Fela Kuti

>dancing alone to Fela in living room = only known cure for depression

You could also try dancing to Ornette Coleman's early Atlantic recordings, esp. This Is Our Music and "Ramblin'" from Change Of The Century. But I hear ya.

Worth noting: the Spanish label Vampisoul has just released a 2CD compilation of Tony Allen's first four solo albums, and the first three (Jealousy, Progress and No Accomodation For Lagos) feature Afrika 70 as the backing band, including Fela on sax.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/theater/06fela.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Fela! the off-broadway musical opening in NYC Sept. 4th

Hmmmmmmm....

as long as it has an "!" it should be good

The Most Happy Fela in the Whole Niger Delta

apparently Fela, Soyinka, Obasanjo and Moshood Abiola all come from the same town

finally got "music of many colors" (the roy ayers collaboration) and it far exceeds expectations. i had expected something along the lines of "africa centre of the world", instead i get dubby uptempo spaced-out afro-disco in the vein of tony allen's "NEPA dub". this is tremendous.

still think "coffin for head of state" is the best. shows off his tremendous grooves (second only to ITT or shuffering and shmiling in my mind), his wicked sarcasm ("alluahakbarablahblahblahblah ... wokka wokka wokka"), his righteous anger (they killed his mom!) all in the same track.

otm

I came to this thread wanting to write "Coffin For Head Of State" yes yes yes yes yes yes. I have become enthralled by Fela in the past month. not before time.

Can someone recommend the early "L.A. sessions" CD?

dancing alone to Fela in living room = only known cure for depression

This close to OTMing, but on second thought it's Ayler's New Grass for me--big fun slapping you on the ass.

Though on the other hand, tragically, I'm only familiar with Confusion/Gentleman.

tim you must hear "2000 black" (roy ayers w/ fela + afrika 70)

exact title is "2000 Blacks Got To Be Free"

^^yes!

also "mr. grammarticologylisationalism is the boss"
lord it's good

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/12/19

Bill T. Jones, the choreographer/director of Fela!, talks about the show and Fela on the radio program Studio 360. It appears the show may run in London shortly and then come back to NYC for a longer run if they can get financing.

!!!
http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=8DC92121-9F33-ED7A-D547329B08561449

Did anyone see this Yale Prof talk on Monday April 20th at Harvard (Wayne Marshall highlighted this at his Wayne and Wax site)?

Michael Veal, professor of ethnomusicology at Yale, bassist, and the author of two interesting and informed books, Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon and Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae* is delivering a lecture at Harvard this afternoon called “Technotopia 1969.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/news/bal-fela-jay-z-1117,0,4543991.story

NEW YORK - It's official: After weeks of speculation, Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have joined the producing team of the Broadway musical "Fela!"

Jay-Z told The Associated Press last month that he might be getting involved in the show, an Afrobeat musical about the life of the late Nigerian musical legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Now producers say he and the Smiths are in, though there's no word on how much of a financial investment the three have made in the show.

"Fela!" is now in previews at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and opens next Monday. It's directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones.

Is Will Smith going to play Fela in the inevitable biopic? With CGI Jada as his 30 wives?

it'd be really funny if "fela: the musical" had all its songs written in the broadway musical idiom.

Andrew Lloyd Weber's Fela!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/theater/22fela.html?_r=1

Lotsa details in this Pareles article on the Broadway show plus the impending cd and vinyl reissues and Antibalas stuff

Knitting Factory Records has issued “The Best of the Black President,” a two-CD anthology of Fela’s music packaged with a documentary DVD. The label plans to release all of Fela’s nearly four dozen albums on CD and LP, including some that never appeared on vinyl in the United States.

fwiw, C and D on Fela The Musical (off-Broadway verz) from Arthur No. 31/Oct 2008:

http://www.arthurmag.com/2008/10/16/c-d-from-arthur-no-31/

anyone know what the forthcoming stones throw fela album is all about?

saw the musical this weekend--really incredible

antibalas is shit-hot, too

expensive shit-hot

suspicious but curious about the musical...

i look forward to future volumes of the Nigeria Special series.

anyone hear that "black man cry - influences of Fela" comp? interesting...

yeah, if you can get past the inevitable uncomfortable feeling about watching a several-hundred-thousand-dollar music with hundreds of well-heeled new yorkers its really, really worth it

Are there any cheaper tickets available day of the show at those 2 Ticket Booths? Would like to get up to NY from DC to see it.

i dunno--i am not really a theater-goer; my dad got the tickets

Ha. When tourist me is in NY I just show up and look on the boards posted at the Times Square and/or South Street Seaport locations, but maybe they also post the availability of the half-price or 25% off or whatever tickets online every morning also. The theatres want to fill the seats so each day they determine how many full-price tickets have sold, and then how many to sell cheaper. But maybe you know that. Not really a theater-goer either, but want to see this and "In the Heights" (the show with the uptown NYC Latin music)

"See the FELA! matinee this Wednesday at a special price.

Wednesday Matinees
$52 (reg. $99)

Now thru 02/28/10
$67 (reg. $110-$120)

Use Code FE4FANS
Best Available Seats!"

Fela is one of those artists who sometimes I think how incredibly my life changed when I first heard him and the general overall splendor of music is reawakened for me

fuck yeah, Fela

anyone hear that "black man cry - influences of Fela" comp? interesting...

