Where is fela from

Art itself is knowledge of the spiritual world. Art is information from higher forces, by those who are talented. I'm not jiving.

I've been living with my art for 23 years. My music has never been a failure. He was 58 years old. All rights reserved. Home Biography Fela Fela. Influenced by Black Power Movement Fela's music did not become political until the late s, when he visited the United States and was exposed to the black power movement. Political Confrontations Fela's music and politics made him a cult figure in Nigeria; he ran for the presidency twice.

Unconventional Lifestyle Although such incidents rallied support for Fela, he was notorious for a lifestyle that alienated many Nigerians; he unabashedly preached the virtues of sex, polygamy, and drugs—in particular the use of marijuana as a creative stimulant. Periodicals Maclean's, October 13, He'd show up in the lobby of a five-star hotel wearing nothing but a pair of Speedos.

The extravagance of Kuti's personality is captured cannily by Sahr Ngaujah's onstage incarnation. The actor was raised in Atlanta, the son of a Sierra Leonean father and Cherokee mother, and remembers hearing Fela's music as a child his father was a DJ.

Ngaujah is also a sometime resident of Amsterdam and London; a world citizen with an engaging presence. Asked what he has learned about Fela from his role, Ngaujah testifies first to Fela's courage: "He was fearless enough to be an individual.

On another level he's an archetype in modern clothing; a warrior, a trickster, while in his relationship with his mother, Funmilayo, you can see a very old motif — mother and son — at work.

Each time we rehearsed I focused on a different aspect of Fela; his walk, the way he held a cigarette, the timbre of his voice, his pronunciation. What I learned is that if you talk like this" — and here Ngaujah rolls his eyes mischievously and goes into a languid Lagos drawl — "then you have to be very cooool!

His impersonation offers a flash of Fela's seductive power, and that charisma is the reason why Fela! In retrospect, Fela's life has all the necessary ingredients — a great soundtrack, extraordinary showmanship and dancing, plus a story that involves heroism and martyrdom — but to stage it still required a leap of faith. Seun, indeed, now fronts his father's old band, Egypt Afrobeat was essentially a synthesis of Ghana's jazzy highlife with Yoruban polyrhythms and James Brown funk.

Brown, enormously popular in west Africa in the s and s, provided Fela with a model for a stage show that included dancers, extended instrumental workouts and lengthy call-and-response vocals.

The influence may have been mutual; when Brown toured Nigeria in he and his band visited the Shrine. Yet Fela's musical roots are more tangled than might appear. When he came to London as a year-old he had been sent to study medicine.

Instead, he enrolled at Trinity College of Music and studied piano and composition. Asked, in , which musician he most respected, Fela declared it was George Frideric Handel and said that he particularly admired Dixit Dominus and was making "African classical music". Music ran in the Kuti family; Fela's Anglican father was a gifted pianist, while his grandfather had recorded hymns in Yoruba for a forerunner of EMI back in one of which is used in Fela!

Fela first called his music "Afrobeat" in , but it was a visit to Los Angeles with his group in that completed Afrobeat's alchemy. Coker, Niyi. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, This monograph analyzes the music and the political ideology of Fela. Collins, John. Fela: Kalakuta Notes. Chapters 6 through 10 of this dissertation focus on the life of Fela Kuti, his band, and its organization.

It highlights the Ransome-Kuti family and their tradition of public service. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Moore, Carlos. Fela: This Bitch of a Life. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, The new edition features an introduction by Margaret Busby, a foreword by Gilberto Gil, and an epilogue covering events post by Carlos Moore. Olaniyan, Tejumola. Arrest the Music! Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Olorunyomi, Sola.

Fela and the Imagined Continent. Kuti's children with Remi included a son, Femi, and daughters Yeni and Sola. Sola died of cancer not long after her father's death in All three offspring were members of the Positive Force, a band they founded in the s. Roughly 1 million people attended his funeral procession, which began at Tafawa Balewa Square and ended at Kuti's home, Kalakuta, in Ikeja, Nigeria, where he was laid to rest in the front yard.

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