Die Inspiration Information – Reihe von Strut Records geht in die vierte Runde. Dieses Mal trifft der finnische Musiker Jimi Tenor auf Tony Allen, den legendären Drummer von Fela Kuti’s Band Africa 70.
In der kommenden Soul Unlimited Sendung am 29. November wird es ein Afrobeat Special geben und in diesem Rahmen werde ich euch dieses Album ausführlich vorstellen.
Zur Einstimmung gibt es hier ein Interview mit den beiden beteiligten Musikern

É hoje!

Afrobeat com Rimon e dimas na Kitinete

20:00h ::: R$3,00

Great little video of Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen talking about their collabo.

I like the sound of this.

Belated H/T: Steve Coplan

Kokolo – Mind Power
Common – Years of Tears
Nigeria 70 Audio Documentary Excerpt
Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Alagbon Close
Hugh Masekela – Fela
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – Dub Je Je
Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Everything Scatter

Download the mp3

First Aired on Valley Free Radio Saturday, June 13th, 11 PM

I’m going to pretend that the last few months haven’t happened – just assume that the extended hiatus of this blog is a figment of your imagination. Yes, I’m a slacker. I’m also a stupidly busy student/journalist/trouble-maker.

OK, poor excuses over, let’s crack on with the music. One of my favourite albums of last year was Vampire Weekend’s eponymous debut – not only because it was a smart, concise album of intelligent and fun pop music, but also because it was pretty much the soundtrack to my first year at university. Having seen them open for Blur at the Hyde Park gig, during which they treated anyone who could muster a smile to a selection of new tracks, it was evident to me that their follow-up might be riskier and bit more grown-up, but would still provide maximum enjoyment.

On the evidence of the new single, “Cousins”, taken from the album Contra, fans of the band will have very little to be disappointed about. The song is snappy and catchy; it has frequent frenetic breakdowns; Ezra Koenig’s famous wit and skills of observation are still very much intact. More intriguingly, the song reminds me of early Police – there’s something about the punky tone of the guitar and the fluid bassline that had me hearkening back to the delights of “Can’t Stand Losing You” and “Message In A Bottle”.

“Cousins” displays a fondness for experimentation, too: the bells at the end certainly do little to link the band with the Afro-pop of their first record. It would appear that the band’s searching for innovative and fun sounds have taken them further afield than Africa, this time round, and this was probably crucial, lest they continue to be considered in thrall to a singular sound. Furthermore, the frantic twin-guitar interplay that fills every chunk of air in the song shows off some fascinating echoes of Arabic music.

The evidence so far suggests that Contra is going to be a bit of everything, musically: the opener, “Horchata”, is heavy on twinkly keys, tribal percussion and programmed beats; live favourite “White Sky” is like a supercharged Afro-pop hit of yesteryear, with call-and-response backing vocals recalling tropical adventures. Now, we have “Cousins” – a brave stab at poppy punk that sees the band unafraid to fill the space that so characterised their debut effort, with chaotic percussion and delightful fretwork. Hopefully, the album’s release will excite and amaze existing fans, while drawing in a new batch of pop music lovers. Because when you cut through all the global/world-music hype, Vampire Weekend excel at making truly special popular music.

If you’re anywhere near Shanghai, come check my man Rich Medina gracing the decks at The Shelter this Friday. For those that don’t know, Rich is one of the world’s top dj’s when it comes to playing a mix of funk & soul, afrobeat, hip-hop, deep house and more.

Among many other things: he’s been holding down a 8 year weekly (yes, that is WEEKLY) residence at New York’s hotspot APT (Lil Ricky’s Ribshack), did a weekly party with none other than Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip over the past year and is the mastermind behind the hugely popular Jump ‘n’ Funk Afrobeat parties in NYC and beyond. He’s also travelled to most corners of the world to lay his funk on the masses. Oh and he’s a spoken word artist and producer too.

Support by The Lab dj’s and yours truly.

(flyer pic by Rameen Gasery)

Father of Afrobeat. Tony Allen. An entire genre doesn’t exist without this cat. He’s that heavy. Fela Kuti is half the international icon he was – and still is – sans Tony Allen behind the kit. And Tony’s still playing. Still displacing The One, still circling those long, looping phrases again steady funk guitar scratch, connecting the dots between James Brown, Lagos and New Orleans.

