Femi Kuti: Africa For Africa

I don't remember exactly when I first discovered the music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti; but there was a powerful mojo about his music that pulled me in right away. I had come to African music through the same door as so many other Americans - Paul Simon's Graceland - but unlike many of them, I took up residence. I couldn't hear enough. Still, it took me a while to get to Kuti. I went through Mbaqanga, Soukous, Shona, Mbalax, Makossa/Makassi... but eventually I got to Nigerian Juju music, and through that, found Fela. 

Fela was, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. He combined the electric charisma of Bob Marley, the endless funk and soul of James Brown, and the political urgency of a revolutionary. He was certainly a musical genius. His band was often huge, often 15 to 20 musicians or more. And at its base was an interconnected groove that belied the ego stroking approach of much American music. Listen to a 20 minute Fela song, and you might notice a subtle guitar line that repeats for the entire time. A percussionist might hit the cowbell every measure for the whole song. Sounds repetitive when I write it here, but it wasn't. It was beautiful. The musicians contributed piece by piece to a massive, unstoppable groove. It wasn't unusual for a song to play for 10 or 12 minutes before the vocals even came in.

After Fela's untimely passing in 1997, his son Seun Kuti took over the band and continued his father's tradition. His son  Femi, also a saxophonist, took a slightly different path. In the late sixties, Fela had come to America and discovered James Brown, who's funk machine influenced him greatly in his forming the Afrobeat sound. Instead of continuing the same sound, Femi brought his Afrobeat structure back to American music for another re-invention. The band was smaller, the songs shorter and more tightly arranged, and he drew some cues from more modern American soul and hip hop.

In many ways, though, he retained the fire of his father's music. Like Fela, Femi has a very commanding presence and an electric charisma. And his songs, like his father's, are powerfully political. 

On Africa For Africa, Femi sheds a lot of the more Westernized trappings of much of his previous music. Recorded in his father's studio, and in the context of Femi's involvement in carrying on the legacy of The Shrine, Fela's club in Lagos, this album channels more of his father's energy and spirit than anything he has released to date. But it's not a Fela tribute album by any means. It retains Femi's own stamp - the songs are tighter and shorter than much of Fela's music, and it's definitely more accessible to the American ear. But recording in this place gives the album a much more African Fela vibe, from the production to the arrangements. 

What better way to experience the power of this album than this video from La Blogothèque, filmed on a Paris rooftop:

I've managed to see Femi and his band, the Positive Force, on most of their tours here over the past decade. His concerts are one of the few live shows I attend where I actually make the effort to get right up front and center. If you ever get the chance to see him live, I beg you not to pass it up. You will not be disappointed.

Oh, and get a copy of the new album!

On an unrelated note: I apologize for not updating recently. I'm working on making a video for The Winter Line. I'm animating a lot of it, and so I've been furiously drawing for an ungodly number of hours each day.