Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti - Live In Detroit 1986 (2012) {3CD Set, Knitting Factory KFR 1028}
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© 1986, 2012 Knitting Factory Records | KFR 1028
Jazz / Afro Beat / Afro Pop / Jazz Funk / World Fusion

In its own way, this is a kind of grail; a live recording by the great Fela Kuti captured live mere months after his release from prison in 1986. After serving two years on a trumped-up charge of "currency trafficking," he was reluctantly released by the Nigerian government in April due to considerable pressure by Amnesty International. This show took place at Detroit's historic Fox Theater in November. The recording is the first release of "new" Fela material in nearly 20 years. The three CDs clock in at a bit under two-and-a-half hours – the show could have easily fit on two discs – and an audience recording by Bob Tegan.

Flamboyant, larger than life and eternally funky. All of the music herein has been instrumental in defining the infectious Afro-beat sound which Fela and his band had been relentlessly crafting into long extended pieces since the 1960s. Essential music for anyone interested in African dance music and funk in general.

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.