Great Spirits

Rare Fela Track

In celebration of the opening of Fela On Broadway! this week in New York (see last week's blog entry) we have posted a rare Fela track in our Musical Treats section. The track, the original version of "Why Black Man Dey Suffer" was recorded for the African Songs label in Nigeria and was never available on CD until recently, when it was reissued by African Songs and even then has not been widely available. Enjoy!

Fela On Broadway!

    Typing the words "Fela On Broadway" is surreal...what possible congruence could there be between, the fearless King Of Afrobeat, champion of the oppressed, rebel against all convention, and passionate Afro-Centrist?  Those were my thoughts when I first heard there was a musical about Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in the works earlier in the year.  My first thought was that it was somebody's misguided attempt to present Fela to mainstream audiences and I shuddered to think what a travesty it could be in the wrong hands. The last thing I wanted to see was a trivialization of Fela and all he stood for.

     My fears were allayed somewhat when I learned that one of Fela's long-time managers, Rikki Stein, was very much involved. I know Rikki to be a man of integrity who would be vigiland against any dilution of Fela. I also heard Bill T. Jones was involved, also a man of integrity as well as great talent. I went to see the show in its preview run and came away a believer.  The lead actor, who is from Sierra Leone, delivers an uncanny performance which truly channels Fela's spirit and personality. The music is provided by U.S.-based Afrobeat group Antibalas, a group of musicians who have been carrying the Afrobeat torch with great skill and commitment for more than a decade. In fact, one of the finest Afrobeat concerts I had seen in the past twenty years was a show at The Lion's Den in NYC when Antibalas backed former Fela keyboardist Dele Sosimi. So the music is authentic and powerful, thus negating my biggest fear. Fela is presented as multi-dimensional; his "rascal" side is referred to ("kalakuta", the name he gave his home compound, means "rascal") as well as his heroic courage.

      The best evidence that the creators of this show know what they are doing is the recurring appearance of Fela's mother's spirit  in the play.  Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a powerful, ground-breaking woman, a political activist who was the biggest influence in Fela's life.  Even after her death, following her injuries from an attack by soldiers on Fela's compound, her spirit was very present in Fela's life and he communicated regularly with her.

      It will be interesting to see the reaction of ordinary theater-goers. Will they take as mainly entertainment, dazzled by the costumes, music and dance? Or will they truly absorb Fela's story, the pagent of one  man's battle against brutal political forces?  It would be fascinating to interview people after the show. In any case, this musical will be the biggest mainstream penetration ever achieved by Fela...I recommend that everyone see it!   www.felaonbroadway.com

    look for rare Fela track in our "musical treats" section soon!

Siamese Soul!

       Most folks in America assume that the American music landscape is more sophisticated and varied than such places as, say, Nigeria, Egypt, India and Thailand.  But this is not necessarily the case. When I was living in Nigeria in the 1970's, I heard--just by walking down the street--many African musical styles including juju, Afrobeat, highlife, apala, traditional Hausa music, Congolese styles etc, reggae, American funk/soul, country music, Indian film music, and more. The fact is many countries around the world are exposed to a wide selection of American and European pop styles, due to the powerful commercial interests that export them, but also various local traditional and pop styles and the music if other parts of the world.  So musicians around the world have been influenced by the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson, not to mention Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and George Benson (ask an African guitarist who he is influenced by and you're likely to get "George Benson" as an answer!).  So an artist such as Thomas Mapfumo of Zimbabawe, whose unique "chimerunga" sound was important to the Zimbabwe independence movement, can speak of imitating Elvis as a youth. Musicians outside of Europe and African have routinely incorporated elements of Western pop into their music.  The result has often been some strange and wonderful hybrids.

       I mention all this because I just received a copy of a CD compilation entitled "Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol. 2 1960's-1980's", released by the estimable Sublime Frequencies (www.sublimefrequencies.com). I played it with no little skepticism because it has often been the case that musicians in far-flung locales have absorbed a Western pop influence by simply replicating a Western pop style and substituting indigenous lyrics for English. The results are often uninteresting, to me at any rate. Hearing the Iranian singer Gougoosh sing Sly Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher" did nothing in the Seventies for me. But "Siamese Soul" does something else. The opening cut kicks off with a fair approximation of a mid-Sixties R & B groove...but the vocal comes with with a completely Thai melody that somehow meshes quite synergistically with the groove. The result is something fresh. The fifteen cuts on the CD, culled from rare vinyl and cassettes released in Thailand, are vitually all fresh, beguiling, and sometimes hypnotic.  It is rare to have such a high standard for a whole compilation. The Thai lyrics, as translated/explained in the liner notes, range from astonishingly familiar ("it doesn't matter if I don't have a girlfriend as long as I have my bong and marijuana") to more idiosyncratically Thai ("quite drinking alcohol and try drinking milk instead/ if you don't like cows milk, try your wife's breast milk. It's fresh and it's free"). Another song is about a woman who loves her 80 year old husband, as well as his son and his nephew! And we thought American was decadent!  Nonethless the CD is a delight and something you don't hear every day.

      Look for a new musical treat posted that will feature two tracks from "Siamese Soul" shortly.

     And check out www.sublimefrequencies.com   They have a slew of fascinating stuff from remote corners of the world and the quality is generally quite high!

Buika...beguiling new flamenco fusion

     As I entered the home of a friend in Los Angeles, I was immediately transfixed by the music playing on her cd player. It was acoustic, intimate, soulful and not instantly categorizable. The accompaniment was sparse; on some tracks it was just acoustic guitar and percussion. On others, piano was in the mix. Occasionally there was a subtle trumpet solo. The female vocalist had the lusty rawness of flamenco yet it was less abandoned than most flamenco. Naturally, I had to learn who this artist was. Turned it was Buika, an artist I had been wanting to check out as word filtering out of Europe had been that she was an exciting new "flamenco fusion" artist.

     Buika was born in the Balearic Islands of Spain. Her parents were political refugees from Equatorial Guinea. Clearly she has absorbed flamenco styles as well as other music. Perhaps her background explains why her style is such a fresh take on flamenco. Her style blends jazz, flamenco, pop, various Latin styles including rhumba, ranchera and such Spanish song styles as copla. The results are not obviously flamenco but her singing clearly owes a lot to flamenco singing. Enough categorizing....the results, on her latest cd "Nina de Fuego" especially, are beguiling and moving. "Nina de Fuego" appears to be her third release and from what I have sampled of her three cd's, it is her best. Her earliest release has busier backing tracks and feels more pop oriented, even if the pop is Spanish or Latin popular music. But her second release, "Mi Nina Lola" is much sparser though not as inviting as "Nina de Fuego." Though she was nominated for a Latin Grammy, Buika is not well known in the U.S. and has only performed in America sparingly. Attractive and mesmerising as a performer, she is destined for a bigger audience here.

Great Spirits Coming To Marlton, NJ

Great Spirits will be coming to Marlton, NJ on Saturday Oct. 24, 2009 at 3:00PM when Randall
Grass presents "A Celebration Of Great Spirits" at Barnes & Noble on Route 70 in Marlton.
He will share personal anecdotes about Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and
the other artists featured in his book Great Spirits, will play their music and take questions from
the audience. Admission is free!