I've got a vinyl box set (it's number 4 in a series, but I've never seen the others) with Zombie, No Agreement, Coffin for Head of State, Kalakuta Show, Shuffering and Shmiling, and Fear Not For Man. It was a hundo, but it's gorgeous. No book or anything like that, but it came with postcards of "Fela's Beauties" in it.
― Trip Maker, Monday, 7 February 2011 16:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
the complete box sets on wrasse are a bit of a mess date-wise arent they? seem to be lots of albums from diff eras stuck together. :(
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 11:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
so I've listened to fela casually in the past but somebody posted a youtube on fb the other day, something about it hit me the right way and I thought "I should listen to this guy's entire discog"
so here I go
― I GUESS THAT CINNABON GETTIN EATEN (Edward III), Friday, 24 February 2012 18:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
see you in a year
― Artful Dodderer (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 24 February 2012 18:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
kinda thinking about seeing seun kuti next month -- anybody checked the show out before?
― tylerw, Friday, 24 February 2012 18:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
nah maybe a month or two
xp
― I GUESS THAT CINNABON GETTIN EATEN (Edward III), Friday, 24 February 2012 19:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
50 albums that's nuthin
― I GUESS THAT CINNABON GETTIN EATEN (Edward III), Friday, 24 February 2012 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
Well, most of his records are on the shortish side.
― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 24 February 2012 19:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
― tylerw, Friday, February 24, 2012
Yes. It was fun, although at times he seemed to be trying too hard to imitate his Dad(taking off his shirt and stuff)
― curmudgeon, Friday, 24 February 2012 19:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Femi didn't even bother to come onstage in a shirt in the first place
― Artful Dodderer (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 24 February 2012 19:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
But he does some disco-beat tracks that Seun would never do
― curmudgeon, Friday, 24 February 2012 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't think
― curmudgeon, Friday, 24 February 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
seun is good live, obv not as good as dad and prob not quite as good as femi but still the real deal
― the late great, Friday, 24 February 2012 20:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
seun is definitely worth seeing live.. never got to see fela, so this is obviously the next best thing...
and he always opens his show with Zombie, which is killer..
― Talcum Mucker, Friday, 24 February 2012 20:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
listened to my first batch of fela stuff, figure I will liveblog in case anybody's interested. I'm no funk/jazz guru so don't expect sophisticated breakdowns, just my gut reactions here...
fela kuti & koola lobitos 64-68not much of note, some good tunes but recordings are ruff and overall the songs are a bit anonymous. for the curious archivist.
fela fela fela (1969) aka the '69 los angeles sessionstaken aback by how solid this is. whatever was in the water in LA in '69 agreed with him something fierce. bitsize fela, most tracks run 3-4 minutes long. leans more toward upbeat/jazz high life style, but there are hints of the hypnotic incantatory approach he mined on later albums. if you can get a hold of the original version, fela fela fela, it's much better than the remixed one called the '69 los angeles sessions. it almost sounds as though somebody tried to remix it like a heavy funk record, when really this is silky jazz played with finesse, and it benefits from being muted + smooth rather than brash + amped up.
fela's london scene (1969)a transitional album. longer workouts, with the polyrhythms getting pushed to the fore. unfortunately the material isn't very strong here. standout track "egbe mi o" is rendered in stronger relief on...
live! (1970)first track "let's start" sounds like a warmup number, but after that this thing really takes off. a stuttering bassline fuels fela's howls on "black man's cry", "egbe mi o" weaves between a catchy descending vocal chant and full-on in-your-face horn hits. apparently redhead tailor, some guy from an english rock band called cream, plays on this. you'd never know, so good on him.
why the black man dey suffer (1971)title track is ground zero for fela's sound in the 70s. amazing that he went from "my lady frustration" in '69 to this. it grooves, but in a yearning + downbeat way, a confidant, fully-realized pastiche of the styles he'd been mixing and matching for the past few years. the social consciousness angle is front and center now: 'dey took our culture away from us / gave us dem culture no one understand'. flip side is an adequate workout.
ginger baker - stratavarious (1972)this is listed as part of fela's discog on wiki, which is good because I doubt I would've heard it otherwise. first two songs are collabs w/ fela, the second written by him. they're less musically sophisticated than what he was doing at the time with africa '70, but they're a lot more atmospheric and trippy. worth tracking down. some haunting vocal turns by sandra smith, who introduced fela to the black power movement in LA, a big impact on his aesthetic development.
