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Gentleman
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1973 | Knitting Factory Records
Distinctions
The Qobuz Ideal Discography
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 Allen eventually pats along with before the entire band drops in with classic Afro-beat magnificence. "Gentleman" is also a great example of Fela's directed wit at the post-colonial West African sociopolitical state of affairs. His focus is on the Africans that still had a colonial mentality after the Brits were gone and then parallels that life with his own. He wonders why his fellow Africans would wear so much clothing in the African heat: "I know what to wear but my friend don't know" and also points out that "I am not a gentleman like that!/I be Africa man original." To support "Gentleman," the B-side features equally hot jazzy numbers, "Fefe Naa Efe" and "Igbe," making this an absolute must-have release. [In 2000, MCA released Confusion and Gentleman as a two-fer.]© Sam Samuelson /TiVo
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Zombie
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1976 | Knitting Factory Records
Zombie was the most popular and impacting record that Fela Kuti & Africa 70 would record -- it ignited the nation to follow Fela's lead and antagonize the military zombies that had the population by the throat. Fela is direct and humorous in his attack as he barks out commands to the soldiers like: "Attention! Double up! Fall In! Fall out! Fall down! Get ready!" Meanwhile, his choir responds with "Zombie!" in between each statement. Since the groove was so absolutely contagious, it took the nation by storm: People in the street would put on a blank stare and walk with hands affront proclaiming "Zombie!" whenever they would see soldiers. If "Zombie" caught the attention of the populous it also cought the attention of the authority figures -- this would cause devastating personal and professional effects as the Nigerian government came down on him with absolute brute force not long after the release of this record. Also included are "Monkey Banana," a laid-back groove that showcases drummer Tony Allen's mastery of the Afro-beat, and "Everything Scatter," a standard mid-tempo romp. Both songs are forgetful in relation to "Zombie," but this is still an essential disc to own for the title track alone.© Sam Samuelson /TiVo
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The Best of the Black President
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1999 | Knitting Factory Records
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938 -1997) was the father of Afrobeat, a political counter-power opposed to the Nigerian government of his day. He was a legendary figure of pan-Africanism and the godfather of contemporary African music. This release could only ever offer an introduction to his prodigious body of work (57 albums). But the 13 tracks on The Best of the Black President give an admirable overview of his output. The collection starts with two tracks which marked one of the peaks of his career: the 1972 release Shakara (Oloje). He made that album with his best ever line-up, Africa ' 70, whose rhythmic keystone was the drummer Tony Allen. Gentleman which followed one year later, was a devastating broadside at Africans who imitated western fashions and lifestyles. This marked the singer-saxophonist's début on the piano, an instrument to which he brought a unique approach.Zombies, an anti-militarist anthem recorded in 1976, was another high point for the Black President. Sorrow Tears and Blood was written 18 February 1977, when the army and the Lagos police force stormed the Republic of Kalakuta, where Fela and his relatives lived. No Agreement, Pt. 2, another afrobeat classic, only the second half of which is presented here, also dates back to 1977, when the American saxophonist Lester Bowie, who co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago, came to join Africa '70. On Shuffering and Shmiling (1978), Fela attacks the power of the monotheistic religions that colonised Africa. Meanwhile, on 1980's Coffin for Head of State, he blames the Nigerian government for the death of his mother. This generous compilation ends with an edit of O. D. O. O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake), one of his last hits, from 1990. © Benjamin MiNiMuM/Qobuz
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Expensive Shit
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1975 | Knitting Factory Records
This disc is an overt response to the consistent harassment afflicting Fela Kuti's Kalakuta Republic in the early '70s under the oppressive Lagos authorities. The title track is a direct reference to an actual incident that occurred in which the cops planted a marijuana cigarette on Kuti -- who promptly swallowed it and therefore destroyed any evidence. He was then held until he could pass the drugs from his system -- which miraculously did not occur when his fecal sample was then sent for analysis, thanks to some help from his fellow inmates. Because of the costs incurred during this debacle, Kuti proclaimed his excrement as Expensive Shit. Musically, the Afro-funk and tribal rhythms that Kuti and his Africa '70 put down can rightfully be compared to that of James Brown or even a George Clinton-esque vibe. The beats are infectious with a hint of Latin influence, making the music nearly impossible to keep from moving to. Although the band is large, it is also remarkably tight and malleable enough to accompany and punctuate Kuti's vehement and indicting lyrics. The nature of what Kuti says, as well as infers, amounts to much more than simply whining or bad-rapping the law. His witty and thoughtful raps not only relate his side of the incident, but do so with tongue-in-cheek humor -- such as the statement that his oppressors must really enjoy his feces because they want to examine it so urgently. Yet, he tries to stay away from it, for somewhat obvious reasons. The album's B-side contains the metaphysical "Water No Get Enemy." This is a comparatively jazzy piece, with Africa '70 again exploring and stretching out its impulsive beats behind Kuti's singing. The track features some of his finest and most inspired keyboard work as well. He weaves hypnotic and ethereal electric piano lines over the earthy-sounding brass section. The laid-back groove works well in contrast to the manic tempo of "Expensive Shit."