Here’s prime recent Tony Allen with Chicago’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at Cargo in London, broadcast on Red Bull Music Academy Radio [click on "Play Show" middle left of the page to launch music player].

Then check out Tony break down the basics of afrobeat on kick-snare-hat. Forward about 02:14:00 into the video. Slippery little paradiddle combos that launched a movement.

I like the sound of Brooklyn band, Burkina Electric. Here they perform with composer Lukas Ligeti on “Soundcheck,” a music program on WNYC, the New York City public radio station.

Special Extended Afrobeat Session. Two hours of Fela and more.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (FAK) – Wadele Wa Rohin
FAK – Ashanti Proverb
Rob – Make it Slow Make it Fast
FAK – Sorrow, Tears & Blood
FAK – Unknown Soldier

Download the mp3

First Aired on Valley Free Radio Saturday, June 13th, 10 PM

USG returns with another Afrobeat mix in memory of the Black President, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Charlie Dark – Nigeria 70 Poem
Nomo – Moving In Circles
D’Angelo feat. Femi Kuti & Macy Gray – Water Get No Enemy
Napo De Mi Amor Et Ses Black Devils – Leki Santchi
Tamedun – Tamedun Don Come
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – Che Che Cole
Ofo the Black Company – Allah Wakbarr
Tony Allen feat. Ty – Woman to Man
Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Opposite People
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 – Mosquito Song

Download the mp3

First Aired on Valley Free Radio Saturday, May 23rd, 9 PM

J’ai rencontré Tony Allen, un des pères de l’afrobeat à Paris à l’occasion de la sortie de son nouvel album «Secret Agent». Je l’ai revu au Festival Factory en octobre. Un concert dont le final fut mémorable : une longue jam avec le virtuose des claviers RV (Hervé Salters) et son combo rock-funk-jazz General Elektriks. Un moment d’anthologie qui n’existe pas sur le net pour l’instant. En attendant, voici une autre vidéo live de Tony Allen et mon interview réalisée pour Radio Paradiso, écoutable ici. Il y parle de son nouvel album, mais aussi de sa vision actuelle du Nigéria, de son approche musicale. Il se remémore également ses débuts avec Fela ainsi que comment l’afrobeat fut créé! Bonne écoute.

A signaler encore son concert en Suisse. Ce sera le 28 novembre au Temple du Bas de Neuchâtel.

01. Against The Wall
02. Sinuhe
03. Selfish Gene
04. Path To Wisdom
05. Darker Side Of Night
06. Mama England
07. Got My Egusi
08. Cella’s Walk
09. Three Continents

Inspiration Information is an ongoing experimental project that mixes and matches artists from quite different backgrounds – but with certain things in common – for a limited amount of studio time to see what they can come up with. This fourth offering is perhaps the most unlikely pairing yet, but one of the most engaging and fully realised albums in the series so far. A truly inspired choice from Strut’s Inspiration Information series of collabs has lead to this album from Finnish electronic jazz maverick Jimi Tenor and the architect of the Afrobeat rhythm, Tony Allen. After a week spent in the studio the resultant album sounds like the pair have been at this for years, with Tenor’s jazzed-up sax, keys and flute gelling perfectly around Allen’s bristling rhythm section. Tony Allen is among the world’s most acclaimed kit drummers, famed for having co-created afrobeat with Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti during the 1970s and currently enjoying a late-flowering renaissance in his seventh decade. Although he knew nothing of Jimi Tenor beforehand, Allen was one of five artists Tenor told Strut he would most like to work with when they approached him.The session was mixed down at Tenor’s studio in Fnland and Berlin, lending a distinctly dubby but vintage classic sound to the set, helping to erase any blatant time markers and make this the Electric-Afrobeat-Jazz-Fusion classic that never happened, until now! Tip!

While Kanye West’s admitted disdain for books is well known, I reflected on his recent comments while at the Eugene O’Neill Theater watching Fela!, the Bill T Jones production based on the life of Nigerian singer and political activist Fela Kuti. Last year I was blown away by the off-Broadway performance, and while some of the themes were toned down — “made for Broadway” — this is still an experience I’d recommend to anyone, and demand of my friends. Along with Passing Strange, Fela! offers one hope that Broadway still presents politically, socially, and spiritually progressive theater void of the Disneyfied clichés trademark to the industry.

