Shuffering & Shmilin
Fela Kuti
Wrasse Records (USA), 2005
1 CD
Catalogue #: 72
EAN: 0875232002821
UPC: 875232002821
You save: 20%
2 LPs on 1 CD: SHUFFERING & SHMILING/NO AGREEMENT.
Includes liner notes by Jacqueline Grandchap-Thiam and Michael E. Veal.
Digitally remastered by John Perce Ali Bears.
Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti specialized in the percolating jam, peppered with idiosyncratic horn stabs and political chants, underpinned with sinuous, interweaving guitar and bass lines, and propelled by Tony Allen's Afrobeat percussion, blending traditional Yoruban rhythms and contemporary James Brown beats. SHUFFERING AND SHMILING is trademark Fela, mixing several lengthy, irresistibly danceable tracks (including "Dog Eat Dog," a collaboration with Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie) with the bandleader's polemics against government injustice and the exploitation of his people by political and racial forces. In the hands of a lesser artist, such political sermonizing would quickly pall; here, it's icing on the cake. Taking the socially aware stance of late-'60s and early-'70s James Brown to its logical musical and political conclusion, Fela's music was both an inspirational rallying cry for his people and a constant thorn in the side of the Nigerian authorities. The latter habitually responded with brutal force, the decades-long war of attrition only ending with the master musician's death from AIDS-related causes in 1997.
Tracklist
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti was the controversial and unapologetically political creator of Afro-beat. With his charismatic presence, he presided over a teeming collective of musicians, which frequently made him a target of the authorities in his native Nigeria. A composer, singer, and musician, Fela cited the Black Panthers as a primary influence, and his innovative style reflected the influence of both African and Western music, particularly the jazz he had absorbed during a visit to the U.S. in the late 1960s. In live performances, he filled the stage with dancers, singers, and musicians in glamorous, glittery costumes, and his recordings offered marathon jams riding on the crest of an unshakeable groove and Fela's scathing broadsides.
