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estebanana -> RE: Afrobeat (Dec. 29 2015 4:12:19)
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Start by getting a few Fela Kuti albums from the late 1970s, early 1980s. Listen copiously. He was the undisputed master. He was in his most prime in those days
Think of Fela as a Nigerian James Brown. He put together a mighty horn section to play along with the African drumming mixed with R-B, Funk and rock. The horn section comes out of James Brown, but is wilder and Fela also studied the American horn players from the 1950s 60s who played hard bob and also the Coltrane,Lateef, Dolphy direction.
Fela is the Afrobeat Nigerian daddy, but there is also the whole swath of West African guitar playing, which is a BIG subject and has lots of masters. Fela however is the architect of those hard driving horn sections from Lagos.
The music is political, highly political, but you have to get deep into Nigerian post colonial history to catch the references. The enemies in Felas music are the corporations that moved into Nigeria and took advantage of regular people through political corruption of the Nigerian elite. A lot of Afrobeat is about exposing corruption or imploring the people to forebear and deal with bad politics. Fela was always getting the heat of the government and he paid a price for challenging the power. He was not a great guy himself all the time, but he supported a large extended family of wives, kids and musicians. He was a monster of African music.
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