I remember sitting at 37 Arts during the heat of the presidential election over a year ago, with Fela’s double fisted cry for becoming the “black president” of Nigeria via his self-created MOP (Movement of the People) party resonated with an American audience thirsty for the same. That line did not get as much excitement this time around, partly because time calms enthusiasm, partly due to the fact that in this more public context, Broadway, many were just being introduced to this man. “Black President” was thematic throughout Fela’s career, and while the reigning political parties shut him numerously — he appeared in court over 200 times in his life–he never stopped labeling himself as king.

A pivotal scene in the performance occurred when Fela lived in America for ten months in the late ’60s. This is after medical school in London (the only way he could trick his parents into sending him abroad to study music), while Fela was still under the spell of the “other,” in this context meaning foreign cultures being viewed as utopias by the foreign eye. It was African-Americans that really inspired Fela to return to his homeland to rage the political battle, as he felt his peers had been too complacent in dealing with the government in Lagos. One-quarter of Africans live in Nigeria, and the country isn’t that large. Fela had assumed the general apathetic outlook; after reading numerous books and talking with Americans, his path was set.

This is represented in a great dance scene, with his Queens marching around Fela, handing him books by Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, and his personal hero, Malcolm X (political hero; his musical god was James Brown). While residing in Los Angeles, he read the man’s autobiography over and over (as told to Alex Haley), later including him among the Orishas on his altar in his now-mythic club, the Shrine. This brief homage to the written word worked wonderfully: Fela carrying a stack of books, the Queens and male dancers performing a magnificent number while flipping pages, learning, sharing, communing, uniting, with the rhythm of “Originality/Yellow Fever” keeping the audience bouncing along to the beat.

Funnily enough, I did not notice Kanye’s new book, Thank You and You’re Welcome, in that bunch. Somehow the 52-page collection of “Kanye-isms” just didn’t match up to X’s illuminating life history. In Kanye’s words:

“Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”

That books cannot autograph anything — authors do — should not surprise us coming from a man who could not even write 52 pages himself; his co-writer (read: writer) did. To be fair, I know plenty of people who do not read books. As a writer of them, it’s disheartening, but there are forms of both entertainment and education that I do not partake in. My friends do not, however, write books and then make a mockery of people who do so for a living. As any writer worth his or her weight will tell you, writing is an occupation, true, but that is not what drives them. A writer writes because there is no other choice. One could also say the same of a music producer, but when said producer merely recycles the same beat and style over the span of his “career,” it gets difficult to distinguish where the art is. In writing, we call that recycling, and in this case that does not denote something worthwhile. It is, unfortunately, something that makes money for the recyclers, thus making it a popular pastime.

Which is why Jones’s retelling of Fela’s life is so refreshing, the way he and co-writer (read: actual co-writer) Jim Lewis portray how the lyrics of this Afrobeat star pull directly from his life, one filled with turmoil and despair–”real life,” we can call it. Lesser man would have collapsed. Fela never wavered, even after his mother, Funmilayo (played by Lillias White), is murdered by the Nigerian government, even after many of his Queens were raped and tortured in his home compound, the Kalakuta Republic.

Given the rigorous nature of the performance, for the Broadway run, Fela is played by two men. For the show I attended, it was Kevin Mambo; previously, I watched Sahr Ngaujah. A recent New Yorker article, “Talk This Way,” peers in on the career of dialect coach Tim Monich, who has worked with hundreds of actors over the past two decades, teaching them (or as Munich might say, letting them teach themselves) about regional tongues. Monich points out how important it is for an actor to learn how to speak local dialects for their career. Mambo wears the role of Fela like a fitted suit; Ngaujah wore it like skin. After the show, you leave thinking of Mambo, “he played the role of Fela very well.” My thought after seeing Ngaujah was, “that was Fela.” To his credit, Mambo is very new to this role, and I could only imagine he may make the transition from suit to skin over time.

