All posts tagged: Fela

Fela Kuti’s Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Is a Major Win for African Music

Fela Kuti’s Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Is a Major Win for African Music

Published by Sam Flores

He was honored posthumously on Saturday alongside Chaka Khan, Cher, Carlos Santana and Whitney Houston. The award underscores the artist’s contribution to music and as the inspiration of one of the most popular contemporary African music genres, Afrobeats. Nigerian music critics welcomed the recognition as a reflection of his enduring influence. “What the recognition means locally is the inspiration Fela has provided for over 50 years,” Joey Akan, a Nigerian music critic and founder of Afrobeats Intelligence, told The Associated Press. Fela, a saxophonist and father of Afrobeat — different from Afrobeats — known more popularly by his first name, was born in 1938 in colonial Nigeria. His music career, which spanned decades between the late 1950s and up to the 1990s across multiple countries, is a signature blend of high-octane horn, jazz, and funk with Yoruba rhythms. Fela’s fight against government corruption and Western imperialism To Nigerians, he wore many hats: a pioneering musician, an activist who was a thorn in the side of Nigeria’s successive military rulers, a cultural reference in the fight …

Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti Get Grammys Life Achievement Awards

Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti Get Grammys Life Achievement Awards

Published by Sam Flores

“Music has been my prayer, my healing, my joy, my truth,” Khan said as she accepted the award. “Through it, I saved my life.” She was the only Lifetime Achievement recipient who appeared at the ceremony at the small Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on the eve of Sunday’s main Grammys ceremony. She was preceded by a short documentary on her career that highlighted her hits as a member of the funk band Rufus and as a solo artist, including 1974’s Stevie Wonder-written “Tell Me Something Good,” 1983’s “Ain’t Nobody,” 1978’s “I’m Every Woman” and 1984’s Prince-penned “I Feel For You.” Wearing a shimmering sea green gown, she thanked her many collaborators while admitting not all of them were entirely sane. “Over 50 years I am blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers and creatives,” she said, pausing before adding, “and cuckoos.” Family accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the Nigerian Afrobeat legend Kuti, who died in 1997, and the singing superstar Houston, who died in 2012. “Her voice — that voice! …

The Life and Work of Afrobeat Creator Fela Kuti Explored by Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad

The Life and Work of Afrobeat Creator Fela Kuti Explored by Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad

Published by José Betancourt

When dis­cussing a musi­cian like Fela Kuti, many of our usu­al terms fail us. They fail us, that is, if we came of age in a musi­cal cul­ture in which artists and bands put out an album of ten or so lyrics-for­ward songs every two or three years, pro­mot­ing it on tour while also play­ing their biggest hits. Fela — as all his fans refer to him — could put out six or sev­en albums in a sin­gle year, and refused to play live any mate­r­i­al he’d already record­ed. Even the word song, as we know it, does­n’t quite reflect the nature of his com­po­si­tions, which got expan­sive enough that two or three of them (or just one, half of it on each side) could fill a long-play­ing record. Wal­ter Ben­jamin said of great lit­er­ary works that they either dis­solve a genre or invent one, and Fela’s musi­cal works invent­ed the genre of Afrobeat. The sound of that genre, as explained by Noah Lefevre in the Poly­phon­ic video above, reflects the dis­tinc­tive for­ma­tion of Fela …