© Lindsay Planer /TiVo
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The Best of the Black President 2
Fela Kuti
World - Released February 5, 2013 | Knitting Factory Records
In the AMG review of 2009's The Best of the Black President, critic Richie Unterberger wrote: "A Fela Kuti best-of is especially daunting, when you consider trying to condense more than 70 albums into a mere two-CD set, and also needing to work with an artist whose tracks were usually in the neighborhood of ten minutes and more." Apparently, Knitting Factory thought so too, because it took over four years for a second volume to hit the streets. Like its predecessor, this set spans Fela's career, though the tracks are sequenced aesthetically rather than chronologically. There are a total of 12 cuts spread over two remastered discs. Highlights include the extended version of "Sorrow Tears and Blood," which closes disc one; 1971's "Black Man's Cry," which kicks off disc two; the furious second part of "Underground System," from his last album in 1992, and 1975's "Expensive Shit." In addition to the killer Afro-beat, critic Chris May's track-by-track analysis is indispensable. The booklet is also introduced by no less than Akon, who claims he's been listening to Fela's music all his life. [The Deluxe Edition also contains a DVD featuring a live performance from the Glastonbury Festival.]
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
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Roforofo Fight
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1972 | Knitting Factory Records
It's true that Fela Kuti's early-'70s records tend to blur together with their similar groupings of four lengthy Afro-funk-jazz cuts. In their defense, it must be said that while few artists can pull off similar approaches time after time and continue to make it sound fresh, Kuti is one of them. Each of the four songs on the 1972 album Roforofo Fight clocks in at 12 to 17 minutes, and there's a slight slide toward more '70s-sounding rhythms in the happy-feet beats of the title track and the varied yet rock-solid drums in "Go Slow." There's just a hint of reggae in "Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am," in the pace, vocal delivery, ethereal keyboards, and lilting yet dramatic minor melodic lines. The James Brown influence is strongly heard in the lean, nervous guitar strums of "Question Jam Answer," and the horns cook in a way that they might have had Brown been more inclined to let his bands go into improvisational jams.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo
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Newen Plays Fela
Newen Afrobeat & Seun Kuti
World - Released October 22, 2021 | Lichens Family
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Music of Many Colours
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1980 | Knitting Factory Records
This meeting of the minds and bands of Afro-funk creator Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and American vibist and R&B/jazz innovator Roy Ayers is a collaboration that shouldn't work on the surface. Fela's music was raw, in your face politically and socially, and musically driven by the same spirit as James Brown's JBs. At the time of this recording in 1979, Ayers had moved out of jazz entirely and become an R&B superstar firmly entrenched in the disco world. Ayers' social concerns -- on record -- were primarily cosmological in nature. So how did these guys pull off one of the most badass jam gigs of all time, with one track led by each man and each taking a full side of a vinyl album? On hand were Fela's 14-piece orchestra and an outrageous chorus made up of seven of his wives and five male voices. For his part, Ayers played vibes, and saxophonist Harold Land blew like the soul master he is. The rest of the Ayers septet performed on his tune only, the funk fest "2,000 Blacks Got to Be Free," an open-ended soul groove overdriven into Afro-funk by Fela's orchestra. Ayers is down on the quick changes, and his band leads the orchestra in pulling down the funk into a hypnotic sway and groove. On Fela's "Africa -- Centre of the World," everything starts out dark and slow with a chant from the master and then the chorus and Fela's trademark tenor honk. The horn section kicks in and Ayers starts playing all around the mix like a restless spirit. He darts in and out of the changes and sometimes hovers above them. The effect is as mesmerizing as it is driving. This is a sure bet for any bash where you want 'em to dance until they drop. For the purpose of musical history, this was a meeting that panned out in all the right ways and left listeners with a stellar gift of a recorded souvenir.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
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Ginger Baker and Tony Allen Drum Solo (Live at Berlin Jazz Festival 1978)
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1978 | Knitting Factory Records
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Afrodisiac
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1972 | Knitting Factory Records
Distinctions
The Qobuz Ideal Discography
