Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is best known as a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, a blend of traditional yoruba and Afro-Cuban music with funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers".
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is best known as a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, a blend of traditional yoruba and Afro-Cuban music with funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers".
Fela's First - The Complete Melodisc Session
** In process of Stocking ** The tape of the very first Fela Ransome Kuti recording session has languished in a series of dusty cupboards and damp basements for 60 years. It’s a miracle that it has survived in such fine condition. The original Melodi…
Afrodisiac
Super album, mixing some of the improvisational verve of jazz into Fela Kuti's Afro-funk stew. These four workouts, all sung in Nigerian, are propulsive mixtures of funk and African music, avoiding the homogeneity of much funk and African records of …
Fela Ransome Kuti and his Koola Lobitos
**Clear vinyl edition** Before Afrobeat, there was Highlife-Jazz and Afro-Soul. Highlife music, originally from Ghana and widely popular across West Africa, dominated the music scene in Lagos when Fela Kuti returned to the newly independent Nigeria i…
Zombie Fela Kuti And Afrika 70
Includes liner notes by Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam, Rikki Stein and Mabinuori Kayode Idowu. Digitally remastered by Pompon (Translab Paris, Paris, France). With the inclusion of Nigerian master musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti's incendiary 1977 single, …
V.I.P. / Authority Stealing
Fela Anikulapo Kuti's 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival appearance, here as V.I.P. (Vagabonds in Power), is one of Africa 70's finest performances. V.I.P. castigates Nigerian authority more sizably than any other Fela album for one reason: he verbally beat d…
Upside Down/Music Of Many Colours
This two-for-one CD reissue brings together a couple of the more unusual offerings in Fela Kuti's discography. Upside Down, released in 1976, is the usual two-song, half-hour deal, the songs beginning with several minutes of instrumental solo trades …
Live In Amsterdam
Personnel includes: Fela Kuti (vocals, soprano saxophone, electric piano, organ); Laspalmer Ojeah (guitar); Femi Kuti (alto saxophone); Oyinade Adeniran (tenor saxiphone); Tajudeen Amimashaun, Achampong (baritone saxophone); Moses Sobo Wale, Akameah …
Underground System
At 28 minutes in length, the title track boogies from fat funk break to fat funk break as though James Brown possessed the structural ambition of Duke Ellington. Recorded when Fela's 34-piece band was at its apex, this indispensable Fela disc has it …
Teacher, Don't Teach Me Nonsense
In Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, Fela explains the role of the teacher in any society with the concept that all the things we consider to be problems and all that we consider to be good in life begin with what we are taught, whether it's by our mo…
Stalemate / Fear Not For Man
Originally released in 1977, this is a studio recording so it has a more polished sound than on the recent Best Best. BTW, none of these tracks are on Best Best... Stalemate and Fear not for Man are the stand outs, but the rest of album is good too. …
Shuffering And Shmiling / No Agreement
Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti specialized in the percolating jam, peppered with idiosyncratic horn stabs and political chants, underpinned with sinuous, interweaving guitar and bass lines, and propelled by Tony Allen's Afrobeat percussion, bl…
Shakara / London Scene
These percolating, horn-heavy grooves simmer while Fela lays down his trademark rants, often in deliberately skewered pidgin English....totally unstoppable in its mix of music and message. His voice, interlocking guitars and percussionist Tony Allen …
Roforofo Fight/Fela Singles
This is essentially a CD reissue of Fela Kuti's 1972 album Roforofo Fight, with the addition of two previously unreleased tracks from the same era. It's true that Kuti's early-'70s records tend to blur together with their similar groupings of four le…
Original Suffer Head/I.T.T.
Nearly every one of MCA's twofer reissues of the best albums in Fela Kuti's discography is worthwhile, and this pairing of 1980's I.T.T. and 1982's ORIGINAL SUFFER HEAD is no exception. By the early '80s Fela had already honed his intensely polyrhyth…
Opposite People / Sorrow Tears And Blood
His mixture of raw energy and sophistication is as remarkable today as it was when he first put it all on wax.
Monkey Banana / Excuse 0
"Monkey Banana/Excuse O" is another gem in the Fela two-albums-on-one-CD reissue series. (By the way, the cover art posted on this page is that of "Upside Down" not "Monkey Banana.") It should be noted that unlike some of the other titles in this ser…
Koola Lobitos 63-68/69..
Recorded between 1964 & 1969. Includes liner notes by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu, Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam & Rikki Stein.Mojo (Publisher). Intriguing...KOOLA gathers 6 highlife tracks from 1964-68, ranging from the almost-Caribbean via trad jazz to th…
J.J.D. / Unnecessary Begging
"JJD/Unnecessary Begging" is another gem in the Fela two-albums-on-one-CD reissue series on MCA. As original LPs, "JJD (Johnny Just Drop)," recorded live at Fela's home/club/compound, Kalakuta Republic, was released in 1977, while "Unnecessary Beggin…
Expensive Shit / He Miss Road
Recorded in 1975. Includes liner notes by Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam, Michael A. Veal & Rikki Stein. Newcomers to the music of Fela Kuti are faced with some difficult choices since the late-1990s/early-2000s reissues of his string of classic '70s al…