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Fela Kuti
Fela 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 ...
read moreFela 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 ...
read moreFela 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 ...
read moreFela 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 ...
read moreFela Kuti plus Femi and Made Kuti: Challenging Debilitating Corruption with Dramatic Music
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 ...
read moreFela Kuti: King Grenade
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 ...
read moreFela Ransome Kuti & His Highlife Rakers: Fela's First
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 ...
read moreAll 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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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