NIGERIAN sax player, bandleader, composer, political activist and Pan-Africanist Fela Kuti is regarded (with his band Africa 70) as the father of Afrobeat, which combined West African music with funk and jazz, popular not just in Nigeria but across Africa.

Fela made his recording debut in 1970 and his 1973 set Gentleman is seen as an Afrobeat classic. One of his most political albums ever, its title track attacks the colonial mentality of Africans who maintain European customs and clothing styles. The album features a cover collage of a monkey’s head on a western-suited body. 

The original Fela Kuti: Gentleman has been issued on vinyl to mark its 50th anniversary by Knitting Factory Records.

Fela was the son of the prominent women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. He studied medicine in London but soon formed the band Koola Lobitos and played a fusion of jazz and Nigerian highlife music. 

On his return to Nigeria he formed Africa 70, featuring drummer Tony Allen. Fela became an outspoken critic of Nigeria’s military juntas and the country’s elite.

In 1970, he founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, which declared itself independent from military rule. The commune was raided in 1978 and Fela and his mother were injured (she was thrown out of a window). Fela was eventually jailed in 1984, but released after 20 months. He stood for Nigeria’s presidency but was refused credentials to stand in the election. 

For the remainder of his life he was a thorn in the side of Nigerian politicians and the ruling class, and was a music star attracting admirers to record with him including Cream’s drummer Ginger Baker. Fela continued to record and perform through the 1980s and 1990s up until his death in 1997.

Among the album’s other tracks, Fefe Naa Efe tells a woman dumped by her boyfriend that she must get over the breakup and move on. On Igbe, Fela declares that anyone who betrays a friend is “igbe” — shit — and that anybody who lacks self-respect is shit too. Both tracks are excellent Afrobeat productions sung in several Nigerian languages, just to avoid any misunderstandings, you understand!

Staying in Africa in the 1970s a second volume of Les Symphatics de Porto Novo Benin has been released by Acid Jazz on vinyl. 

Acid Jazz has been reissuing original albums released on the Benin (West Africa) label Albarika Store. A goldmine of African music, the label was founded in a record store in Porto Novo, Benin by Adissa Seidou. After moving to Saint Michel in 1964 it grew into a full blown record label.

The album features one of Porto Novo’s premier groups of the 1970s, founded by Herman Laleye – former leader of the Black Dragons de Porto Novo.

With the heavy rhythm section of Herman on bass and his brother Marc on drums, alongside vocalist Gangbo Bonheur, blues guitar from Armand Pognon and Camille Zanou’s organ, Les Symphatics play funky Benin jazz, with hint of latin and Afrofunk and infectious soukous guitar.

African music fans need to check this out.