|
at a glance...
Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria
First Recordings: 1984
Members:
Femi Anikulapo-Kuti -lead vocal, alto and tenor saxophone
Adeyinka Osindeinde -tenor sax
Gbenga Laleye -trumpet
Tiwalade Ogunlowo -trombone
Oluwaseyi Clegg -baritone sax
Gbenga Obisesan -congas
Olusegun Damisi -congas
Olayinka Oluwole -keyboards
Olufemi Fadipe -rhythm guitar
Tosin Aribisala -drums
Muyiwa Oke -drums
Bands in the Family:
Fela Kuti, Africa 70, Nigeria 70, Egypt 80, Koola Lobitos, The Roots
Notes:
The son of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who died
of AIDS in 1997, Femi Kuti is the beneficiary of
some incredible genes, but he also has the burden
of his father’s musical legacy. Fela is credited
with inventing Afro-beat, a sound that mixes
traditional Nigerian rhythms with the black power
funk of James Brown in the '70s. He established
himself as the largest thorn in the side of the
Nigerian government, using every record as a
soapbox against the problems facing his country’s
proletariat and his race as a whole. As a result,
Fela was vociferously harassed by the authorities
and often forced to serve jail time for trumped-
up criminal charges. One such occasion, a 1985
arrest prior to boarding a flight to Los Angeles
for a concert, forced Femi, a backing horn player
in his father’s Egypt 80 band, to the forefront.
The son delivered a phenomenal performance in his
father’s place, and two years later formed the
band Positive Force and released his debut
record, No Cause For Alarm. In 1994, Femi
signed on to the Motown label and released
Wonder Wonder, but lost label support when
the leading advocate for African music left
Motown soon after the album’s release. A deal
with Barclay/Polygram resulted in the release of
Shoki Shoki in the fall of 1999, and that
label’s merger with Universal soon after allowed
for the U.S. release of the album on MCA Records.
So although Femi is relatively new to the States,
he’s in his late thirties and is already an
accomplished artist in his own right, with plenty
of success abroad. The MCA release of Shoki
Shoki includes remixes of Femi songs by
Chateau Flight, Kerry Chandler, and The Roots,
who recorded a jazzed-up version of “Blackman
Know Yourself.”
 
|