The four (lengthy, as usual) songs occupying this album were originally recorded in Nigeria as 45 rpm releases. Afrodisiac consists of re-recordings of these, done in London in the early '70s. While it's true that Fela Kuti's albums from this period are pretty similar to each other, in their favor they're not boring. These four workouts, all sung in Nigerian, are propulsive mixtures of funk and African music, avoiding the homogeneity of a lot of funk and African records of later vintage, done with nonstop high energy. The interplay between horns, electric keyboards, drums, and Kuti's exuberant vocals gives this a jazz character without sacrificing the earthiness that makes it danceable as well. "Jeun Ko Ku (Chop'n Quench)" became Kuti's first big hit in Nigeria, selling 200,000 copies in its first six months in its initial version.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo
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No Agreement
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1972 | Knitting Factory Records
Recorded in 1977, No Agreement follows the Afro-beat template to a masterful level: amazingly catchy guitar lines that replicate a bass guitar in their construction, a second guitarist to add some JB's funk power, driving horn section proclamations, intricate saxophone, trumpet and organ improv solos, and then Fela Anikulopo Kuti's wit and message for the people. Even though Fela had vowed to speak his mind, he turns in a song where he proclaims to keep his mouth shut if it means that he will harm his brothers and sisters in the population (not that he actually does, as some of his most scathing songs have yet to come). "No Agreement" is decidedly some of the most interesting instrumentation that he had turned in. With help from Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter extradordinare Lester Bowie (Bowie turned in a tenure of about a year with Fela), the solos are magically inspired and the rhythm section rolls on with the power of a steamroller. "Dog Days," the instrumental B-side, sounds more like "No Agreement" part two; it does, however, carry its own weight -- again with the help from Bowie. [In 2000, MCA released No Agreement with Shuffering and Shmiling as a two-fer.]
© Sam Samuelson /TiVo
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Fela's London Scene
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1971 | Knitting Factory Records
In 1971, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's record company (EMI) agreed to finance a recording date in London for Fela and band. Now huge stars in Nigeria, this trip was, in a way, a triumphant return to the country that had provided Fela with a musical education and the club scene where he cut his proverbial bandleader's teeth. What is important to note is that he had become good friends with former Cream (and at the time of this recording current Blind Faith) drummer Ginger Baker, who had traveled to Lagos a year earlier to meet, hang out, and play with Fela. Baker shows up on this recording (albeit uncredited) on the track "Egbe Mio," but more importantly helped get Fela gigs all over the city at such venerable venues as the 100 Club, the Cue Club, and the Four Aces. Recording at Abbey Road (a.k.a. the hallowed home of the Beatles) Fela cut these five awesome tracks in which his Afrobeat sound is more complex and jazzy than on the '69 Los Angeles Sessions. At over 13 minutes "J'ehin J'ehin" cuts a wicked groove for its entire length pushed by the horn section and Tony Allen's superlative drumming. "Buy Africa" is a anti-colonial rant worthy of the Last Poets, and "Fight to Finish" very simply kicks out the jams. A stunning record that marks the beginning of Fela's best period of recording.
© John Dougan /TiVo
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Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1986 | Knitting Factory Records
With production help from Wally Badarou, Fela Anikulapo Kuti offers up an interesting mix of songs (well, two to be exact) in both vocal and instrumental versions. Most compelling is the track "Look and Laugh," which details the attack by Nigerian soldiers on his Kalakuta compound. With simple lyrics, Fela runs down the horror of that attack in a detached, almost journalistic manner: "Till dem come/burn my house/burn my house/all my property/burn burn dem/beat beat me/kill my mama." Badarou's production help gives Fela his most full-bodied sound; the horn section is much hotter and brassier than ever before. The problem with this record is that with following an instrumental track with a vocal version of the same song, there's a certain lack of drama that blunts the impact of songs as powerful as "Look and Laugh." That said, this is very good mid-'80s Fela. The 2001 reissue on MCA adds a 22-minute bonus track, "Just Like That," which was originally released on 1989's Beast of No Nation album.© John Dougan /TiVo
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Beasts of No Nation
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1989 | Knitting Factory Records
After helping Fela Anikulapo Kuti with Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, Wally Badarou was back in the producer's chair for this effort, which was political in the extreme. That is to say, Kuti was in an extremely confrontational mood. The cover pictures former South African president P.W. Botha, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan as horned vampires with blood dripping from their mouths. The music is more of the same, the grooves are typically sinuous, but the lyrics are venom-filled with Kuti referring to the aforementioned trio as "Animals wan dash our human rights." After a few so-so records in the early '80s, Beasts of No Nation was a strong (at times stunning) return to form for Kuti and signaled that his political beliefs kept him from becoming musically lazy.
