fela Kuti: Yellow Fever" reviewed 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 ...

3
Liner Notes

Fela Kuti: Army Arrangement

Read "Fela Kuti: Army Arrangement" reviewed 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 ...

7
Liner Notes

Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Perambulator

Read "Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Perambulator" reviewed 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 ...

7
Multiple Reviews

Fela Kuti plus Femi and Made Kuti: Challenging Debilitating Corruption with Dramatic Music

Read "Fela Kuti plus Femi and Made Kuti: Challenging Debilitating Corruption with Dramatic Music" reviewed by Scott Gudell


It's impossible to neatly sum up Fela Kuti's chaotic life, but a record company bio for a disc of the Afrobeat icon tried: “Fela's life as musician, political activist, rebel, and notorious free spirit has made him a larger-than-life icon of world music: the ultimate political artist who has survived beatings, imprisonment, government assaults and more." Describing Fela's live shows, the bio continued, “audiences were mesmerized by the army of musicians, singers and dancers gyrating onstage." It might sound like ...

1
Profile

Fela Kuti: King Grenade

Read "Fela Kuti: King Grenade" reviewed by Mick Raubenheimer


His Dark Majestic. Fela Kuti was born royalty, despite coming from a middle class family. One of those gifted spirits whose very presence teems with potency, Olufela Olusegun Oludan Ransome-Kuti (Fela to his friends and fans) was majestic, arresting the attention or desire of all who encountered him. He was also a rousing rebel, founding his own state in defiance of the militant Nigerian government. Embodied. Born into a middle class, but auspicious family ...

6
Album Review

Fela Ransome Kuti & His Highlife Rakers: Fela's First

Read "Fela's First" reviewed by Chris May


Lost recordings released for the first time! First, the back story.... In 1958, aged 19, Fela Kuti left the highlife scene in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was on the first steps of a career as a trumpeter, and travelled to London. His mother hoped he would enrol in medical school, as his late father had wished. But Kuti was set on furthering his music studies. Arriving in London, he applied to Trinity College of Music but failed the ...

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145

Event

All About Jazz's Chris May to speak at Fela Kuti events across UK

All About Jazz's Chris May to speak at Fela Kuti events across UK

Source: Chris May

AAJ senior editor Chris May will give the first in a series of talks about Nigerian Afrobeat originator Fela Anikulapo Kuti at the British Library, London on Saturday 23 October, as part of the Nigeria 50+ festival. The event is the first of several to be held in British cities this fall. May, the author of AAJ's Afrobeat Diaries column and a friend of Kuti's since the 1970s, will be speaking alongside Rikki Stein, Kuti's longtime manager, Gilles Peterson, the ...

156

Recording

2nd Set of Fela Kuti Reissues 5/11

2nd Set of Fela Kuti Reissues 5/11

Source: JamBase

KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS TO RELEASE SECOND SET OF FELA REISSUES MAY 11, 2010 UNIQUE PRE-SALE OFFERINGS VIA FELA.NET

Fela Kuti Knitting Factory Records is very excited to announce that the second set of Fela Kuti reissues will be released on May 11, 2010. Once again, as the reissues are being made available in mostly chronological order, these seven CDs that contain 14 albums total are mostly from the mid '70s and represent Fela and Africa '70 in their ...

112

Recording

2nd Set of Fela Kuti Reissues Due 5/11

2nd Set of Fela Kuti Reissues Due 5/11

Source: JamBase

KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS TO RELEASE SECOND SET OF FELA REISSUES MAY 11, 2010 UNIQUE PRE-SALE OFFERINGS VIA FELA.NET

Fela Kuti Knitting Factory Records is very excited to announce that the second set of Fela Kuti reissues will be released on May 11, 2010. Once again, as the reissues are being made available in mostly chronological order, these seven CDs that contain 14 albums total are mostly from the mid '70s and represent Fela and Africa '70 in their ...

140

Recording

New Re-Issues from Fela Kuti and Knitting Factory Records

New Re-Issues from Fela Kuti and Knitting Factory Records

Source: Giant Step

Our friends at Knitting Factory Records and Fela.net have announced the second set of Fela Kuti reissues, Na Poi:

These 7 CDs, which include 14 albums released primarily in the mid-70s, contain some of the most powerful music of Felas career, representing Fela and Africa 70 in their prime. In this collection, Felas political and social commentary begins to reach a boiling point with songs such as Alagbon Close, Icy Blindness, and Expensive Shit. Na Poi was banned ...

91

Interview

Sharon Jones from Jameson to Fela Kuti, Preshow Rites of a Soul Band

Sharon Jones from Jameson to Fela Kuti, Preshow Rites of a Soul Band

Source: Michael Ricci

SHARON JONES is, as the saying goes, the real deal. A 5-foot-1 vocal powerhouse who has been nicknamed the Queen of Funk, Ms. Jones, 53, grew up singing at home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in church and in local bands.

But professional success in music eluded her; for a time she worked as a prison guard at Rikers Island, where the inmates would sometimes make requests. Now, as the leader of the Dap-Kings, the house band of the Brooklyn record label ...

219

Recording

Fela Kuti Reissues to Begin 2/16

Fela Kuti Reissues to Begin 2/16

Source: JamBase

KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS TO RELEASE FIRST SET OF FELA KUTI REISSUES 2/16

Fela Kuti Knitting Factory Records has announced that the first set of Fela Kuti reissues will be released on February 16, 2010. Since the reissues are being made available in chronological order, these six CDs (containing nine albums total) represent the earliest period of the Nigerian legend's oeuvre.

The time span of the releases is 1969 - 1974, the era during which Fela first created the sound he ...

206

Recording

New Fela Kuti Reissue Series Begins!

New Fela Kuti Reissue Series Begins!

Source: Big Hassle

KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS TO BEGIN COMPLETE FELA REISSUE SERIES FIRST RELEASE TO BE THE BEST OF THE BLACK PRESIDENT WITH EXCLUSIVE DVD ON OCTOBER 27, 2009 FIRST TIME ALL 45 TITLES WILL BE RELEASED ON VINYL IN NORTH AMERICA FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE OF ENTIRE CATALOGUE OF FELA'S 1960s BAND: KOOLA LOBITOS BROADWAY MUSICAL FELA! TO OPEN NOVEMBER 23 AT EUGENE O'NEIL THEATRE Knitting Factory Records is very excited to announce that over the next 18 months, all 45 Fela titles ...

Dende Macedo
percussion
Zac Gvi
keyboards
Justking Jones
saxophone
The Nonidentical
band / ensemble / orchestra

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Yellow Fever

Partisan / Knitting Factory
2023

buy

Army Arrangement

Partisan / Knitting Factory
2021

buy

Coffin For Head Of...

Partisan / Knitting Factory
2021

buy

Fela's First

Cadillac Records
2020

buy

Perambulator

Partisan / Knitting Factory
2020

buy

Live At The Afro Spot

Wrasse Records
2013

buy

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