SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80 - July 12 @ Phoenix

[Jay Funk Dawg]

The king of Afrobeat SEUN KUTI returns to Toronto

*New Egypt 80 album produced by Robert Glasper*

* First T.O. show since 2008*

NuFunk.ca & Uma Nota Culture present

SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80

SEUN KUTI

w/ special guests

Asiko ASIKO AFROBEAT - Home

Luvmenauts The Luvmenauts

& DJ Groove Institute (Solid Garage) UNITED SOUL - connecting your soul to the music!

SATURDAY, JULY 12th

PHOENIX CONCERT THEATRE

410 Sherbourne St.

9 pm doors

Tickets $30.00 ($26.50 + HST) & service charge

Ticketweb.ca => Tickets for Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 with special guests Askio, Luvmenauts and DJs Groove Institute | Phoenix Concert Theatre at TicketWeb

Available at Soundscapes (572 College St.) Rotate This (801 Queen St. W.), Play de Record (357A Yonge St.) & African Drums & Art Crafts (618 Dundas St. W.)

Facebook event => http://on.fb.me/1k4761i

On Saturday July 12th at the venerable Phoenix Concert Theatre, Nufunk Concerts and Uma Nota Culture are honoured to announce the return of the world’s living Afrobeat king Seun Kuti; his first Toronto show since his legendary show at Harbourfront Centre in 2008. The son of Afrobeat originator, the immortal Fela Kuti, Seun will be showcasing songs from his potent new Robert Glasper-produced album A Long Way to the Beginning (Knitting Factory Records), as well as songs from his father’s massive recorded catalogue live. It’s a celebration of African music not to be missed!

Seun Kuti has been performing on stage since he was nine years old. He started his career as a backup singer in Egypt 80, the band fronted by his father Fela Kuti, the king of Afrobeat. Seun had already started taking piano lessons and teaching himself to play saxophone. But on stage with his father he only ever sang, adding his child's voice to the chorus of male and female backup singers that included his mother, the collective response to Fela's persistent call.

When Fela died in 1997, Seun, then just fifteen, was ready to take over. Since then, he has led Egypt 80 as lead vocalist and saxophonist, the focal point of a band that his father had forged into Africa's most legendary ensemble.

Excerpt of bio by Jane Cornwell

1, 2, 3, 4… with a clenched fist and a blast of his alto-sax, Seun Kuti launches into ‘IMF’, the opening track on A Long Way To The Beginning – his tightest, most electrifying album yet. This time around no one escapes the Afrobeat warrior’s ire: not corrupt Nigerian leaders or sly western powers. Not bankers, corporate greedheads or any lying, cheating international mother***ker anywhere.

It’s been a struggle to get to now. There were those who criticized his decision to front his father’s band; who said it was arrogant, even hubristic, to try and fill his father’s shoes. This was never Seun’s aim: “Fela will always be Number One,†says the Lagos-based scion, who inherited the extraordinary Egypt 80 orchestra in 1997 when his father died.

And so Fela’s youngest child has full-steamed ahead with his own inimitable brand of Afrobeat: a sound as compelling as it was when Fela Anikulapo Kuti first fused jazz, funk and soul with highlife and other African rhythms - but with topical lyrics and contemporary influences giving it a modern twist. So far there have been two critically acclaimed albums: 2008’s Many Things and 2011’s From Africa With Fury: Rise.

With A Long Way To The Beginning, we’ve arrived where the journey starts.

“This is the beginning of the reign of Afrobeat music,†says Kuti. “Afrobeat is not just about being Fela’s son anymore. There are hundreds of bands playing Afrobeat around the world, from Australia to Israel to the US. What began with my father has become a global movement.†And A Long Way To The Beginning is at its vanguard. Co-produced by the Grammy-winning American jazz pianist Robert Glasper, the album features a clutch of young artists from the African diaspora – the singer Nneka, rappers M-1 of dead prez and Blitz the Ambassador. It’s a recording that lassos all the passion, adrenalin and searing truth of a Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 live show.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Guest

[Jay Funk Dawg]

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