Returning home from Broadway, I watched Music is the Weapon, the 1982 documentary shot in the Kalakuta Republic. Jones captured the imagery from the time brilliantly. Being a staged production, his dancers blew away anything you’d see in Lagos thirty years ago. His dancers glistened, each muscularly defined and rhythmically astute, making it a visual feast as much as oral narrative. The two main female singers–White playing Fela’s mother, who struck the theater silent with her rendition of “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” as well as a new song, “Rain,” and Sandra (Saycon Sengbloh) countering Fela on “Water No Get Enemy”–were endearing and intimate, and Ismael Kouyate’s treatment of traditional African melodies was heartbreaking. As with the original, the Brooklyn-based band Antibalas (well, mostly Antibalas; some musicians were added), who most would argue single-handedly started the resurgence of Fela’s music in America, played the music live. Top moments: “Zombie,” “Water No Get Enemy,” Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am,” “Sorrow Tears and Blood,” and “Coffin For Head of State.”

That said, the only disappointments in the transition off and onto Broadway involved the toning down of certain political issues, and the atmosphere that created these issues. The show was made more palatable for Broadway audiences, which inevitably includes Midwesterners that happened to pick up a brochure in Times Square. Fela married 27 Queens (his dancers and many loves) in one ceremony. The off-Broadway production was true to that; this one counted only nine, and briefly glossed the fact. The invasion of the Republic was toned down, as was the psychedelic scene when Fela communes with the Orishas. As a friend, a man much more knowledgeable of theater than myself (and with a much better memory), commented, the dancing was “less modern” and more “neo-African.” Recalling the fact, I whole-heartedly agree, not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Just a little less imaginative. Given that the show is still in previews, things could change before the actual opening date.

The biggest problem with such a toning down is that it takes the audience out of the real and into fantasy. The imagination is already largely at play with the production’s spectacular lighting effects and theatrical performance. It also removes us in time and space. True, there are moments that ground us in modern day America: the notion of the black president; one of the many coffins decorating the stage written out to “Sean Bell”; AIG being included with WTO and IMF and other organizations accountable for the Nigerian code for fraud, 419. A few months ago, however, the Shrine in Lagos was shut down yet again by the government, thanks to Fela’s son, Femi, speaking out against poverty and the lack of assistance in the very space his father made his pulpit until his death of AIDS in 1997. Sometimes hinting at problems is not the same as actually addressing them. Jones did a wonderful job at knocking the audience out off-Broadway. Here, he jabs hard, without the right hook. Again, the fact that he’s able to do so on Broadway makes the experience worthwhile for everyone, if nothing more than to expose a new audience to one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century.

This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.

FELA! is now on Broadway and in previews till Nov. 20. You can score tickets for $50.00 a pop or  $27.00 rush tickets 2 hrs before curtain time. The actual opening is November 23.

This new musical is based on the life of Fela Kuti. From Wikipedia:

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.[1] James Brown cited him as one of the originators of funk.

The show covers Fela’s life in music, politics, and death.

Video Footage of Fela Kuti in the 70’s

Some of my fresh music mix to dance in kitchen!

AfroDubCore VI

Afrobeat, Afro Funk, Tribal
Arno – 2009 – AfroDubCore VI

AfroDubCore VII

Dub, Dub Poetry, Dub Techno
Arno – 2009 – AfroDubCore VII

AfroDubCore VIII

Raggacore, Breakcore, Dancehall, Hardcore, Jungle, Noise, Reggae
Arno – 2009 – AfroDubCore VIII

soundcloud.com/djarno

Great news for Afrobeat fans – to coincide with the new musical FELA! opening on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on November 23, Knitting Factory Records will not only be reissuing the entire Fela catalog on cd in digipacks with reduced images of the original artwork, they’ll also be reissuing the albums on vinyl as well over the next eighteen months. What’s more, they’ll also be reissuing the entire extant catalog of Koola Lobitos, Fela’s 1960s high-life band.

The first of the releases is the greatest-hits compilation The Best of the Black President, originally compiled in 1999 (you can hear the whole thing on last.fm). While it makes a fine introduction to the iconic Nigerian freedom fighter/bandleader, it’s necessarily flawed by the constraints of trying to cram as much essential Fela as possible into one package. It simply isn’t possible. Fela Kuti’s genius was to package revolution as sexually charged thirty-minute dance vamps – for Fela, a short song clocked in at about eight or nine minutes, so the concept of editing these frequently album-long jams down to something approximating their essence is simply a lost cause. While The Best of the Black President does contain full-length versions of the iconic Zombie and Sorrow Tears and Blood, the edited or truncated segments from most of the other revolutionary anthems here – including his signature song Coffin for Head of State - work as dance grooves and little more. To resonate at full power, these numbers need to be heard – and under ideal circumstances – danced to in their entirety. Which makes the pending reissue of the full Fela catalog something to salivate over: fans will be able to pick and choose from the original releases.

