Fela!

Sahr Ngaujah plays Fela KutiFoto: Press kit

It's probably safe to say that most Radio Wave listeners hate stage musicals. However, in New York, something is happening that could change all that. It's called "Fela!", and it's a million miles away from what we expect from a stage musical. This week's Friday Ripple pays tribute to a unique musical event, and the man who inspired it.

The musical
"Fela!" is the musical story of one of the 20th century's most influential dissident musicians: Fela Kuti, the legendary Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer, Pan-African activist and undisputed musical genius. The show tells Fela's life story, with his music performed by contemporary Afrobeat stars Antibalas. Behind the scenes, the show's celebrity producers are the unlikely trio of Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. 

This is no underground phenomenon: the show has taken New York's Broadway by storm, with ecstatic reviews in the mainstream American media. To see a clip from "Fela!", click HERE. 

The man
Fela Kuti (1938-1997) stands as one of the most important cultural and political figures in modern African history. The son of a union-organising minister and Nigeria's first feminist activist, Fela studied musical composition at Trinity College in London, and soon established himself as a bandleader in Lagos. But it was not until a 1969 musical residency in Los Angeles that he became exposed to the other elements he would make his own: funk, soul, and the incendiary Afrocentric politics of the Black Panther Party. Fela returned to a post-civil war Nigeria in 1970, launched a new band called Afrika 70, and an entirely new style of music: Afrobeat, a hypnotic blend of traditional Yoruban polyrhythms, jazz, and the raw funk of James Brown. With the music came a firebrand Pan-Africanist revolutionary agenda, and a provocative declaration of political independence from Nigeria's military government. 

FelaFoto: Wrasse Records

In 1970, he founded the Kalakuta Republic: a self-governing community of artists, intellectuals and dissidents in a three-storey compound in the Nigerian capital of Lagos. Inevitably, the relationship between the Kalakuta Republic and the Nigerian state was adversarial. Broadly put, Fela believed that Africa could only recover from the devastating effects of colonialism if Africans united as one people, reasserted African traditions, and rejected the imported foreign value systems which had come to dominate the continent - including Christianity, Islam, capitalism, and the division of Africa into "countries" according to maps of imperial conquest. 

Fela sang of corruption, brutality and poverty, and his songs explicitly attacked the most powerful forces in Nigeria: the government, the military, foreign business interests, and, as he saw it, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam. The most notorious response of the Nigerian state came in 1977, following the release of Fela's anti-military song "Zombie". Over a thousand armed soldiers invaded the Kalakuta Republic, beat its occupants and burned the compound to the ground, in in an attack which included the defenestration of Fela's 82-year-old mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. 

Undaunted, Fela continued his campaign against the government. Between 1984 and 1985 he was jailed on questionable charges of currency smuggling, eventually released following a sustained campaign by human rights groups. He continued to be a thorn in the side of the state until his death in 1997 from an AIDS-related illness. His musical legacy of more than 40 albums is set to be rereleased in its entirety in 2010 by Knitting Factory Records. 

The Friday Ripple tribute
There's no cast recording of "Fela!" available yet, but here's the next best thing. In this week's show: classic Fela Kuti tracks; Fela cover versions by artists from around the globe in styles including hip hop, cumbia, disco funk and steel band music; spotlights on the other musicians who helped created the Afrobeat sound - drummer Tony Allen and percussionist Pax Nicholas; music from Fela's sons Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti; plus more contemporary Afrobeat from Nigeria, the United States and France. 

It's all available for streaming right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox, under Friday Ripple > 15.01.2010. If you want to hear more about Fela Kuti, you can also check out Friday Ripple 25.09.09, which includes a section on J.Period & K'naan's brilliant 2009 Fela tribute album. 

Sadly, there are no plans for a Czech adaptation of "Fela!" at present - but it is possible to have a great night of Afrobeat music in Prague. In fact, the New York Times covered Prague's African music underground last month. We don't have Fela! yet, but there's always somewhere to hear great African music in the city. 

The Playlist
The show's available for streaming right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 15.01.2010, and the playlist looks like this: 

Res,Tony Allen,Ray Lema,Baaba Maal,Positive Black Soul,Archie Shepp - No Agreement (MCA)
J.Period & K'naan feat. Bajah - Gentleman (Messengers mix) (self-released)
J.Period & K'naan - Interlude - Who is Fela? (self-released)
Antibalas - Government Magic (Afrosound)
Fela Kuti - Shuffering And Shmiling (Wrasse)
Fanga - Dounia pt 2 feat. Togo All Stars (Cosmic Groove)
Ikwunga - Di Bombs (JuJu)
Gilles Peterson Feat. Mayra Caridad Valdes - Roforofo Fight (Brownswood)
Lisandro Mesa Y Su Conjunto - Shacalao (Limeza)
Fela Kuti - Coffin for Head of State, Pt. 2 (Wrasse)
Ephraim Uzomechina Nzeka - Zombie (Nascente)
Fela Kuti - My Lady Frustration (Wrasse)
Pax Nicholas & the Nettey Family - Ataa Onukpa (Daptone)
Tony Allen - Crazy Afrobeat (Comet)
Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - Mama England (Strut)
Gay Flamingos Steel Band - Black Man's Cry (Nascente)
Mokobe, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - Sur Les Traces De Fela (Jive/Smbe Europe)
Thievery Corporation & Femi Kuti - Vampires (18th Street Lounge Music)
De De - Niger Delta Jam (Out Here)