Celebrate Brooklyn with Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Seun Kuti will feature material from his new album, ‘From Africa With Fury: Rise.’
Who: Seun Kuti and Egypt 80/Faaji Agba
Where: Celebrate Brooklyn! @ Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West & 9th St., Brooklyn
When: Friday, July 22, 7:00 P.M. Gates open at 6:00 P.M.
Admission: Free ($3 suggested donation)
More information: www.bricartsmedia.org/cbor 718-683-5600
“With the mighty new From Africa With Fury: Rise, Seun Anikulapo Kuti returns with his hybrid of Afrobeat touchstones and contemporary cues. As in previous efforts, Seun heads up Egypt 80, the extraordinary combo first fronted by his renowned father, Fela Kuti. The album follows Seun Kuti’s critically praised debut, 2008’s Many Things, which was hailed for continuing Fela’s musical legacy. ‘From Africa With Fury: Rise’ sees Kuti finding his own idiosyncratic voice as songwriter, singer, and band leader. Its songs and sonic approach marked by provocative edge and mature self-assurance.
Produced by Brian Eno, John Reynolds, and Kuti, with additional production by Godwin Logie, and mixed by John Reynolds and Tim Oliver, the album captures Seun and Egypt 80’s extraordinary power, fraught with the scorching rhythms and kinetic funk energy that has earned the band – as ever, under the leadership of alto saxophonist Lekan Animashaun – worldwide acclaim as one of today’s most incendiary live acts. With Kuti’s booming vocal stylings at the forefront, songs like “African Soldiers” and “Mr. Big Thief” are fueled by call-and-response hooks, breakneck tempos, and combative, topical lyricism which firmly sets the classic Egypt 80 sound in the modern era.
Born in 1983, Seun first began performing with Egypt 80 at the age of nine, warming up audiences with renditions of his father’s songs. After Fela’s death in 1997, Seun stepped up to the front of the band, leading the celebrated combo as both lead vocalist and saxophonist. While his father’s influence cannot be understated, Kuti cut his own distinctive musical path, incorporating contemporary influences into the traditional Afrobeat approach.
Seun Kuti is determined to speak to the new generation of young Africans born after his father’s glory days. If he learned but one lesson from Fela, it is that that no one has greater impact on hearts and mind than the true artist. The powerhouse protest music found on From Africa With Fury: Rise serves as a kind of musical antidote to the corporate pop that he feels is polluting Africa’s airwaves, distracting its citizens from the things that truly matter.
Faaji Agba, whose lineup includes Sina Ayinde Bakare (son of the late Yoruba composer/guitarist Ayinde Bakare), Fatai Rolling Dollar (palm-wine vocalist and master of the agidigbo/finger piano), Alaba Pedro (high-life master guitarist and composer), Prince Eji Oyewole (afro-funk saxophone great) and S.F. Olowokere (master of juju/owambe guitar style), is Nigeria’s answer to the Buena Vista Social Club: a supergroup of veteran musicians who are re-popularizing faaji grooves, agidigbo blues, juju and other styles of Nigerian roots.
Since the formation of Faaji Agba in the late 90’s, this small group of Nigerian musicians has recorded original group songs inspired from their prolific individual recordings under the Lagos-based Jazzhole Records label.
Through their music, these elder musicians tell anecdotes and tales of the old days—the story of the music within the music.They have been at the forefront of each genre’s milestone, from Palm-wine/Juju and its growth in the Brazilian settlements of Lagos Island during the late 50’s to High-life music, which made a name for itself as a commercial form of music drawing influences from the funk of Calypso, African poly-rhythms and traditional Yoruba music textures and tonalities.”
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