It may also come as a shock to discover that the Fela musical actually seems as if it might be worth seeing: a listen to some of the original cast recordings reveals that the musicians (that’s right, a real Afrobeat band, not just a synthesizer and a cd with live vocals) and the actors seem up to the challenge: they’ve actually taken their subject seriously. This isn’t the same guys who played in the pit (or on the soundtrack) for the Abba musical shifting gears and trying their hand at psychedelic Nigerian funk. It looks like they’re trying to be the real deal.

Nous l’avions réalisé cet été avec The Chase et depuis… nada ! Avec le concert du groupe Fanga ce 5 novembre au Jam, nous reprenons enfin les captations vidéos avec deux caméras. Deux petites handycam pour être encore plus près des artistes et du public ! De quoi améliorer encore – si, si c’est possible !- la qualité de nos reportages vidéos. Celui sur Fanga sera en ligne d’ici 24 heures… Mais d’ici là, cadeau bonus : 8 min 48 d’afrobeat live avec le surchauffé “Crache la douleur”.

Reportage : François, Maël

01 – Nina Simone – Baltimore.mp3
02 – Nina Simone – Everything Must Change.mp3
03 – Nina Simone – The Family.mp3
04 – Nina Simone – My Father.mp3
05 – Nina Simone – Music For Lovers.mp3
06 – Nina Simone – Rich Girl.mp3
07 – Nina Simone – That’s All I Want From You.mp3
08 – Nina Simone – Forget.mp3
09 – Nina Simone – Balm In Gilead.mp3
10 – Nina Simone – If You Pray Right.mp3

http://www.easy-share.com/1908380333/Nina_Simone_-_1978_-_Baltimore.rar

Nov 11th was a day I discovered Nneka and Ed Rush & Optical.

When I was growing up, I had a hard time finding female vocals I liked. Most of the female vocals in my days were the same old same old. They wore dresses and made themselves clear that they were female musicians, not musicians.

However, Nneka is not like that. Shes this bold, strong, talented, and smart lady from Nigeria and Germany. Her music is filled with soul and influenced by so many style of music. If you check out her myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/nnekaworld, “Suffri (Band Version)” is a mix of soul and Caribbean music. “Heartbeat” grabbed my head and made it bounce for the entire song. How do you sing like that? Eh Eh Eh Eh Eh Eh Eh Eh Eh I would of been annoyed by this type of chorus, but it works! Her next show in NY is Nov 17th at Highline ballroom. http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/article/content.article/nneka_us_tour/en_US

Oh! If you are looking for a good work out song, please click here!

Space Monkey by Ed Rush & Optical

You are going to love it!

Rien de tel que l’écrin du Jam pour retransmettre l’énergie incroyable de Fanga… Progammé dans le cadre du festival Montpellier à 100%, le collectif montpelliérain a galvanisé son public, mêlant savamment les titres du nouvel album, Sira Ba*, et les standards du mythique Natural Juice. Entre les deux galettes, deux ans de tournée et de reconnaissance mondiale (thanks to Gilles Peterson et son Worldwide) qui auront permis à Fanga de s’imposer comme le porte-drapeau de l’afrobeat français. Seuls les canadiens de Soul Jazz Orchestra nous ont autant bluffé en 2007. Mais là où Natural Juice creusait le sillon de l’afrobeat, Sira Ba s’en éloigne pour trouver sa propre personnalité. Entre accents reggae et échos afro-funk, la route de Sira Ba semble toute tracée… à l’image de l’époustouflant single Dounya.

*Sira Ba signifie “la grande route”

Reportage : François, Gwen, Maël

SIRA BA, dans les bacs le 22 novembre 2009
(Afrokaliptyk Prod / Underdog Records)
Trackslist : Dounya part 1, Bassi té, Yéléko , Follow me, Corruption, Illumination, I go on without you (feat. Winston Mc Anuff), Tiogho Tiogho, Ni ya wouellé, Dounya part 2 (feat. The Togo All Stars).