Yeah, I reviewed it for The Wire along with the two new Nigeria Special comps. I didn't like it much - the old material was solid but the new stuff at the end really jarred.

xpost: just read that very review earlier today, and thought how so few tracks on these afrobeat comps of late reward me as much as Fela.

Bill T. Jones just won a Tony Award for best choreography for the Broadway show Fela. I wonder if they had a scene from the show on the Tonys (I've been watching more of the Basketball Final between Boston and L.A.)

given i saw antibalas a week ago (for free in chicago) and had one of those 'wtf !?!' moments, i need a starting block.
which one ?
a compilation, or head straight into the albums proper ?

This is great if you can find it (I guess it's out of print now). A two-disc best-of paired with a DVD containing a documentary filmed in about 1982 in Nigeria. There are two versions of the documentary, both included on the DVD - one in English and one in French, and each contains footage not found in the other, so it's worth it to watch both.

The 2-fer of 'Expensive Shit" & 'He Miss Road' is devastatingly good.

improvspirit speaks the truth. then follow that up with the live with ginger baker lp.

Saw The Musical! last night. Hugely entertaining. Story was thinly presented and verging on hagiography but music, not narrative, was the crucial element, and the songs sounded amazing.

I wanna go up to NYC and see this before it closes.

The label plans to release all of Fela’s nearly four dozen albums on CD and LP, including some that never appeared on vinyl in the United States.

The first batch of these is out next week:

http://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Box-Set-Curated-uestlove/dp/B0046I8MA2
Knitting Factory Records is proud to release the first of the long-awaited vinyl reissues from the Fela Kuti catalog. This is the first in a series of curated vinyl box sets. The box includes six Fela Kuti albums that were handpicked by ?uestlove of The ROOTS. The artwork for each album is painstakingly recreated original album artwork along with vintage vinyl label artwork. What’s more is that this release marks the first time that some of these Fela Kuti albums have been released on vinyl domestically.

The box includes the albums:
Everything Scatter (1975)
Expensive Shit (1975)
Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (1986)
Beasts Of No Nation (1989)
Fear Not For Man (1977)
Sorrow Tears And Blood (1977)

awesome! been waiting forever for this to get off the ground. but...

bummed that they're gonna be box sets. means significant cash outlay that poor-ass me really can't afford, shouldn't be considering. and bummed that they're not just gonna be sequential. would make a whole lot more sense that way, allow for comprehensive liner notes devoted to the phases of his life and music that you could read while listening to the relevant albums.

looking a gift horse in the mouth over here

i picked up expensive shit from the 2nd hand record store last wkend! it's awesome (obv)

That's cool news bing. and $80 is not a bad price for 6 LPs

true but what the hell with the scattershot non-sequential approach, bad move imo.

E no be story?

At all, very very at all.

man fela gets me so amped up i feel like i can conquer the world when i listen to him

Kind of fell down a fela youtube/spotify hole last night after discovering this beautifully shot footage of Africa 70 live --there's not much of that out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz2jXHKa7TY

as posted by Ward Fowler on the King Sunny Adé thread:

Fela documentary on BBC2 today:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pr2n

(starts two hours from now)

That was a fine documentary. It is now on yt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOXDCqbPZo

yesterday it still was, sorry.

been starting to go through uh... possibly every fela record, we'll see. early verdict roforofo fight is one of the best albums i've ever heard

he has a lot of best albums ever

Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am is the best song I've ever heard on the best album I've ever heard

Open and Close is still my favorite but there are so many good ones. Confusion/Gentleman definitely up there for me.

I have discovered recently that "Expensive Shit" / "Water No Get Enemy" is great music for running... A side makes me go fast fast fast, B side nice and slow coming home

In general I'm not a fan of super-long intros, but I make an exception for "Confusion"

The Confusion/Gentleman twofer CD was my fave during my peak Fela obsession (I also enjoyed reading Michael Veal's book on him at that time), but everything named in the revive is great and Moodles is otm. I also loved "Lady" off of Shakara though, uh, I do not endorse the lyrics lol

"Lady" is icky but also fantastic. At random I'll sing, to myself, "She waaaaant that piece of meat before anybody."

it also inspired a great Hugh Masekela track

This is cool for the tracks with Fela that I hadn't heard before, but would be 10000000000000x better with Tony Allen instead of Ginger Baker, obviously

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37sDbvQOJ2I

That's p much how I feel about the Ginger Baker / Fela album - it would be better without Ginger Baker and just Tony Allen

Oh! forgot that I went to an artist talk last week with Lemi Ghariokwu, creator of all the iconic Fela album covers, and it was a night full of amazing anecdotes. Got to enjoy dinner with the man as well. A funny, brilliant human.

re Ginger Baker: (paraphrased) "Always passed out on a sofa with a big joint in one hand, a glass of wine in the other."

That's p much how I feel about the Ginger Baker / Fela album - it would be better without Ginger Baker and just Tony Allen

i'm no Ginger Baker apologist but that album has one of my top 5 Fela tracks - Egbe Mi O. i guess it might have been right at the top if it was just Allen drumming.

Very cool JV!

Crazy.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/10/life-with-fela-kuti-dangerous-tour-roy-ayers-nigeria

Whoa

Bernard Purdie content alert!

Bernard is playing in Chicago this weekend and I don't think I can make it :(