― I GUESS THAT CINNABON GETTIN EATEN (Edward III), Monday, 5 March 2012 19:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
good interview with sandra smith here about her time in LA w/ fela
http://blogs.laweekly.com/arts/2011/12/fela_kuti_los_angeles_sandra_i.php
love this bit
It was really exciting when he auditioned for Disneyland. I was like, "ooh, a free trip to Disneyland!" I was so excited, but at the end of the day, I was disappointed.
Disneyland told Fela that he wasn't playing African music. They wanted him to play in Adventureland.
They had thought he played just stereotypical African music, like what they have on the Small World ride?
They thought he was going to be something else, and they said that he wasn't playing African music at all. How do you tell an African man, playing African rhythms who had studied African music, that he is not playing African music? Crazy. So that was Disneyland.
― I GUESS THAT CINNABON GETTIN EATEN (Edward III), Monday, 5 March 2012 20:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol wow.
― tylerw, Monday, 5 March 2012 20:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
Didn't know Juno Lewis was the one who introduced him. Only other mention of him I've seen is his Coltrane collaboration, "Kulu Se Mama."
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 5 March 2012 20:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
him = them
I've been given as a gift (!) Vol 2 of the Wrasse records boxsets (mentioned above). It includes the following albums, mostly doubled up 2-per-CD: Monkey BananaExcuse OEverything ScatterNoise For Vendor MouthTeacher Don't Teach Me NonsenseKoola Lobitos 64-68The '69 LA SessionsRoforofo FightThe Fela SinglesConfusionGentlemanShakaraFela's London SceneExpensive ShitHe Miss RoadStalemateFear Not For Man
I only have a passing knowledge of Fela and am enjoying digging into this. "Expensive Shit" is on right now - wonderful.
― Duke, Sunday, 1 April 2012 19:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
expensive shit/he miss road are his two greatest LPs IMHO, closely followed by the Ginger Baker album
― Nascar Pony (stevie), Monday, 2 April 2012 06:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
hoping E3 continues his liveblog thru Fela's discography
― Year of the RMDE (loves laboured breathing), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 13:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
nascar pony 100% OTM.
― stirmonster, Tuesday, 3 April 2012 16:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
I will probably stan harder for No Agreement, but I love He Miss Road and Expensive Shit lots!
― Year of the RMDE (loves laboured breathing), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 17:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
nonono my name is STEVIE
― Nascar Pony (stevie), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 19:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
and thank you
yeah I guess I should catch you guys up huh
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 21:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
I just dig readin about it, man
― Year of the RMDE (loves laboured breathing), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 22:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
Laurie & I saw Seun a couple of weeks ago and it was really really good even though he was a bit sick from the brutal NW weather
that guy playing the shaker gourd was killin it
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 03:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
new Fela live album 3xCD is awesome-- not prime era material, it's all late 80s era, but still fantastic and fun
― ilxor, Sunday, 29 April 2012 15:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wrasse are finally releasing the second vinyl box set in a few weeks time..
Curated by Ginger Baker, it will include...
Live With Ginger Baker (1971)Roforofo Fight (1972)Confusion (1974)Alagbon Close (1974)He Miss Road (1975)Na Poi (1976)
looking forward to finally getting some of these on vinyl without paying stupid prices...
― Talcum Mucker, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 19:32 (8 months ago) Permalink
Ginger Baker record is killer
― chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 19:33 (8 months ago) Permalink
^^
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 19:56 (8 months ago) Permalink
There's this weird doc streaming on Netflix right now called Ginger Baker in Africa.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:16 (8 months ago) Permalink
contains my three favourite fela albums - live with ginger baker, he miss road and na poi. i hope they release them separately too so i can get alagbon close.
i have the ginger baker in africa dvd. it's ok, if a little on the short side.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 21:20 (8 months ago) Permalink
Confusion is such a monster
― rob, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 21:51 (8 months ago) Permalink
the Ginger Baker in Africa DVD is worthwhile for the Fela footage alone, but its the live snippet of Segun Bucknor's Sweet Things that makes the film for me... They must have shot loads more footage of those live performances - wonder what happened to it all...
― Talcum Mucker, Thursday, 6 September 2012 16:19 (8 months ago) Permalink
Segun Bucknor is so under-rated...
yeah that doc is great. is that the one that has the cartoon bit of Ginger traipsing around the continent? very lol
and yeah Segun Bucknor sequence is o_0
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 6 September 2012 16:32 (8 months ago) Permalink
segun bucknor is wonderful!
― Trad., Arrrgh (stevie), Thursday, 6 September 2012 17:25 (8 months ago) Permalink