Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a combination of Yoruba music, jazz, Highlife, and funk rhythms, fused with African percussion and vocal styles, popularized in Africa in the 1970s. Afrobeat's main creator and best known artist was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who coined the term Afrobeat, shaped the musical structure and also the political context of the genre. He launched Afrobeat in the early 60s. Kuti had earlier played a fusion of jazz and highlife (For which he first used the term 'Afrobeat') with his Koola Lobitos Band. The distinctive production sound of Afrobeat's rhythms are the hallmark of drummer Tony Allen, a long-standing musical collaborator and band-leader with Fela. While Afrobeat as a concept existed prior to Allen's involvement, Allen must be correctly credited with securing the role and pattern of the (Afro) "beat" through his distinctive syncopated and polyrhythmic minimal playing style. Characteristics of Afrobeat are:

• Big bands: A large group of musicians playing various instruments (Fela Kuti's band in the 80s Egypt 80 did not feature 80 musicians);
• Energy: Energetic, exciting and with high tempo, polyrhythmic percussion;
• Repetition: The same musical movements are repeated many times;
• Improvisation: Performing without set music;
• Combination of genres: A mixture of various musical influences.
• Vocals tend to be sung in Yoruba and Pidgin English as Kuti, who spoke perfect English, regarded this as being the language best understood across all of Africa's borders.

Origins

Afrobeat originated from the southern part of Nigeria in the 60s where Kuti experimented with many different forms of contemporary music of the time. Prevalent in his music are native African harmonies and rhythms, taking different elements and combining, modernizing and improvising upon them. Politics are essential to the genre of Afrobeat, since founder Kuti was deeply concerned in social criticism to pave way for social change. His message can be described as confrontational and controversial, which can be related to the political climate of most of the African countries in the 60s, many of which were dealing with political injustice and military corruption while recovering from the transition from colonial governments to self-determination. As the genre spread throughout the African continent many bands took up the style. The recordings of these bands and their songs were rarely heard or exported outside the originating countries but many can now be found on compilation albums and CDs from specialist record shops.

Influence

Many jazz musicians have been attracted to Afrobeat. From Roy Ayers in the seventies to Randy Weston in the nineties, there have been collaborations which have resulted in albums such as Africa: Centre of the World by Roy Ayers, released on the Polydor label in 1981. In 1994 Branford Marsalis, the American jazz saxophonist, included samples of Fela's "Beast of No Nation" on his Buckshot leFonque album. Afrobeat has profoundly influenced important contemporary producers like Brian Eno, who credits Fela Kuti as an influence. New generation DJs of the 2000s who have fallen in love with both Kuti's material and other rare releases have made compilations and remixes of these recordings, thus re-introducing the genre to new generations of listeners and fans of Afropop and Groove.

Afrobeat Today

Post-Fela, the Afrobeat scene is spreading and the music has taken solid root on the World Café. There is a diverse group of bands influenced by the music operating out of different countries. A list of acts to watch would definitely include Femi Kuti (Fela's first son and a saxophonist) and the Positive Force; Dele Sosimi's Gbedu Resurrection (former keyboardist and musical director of Fela's band and cofounder of Femi Kuti's positive force); Seun Kuti (another of Kuti's sons, now fronting his father's original band); Ayetoro (a group led by Nigerian pianist/composer Funsho Ogundipe); Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble; Keji Hamilton & the Exousia Band (a 13-piece band featuting Keji Hamilton, who played keyboards and guitar with Fela); Antibalas (Brooklyn, New York based multiracial Afrobeat Orchestra formed by baritone saxophonist Martin Perna); Chicago Afrobeat Project who released their second album "(A) Move to Silent Unrest" in fall 2007; Afrobeat Down,Started in 2002, working with Sandra Izsadore (Fela's Africa 70); Tony Allen, the man who held the drum chair during Fela's productive "Africa 70" phase, and whose drumming was, according to James Brown's autobiography, the influence behind his 'Discovery' of funk.

References

• Extensive Article on Fela - Jay Babcock
• BBC Afrobeat Documentary
• The AfroFunk Music Forum Daily news, music reviews and commentary on Afrobeat and related music from Africa, The Caribbean and The Americas.
• The Afro Caribbean Website Afro Caribbean videos website, watch movies, music videos and more.