© John Dougan /TiVo
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Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee (Deluxe Edition)
Wyclef Jean
Hip-Hop/Rap - Released September 15, 2017 | Legacy Recordings
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Wyclef Jean's solo discography has been dizzying following the first volume of The Carnival. A series of label and distribution changes, stopgap EPs and stray singles, abrupt conceptual shifts, and announcements trailed by delays and title changes didn't make his moves easy to follow. A multitude of collaborative juxtapositions that seemed random rather than shrewd, and appeared on releases with lengthy titles containing colons and Roman and Arabic numerals, added to the confusion. Another factor was the alternation between prolific and dry periods -- three albums in three years, and then, as Jean juggled various political and charitable causes, and was entangled in a few legal and public relations messes, the next three albums were spread across 13 years. In one significant sense, Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee arrived right on time -- ten years after after the sequel, which followed the original by the same amount of time. It's a standard Wyclef Jean release, lively and positive, concerned with the upliftment of the everyday person, blending cross-continental sounds with a broad mix of well over a dozen guests -- this time involving the likes of Emeli Sandé, LunchMoney Lewis, and the Knocks, along with several relative newcomers. As with the first two Carnival releases, this isn't all fun and games. Odds-bucking prosperity, dream fulfillment, and mere survival remain themes for Jean. In the sonically murky if lyrically hopeful opener, "Slums," he plainly states "Statistically, I ain't even supposed to be here," while the part-acoustic ballad, part-regal anthem "Warrior" offers encouragement to the bullied and misunderstood. There are several upbeat grooves and romantic numbers, such as the frothy and escapist "What Happened to Love," the boisterous "Fela Kuti," and the Celia Cruz-sampling "Trapicabana" (indeed a fusion of booming/snaking trap production and vintage salsa rhythms). Carnival III isn't quite as thrilling as the 1997 and 2007 volumes. Now that the pop world has finally caught up with Jean's wild synthesis, it's certainly less novel in approach, but its high spirit nonetheless provides some lasting value.© Andy Kellman /TiVo
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Why Black Man Dey Suffer
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1971 | Knitting Factory Records
Pioneering musician, activist, and bandleader Fela Kuti is the first word in Afro-beat, making such strides in the genre over the course of his career that his contributions are foundational and nothing less than legendary. Why Black Man Dey Suffer is a relatively early chapter in the Fela discography, originally recorded in 1971. Put to tape with early band Africa 70 and Cream drummer/Afro-beat enthusiast Ginger Baker on board as well, the record is made up of two extensive, repetitive, and loping pieces. The rhythmic title track is a blueprint of early Afro-beat and "Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality" is a deep groove of burning horns and fearless percussion.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo
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Confusion
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1974 | Knitting Factory Records
Distinctions
The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Fela Kuti's 1975 Confusion shows him and Africa 70 at the heights of instrumental prowess and ambiguous jibes (the stabs are about to get a bit more direct and heated with 1977's Zombie). "Confusion" begins with an unusual free jazz interplay between Fela on organ and drummer Tony Allen that has the presence of 2001: A Space Odyssey in its omnipresent drama. Then the group falls into a lengthily mid-tempo Afro funk that plays with a sureness that only comes from skilled musicians and a dictator-like leader; here is the formula that had made Fela a genius: Once he has the listener (or the crowd -- as all of his songs were originally meant to entertain and educate his audiences at the Shrine) entranced in his complex (and at the same time, deceptively simple) arrangements of danceable grooves, he hits them with what he wants to say. "Confusion" is a comment on the general condition of urban Nigeria (Lagos, in particular). Fela uses traffic jams, no fewer than three dialects, and a multitude of currencies that make trading difficult to complete the allusion to the general post-colonial confusion of a Nigeria lacking in infrastructure and proper leadership. Confusion is a highly recommended 25-minute Afro-beat epic. [In 2000, MCA released Confusion and Gentleman as a two-fer.]© Sam Samuelson /TiVo
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2000 Blacks Got To Be Free (feat. Roy Ayers)
Fela Kuti
World - Released January 1, 1980 | Knitting Factory Records
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