JULY 7th - FEMI KUTI - KING OF AFROBEAT

[Jay Funk Dawg]

GMP Concerts & 360 Degrees Artists Present...

FEMI KUTI

Thursday, July 7th, 2005

w/ Kaki King and DJ Medicine Man

Opera House

Tickets $26.50 Thru Ticketmaster and Rotate This, Sonic Temple and Shanti Baba

Femi Kuti is the oldest son of the late Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti. Fela pioneered the sprawling big band sound called afrobeat. His 45-minute musical tirades against Nigeria's power elite lead to violent confrontations, and in 1984, the government jailed him on a trumped up currency charge. Femi, who had quit school to play alto sax in his father's band back in 1978, stepped up to lead the band for the next two years. In 1986, Fela returned and Femi split off to form his own group, Positive Force. Continuing in the afrobeat tradition, Femi built around a solid, six-piece horn section and two strong percussionists. With guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and four singer/dancers, his band numbered 17. Like Fela, Femi sang about power politics, but with a lighter touch, and in briefer form.

While Fela was still active and on the scene, Femi was constantly being compared to his father. Femi said in a 1995 interview, "It's like a challenge for me. I know I have a lot to live up to. So if I find that my father works two hours a day, I will work eight hours a day." The work paid off. After an initial period of skepticism, Fela became a fan of his son's music, and Positive Force won a solid following in Nigeria. The band completed six European tours and recorded two albums in Nigeria between 1988 and 1994, and another in Paris in 1995. Then Femi and Positive Force debuted in the U.S. as part of the 1995 Africa Fête tour.

Femi's biggest breaks came after his father's death from AIDS in 1997. As the inheritor of the afrobeat mantle, Femi found himself in demand everywhere. He had honed his composing and arranging skills and was rewarded by a record deal with MCA for his excellent 1999 release, Shoki Shoki. Like his father, Femi speaks his mind in plain terms. "Blackman Know Yourself" probes the consciences of black people world wide. "Sorry Sorry" decries the disaster of Nigeria's--and by extension, Africa's--sad and bloody political history. Oddly enough, the only time a song has landed Femi in official trouble was when he sang a playful number about sex, "Beng, Beng, Beng." Femi abhors the Nigerian government's 1999 decision to ban the song. He sees in it evidence of a regime afraid to address sexual issues. "It's just in the past three months that we have a serious campaign against AIDS," says Femi. "And now they want to use me as an ambassador. They want me to criticize my father. I tell them, 'Excuse me. It's not about criticizing my father. You say you want people to come out and say when they have the disease, and then you lambaste the people who come out.'" Following well received U.S. tours in 2000 and 2001, there is no doubt that Femi Kuti will be shaping events in Nigeria and in African pop music for years to come. Meanwhile, a release of remixes from Shoki Shoki is bringing African into America's mainstream clubs, and new work from Positive Force is expected very soon.

Edited June 6, 2005 by Guest

[Jay Funk Dawg]

check the new poster.

[Cully]

I saw Femi at the Montreal Jazzfest a couple of years back, and wow he blew me away...I know that I have already posted something like this, but his live show is a combination of James Brown funk and African tribal rythms...sick, sick, sick!!! Don't miss this show.

[Paan]

I wouldn't mind check'n this out.

[PhishyK]

Awesome... I love afrobeat music!

I'm definitely going to catch Femi in Victoria this summer.

[mrsomethingx2]

Toronto's very own afrofunkestra, Mr. Something Something, will be playing the after party for this one. July 7th College St Bar 11pm.

www.mrsomethingsomething.com

[Jay Funk Dawg]

oh yeah!! feel the afro-funk!

[Jay Funk Dawg]

this is commin' quick!!

get your tix asap!!

[Jay Funk Dawg]

KAKI KING BIO

http://www.kakiking.com/

Kaki King is a feisty, five-foot, funny, outspoken Atlanta transplant who now lives in New York, a city whose energy is almost equal to her own. She also happens to be the most exciting solo guitarist/composer to have come along in decades. On her upcoming album, Legs to Make Us Longer (Epic), she blazes through a set of original works with an intensity that reflects her world -- the subway platform gigs, the late shifts at the Mercury Lounge, the surreptitious intermission entrances into Lincoln Center to catch some Stravinsky -- more than the new age stupor that most solo guitar music seems to induce.

She's toured incessantly, opened for an array of headliners (Marianne Faithful, David Byrne, Robert Randolph, Keb Mo, Soulive, Mike Gordon and Charlie Hunter to name a few), played a set at Bonnaroo, performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, hurried to engagements all over the world, and pretty much single-handedly -- actually, double-handedly -- dragged the art of solo acoustic guitar back to prominence, with an edginess that matches the temperament of her own generation.

Now with the release of Legs to Make Us Longer, King’s main focus is one thing: "Touring, touring, touring. It’s what I love to do -- the stage is where I’m most creative." While audiences have come to expect her guitar prowess, King nowadays also incorporates lap steel, singing and other surprises to match the broadened palette of the new record.

[Jay Funk Dawg]

THIS WEEK Y'ALL

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW >> THIS MAY SELL OUT!