Just came home from the second night's DJ-ing. With half an hour to go in my set, black smoke came pouring out the back of the venue's main amplifier, and the place filled with that smell of burning electronics and plastic. I ripped all of the power cables out ... end of gig!
And the song I was playing at the time ?
26-year-old Seun Kuti (his full name is Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti) is the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and he leads his dad's old band Egypt 80. He first played with them when he was 8 years old.
For those of you who've never been quite satisfied with the work of his sibling Femi Kuti , Seun is the real deal. Track down his album "Many Things", it's worth a listen.
"Fire Dance" is a great track. I just hope it doesn't burn your house down ...
I actually think Seun is simply following his father's step, probably as a sign he's much younger than Femi, who's been working for many years to bring afrobeat to the next level. I do thinj Femi, alongside Tony Allen's work, is in a process to mix Fela's with other musical currents. It's not always successful, sure, but Femi deserves to be seen as a leader in afrobeat. I recently saw Seun and Femi live, a couple of weeks in between, and really, Femi was much more impressive, departing from his father's tradition.
ReplyDeleteHi Vesper -
ReplyDeleteI think what I personally like about Seun's work, derivative as it is, is the groove - it's like updated Fela, a little faster and punchier - but yes, you're right in that Femi has done more in terms of developing the genre. But I only know recordings, would love to see either of them live!
Nice! Very nice!!
ReplyDeleteVery cool, made me go and find my old copy of Black President (which someone should make into a t shirt now). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBlack President: Prescient!
ReplyDeletehttp://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/2008/06/fela-anikulapo-kuti-black-president.html
Ok, pardon my enthusiasm. From wikipedia "As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. In 1974 the police arrived with a search warrant and a cannabis joint, which they had intended to plant on Fela. He became wise to this and swallowed the joint. In response, the police took him into custody and waited to examine his feces. Fela enlisted the help of his prison mates and gave the police someone else's feces, and Fela was freed. He then recounted this tale in his release Expensive Shit."
ReplyDeletehttp://zombibaba.blogspot.com/2007/12/fela-kuti-expensive-shit-he-miss-road.html
wow, quite a story! music is power, indeed.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS!!!! just saw a pretty good docu about seun on al jazeera. i've been in love with fela's music since i was 17 in 1982 when black president came out and been collecting his music ever since. i do like femi and tony allen but really what seun is doing is just bringing me back to all those years ago, fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteThis sure swings, thanks Simon!
ReplyDelete