October 15: Fela Kuti was born in 1938
Music is the weapon of the future
~Fela Anikulapo KutiImagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.
— Herald Sun, February 2011
Tag Archives: Fela Kuti
August 19: Ginger Baker Birthday
“They credited us with the birth of that sort of heavy metal thing. Well, if that’s the case, there should be an immediate abortion.”
~Ginger BakerIf I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.
~Ginger BakerThere are a lot of great drummers. But Ginger Baker is an inspiration because of a certain almost relaxing quality that he brings to the drums. While a lot of drummers are putting speed and power first, Baker put rhythm first.
~bgamall.hubpages.com
Ginger Baker Biography – youtube video:
October 15: The late Fela Kuti was born in 1938 – 76 years ago
Music is the weapon of the future
~Fela Anikulapo KutiImagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.
— Herald Sun, February 2011
Teacher Don’t teach Me No Nonsense (live):
Continue reading October 15: The late Fela Kuti was born in 1938 – 76 years ago
August 2 in music history
August 2: Happy 77th Birthday Garth Hudson (read more)
|
 |
August 2: Bob Dylan: 5th recording session for Highway 61 Revisited in 1965 (read more)
|
 |
| Fela Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) also known as Fela Anikulapo Kuti or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre, human rights activist, and political maverick. | |
| Billy Lee Riley (October 5, 1933 – August 2, 2009) was an American rockabilly musician, singer, record producer and songwriter. His most memorable recordings included “Rock With Me Baby” and “Red Hot”. |  |
| The Suburbs is the third studio album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released 2 August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Irish Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the US Billboard 200 chart, and the Canadian Albums Chart. It won Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards, Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards, Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, and the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning Grammy’s Album of the Year, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the Billboard 200, the album’s highest ranking since August 2010. |  |
Spotify Playlist – August 2 |
|
Today: The late Fela Kuti was born in 1938 – 74 years ago
Music is the weapon of the future
~Fela Anikulapo KutiImagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.
— Herald Sun, February 2011
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Fela Anikulapo Kuti Fela Ransome-Kuti |
| Born | 15 October 1938 Abeokuta, Nigeria |
| Died | 2 August 1997 (aged 58) |
| Genres | Afrobeat, Highlife |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter,instrumentalist, activist |
| Instruments | Saxophone, vocals, keyboards,trumpet, guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1958–1997 |
| Labels | Barclay/PolyGram,MCA/Universal, Celluloid, EMI Nigeria, JVC, Wrasse,Shanachie, Knitting Factory |
| Associated acts | Africa ’70, Egypt ’80, Koola Lobitos, Nigeria ’70, Hugh Masekela, Ginger Baker, Tony Allen, Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti, Roy Ayers, Lester Bowie |
| Website | www.felaproject.net |
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), or simply Fela was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.
Music Style
The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native “tinker pan” African-style percussion that Kuti acquired while studying in Ghana with Hugh Masekela, under the uncanny Hedzoleh Soundz. The importance of the input of Tony Allen (Fela’s drummer of twenty years) in the creation of Afrobeat cannot be overstated. Fela once famously stated that “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”.
Afrobeat is characterized by a fairly large band with many instruments, vocals, and a musical structure featuring jazzy, funky horn sections. The “endless groove” is used, in which a base rhythm of drums, shekere, muted West African-style guitar, and melodic bass guitar riffs are repeated throughout the song. Commonly, interlocking melodic riffs and rhythms are introduced one by one, building the groove bit-by-bit and layer-by-layer to an astonishing melodic and polyrhythmic complexity. The horn section then becomes prominent, introducing other riffs and main melodic themes.
John Dougan (allmusic):
It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Fela Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti (or just Fela as he’s more commonly known) to the global musical village: producer, arranger, musician, political radical, outlaw. He was all that, as well as showman par excellence, inventor of Afro-beat, an unredeemable sexist, and a moody megalomaniac. His death on August 3, 1997 of complications from AIDS deeply affected musicians and fans internationally, as a musical and sociopolitical voice on a par with Bob Marley was silenced. A press release from the United Democratic Front of Nigeria on the occasion of Fela‘s death noted: “Those who knew you well were insistent that you could never compromise with the evil you had fought all your life. Even though made weak by time and fate, you remained strong in will and never abandoned your goal of a free, democratic, socialist Africa.” This is as succinct a summation of Fela‘s political agenda as one is likely to find. ..read more @ allmusic.com
Teacher Don’t teach Me No Nonsense:
Water No Get Enemy (1975)
Album of the day – Gentleman (1973)
Sam Samuelson – allmusic:
Gentleman is both an Africa 70 and Afro-beat masterpiece. High marks go to the scathing commentary that Fela Anikulapo Kuti lets loose but also to the instrumentation and the overall arrangements, as they prove to be some of the most interesting and innovative of Fela‘s ’70s material. When the great tenor saxophone player Igo Chico left the Africa 70 organization in 1973, Fela Kuti declared he would be the replacement. So in addition to bandleader, soothsayer, and organ player, Fela picked up the horn and learned to play it quite quickly — even developing a certain personal voice with it. To show off that fact, “Gentleman” gets rolling with a loose improvisatory solo saxophone performance that Tony Alleneventually pats along with before the entire band drops in with classic Afro-beat magnificence.
…read more @ allmusic.com
Other October 15
Continue reading Today: The late Fela Kuti was born in 1938 – 74 years ago