• World

    The Fearlessness of Fela Kuti

    Fela Kuti

    It’s nearly impossible to sum up Fela Anikulapo Kuti in one post. But to put his popularity and impact into perspective, over a million people poured into the streets of Lagos, Nigeria when he passed away in 1997.

    Fela is credited as one of the pioneers of Afrobeat, which is a cocktail of African highlife, jazz, funk, and more traditional African chanting. He performed most of his career with two bands behind him: Afrika 70 in the 1970’s, and Egypt 80 in the 1980’s. Few of his songs clocked in under the 10 minute mark, and a good number of them extend into 20 and 30 minute territory.

    The reason for his popularity stemmed from his very open disdain toward the government and police of his home country of Nigeria. His music often directly criticized the corruption and illegal practices of the government. As a result, he spent much of his time enduring jail time, and police raids on his nightclubs and commune. In fact, in 1977, a police raid on his commune, called Kalakuta Republic, resulted in Fela being severely beaten, the commune being burned to the ground, and even his elderly mother being thrown from a window. His studio was completely destroyed, along with most of his instruments and master tapes. Not a fun time in Lagos.

    Fela

    One year later, to mark the anniversary of the destruction of Kalakuta Republic, he married 27 women. No, that’s not a typo. The man married 27 women! Many of them were his backup dancers and singers. All the birthdays and anniversaries, good God! My head would explode. As would other parts of the anatomy, but I won’t go there.

    Fela continued to record and perform up until the early 90’s, where it was apparent to many that he was sick. In 1997, he died from AIDS-related heart failure at the age of 58.

    His body of work and legacy remains, and I encourage folks to find out more about the man, and to listen to his music. He was a hero, fearless in standing up to the forces of evil in his country.

    Here’s the first tune I ever heard by Fela when I discovered his music in the late 90’s.

    I watched the last part of a Fela documentary on Sundance Channel earlier tonight. I just did a Youtube search on Fela, and the first one that came up was the same documentary. Here it is.

    More Resources:

    Fela’s Wikipedia entry.

    A cool bio in the Guardian (UK), including an interesting anecdote about Fela’s Lagos run-in with Paul McCartney.

    The Fela Kuti Project.

  • Miscellaneous

    Ed Bradley

    Ed Bradley and Bruce Springsteen

    You don’t know what ya got til’ it’s gone… Why does it take the death of someone to make you truly appreciate the things they stood for, and the many amazing things they accomplished? It’s human nature I guess. But the world lost another one last week with the passing of Ed Bradley.

    I’m not sure how 60 Minutes stands with the younger generation today. I believe it’s still one of the highest rated programs around. But reliance on quality TV news programs, network news, not to mention newspapers (which I still read every day), seems to be waning considerably with the onslaught of information available over the internet, and other pastimes that serve to siphon interest away from current events and the world at large (video games, horrid television programs, MySpace). Sure, Iraq is of great concern to Americans, but could 7 out of 10 people show it to you on a world map in less than 5 seconds? I guess I have a pessimistic view of the how Americans see the world. Ignorance is not bliss, it’s downright depressing.

    I watch 60 Minutes from time to time. The highlight for me was watching Ed Bradley’s pieces. he came across not only as intelligent, engaging, and tough, but warm and disarming.

    Ed Bradley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in June of 1941. After graduating from Cheyney State College in 1964, he was a school teacher for a while, and worked part time at a Philly radio station WDAS. He was always a big jazz fan, and his experience at WDAS strengthened and expanded his love of jazz.

    ”My tastes at that time, I guess this would be 1964-65, reflected where I was. I was 24, 25 years old. I was into Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Horace Silver, Mal Waldron, younger, hipper guys. When I became a disc jockey, I would get phone calls. Listeners would call up and say, ‘Hey. How come you don’t play Count Basie?’ Well, Count Basie wasn’t happening for me, but because I would get people who would ask for it, Count Basie or Duke Ellington, I would say, ‘Let me see what we have here on Count Basie. Wow, he has a lot of albums.’ And then Duke Ellington. ‘Whoa, man. Does he have a lot of albums! Let me play some of these and see what I hear in them.’”

    The album that originally turned Bradley on to jazz was Erroll Garner’s 1955 landmark live album, Concert by the Sea. The song in particular was “Teach Me Tonight”.

    “For me, it was my Rosetta stone. Because I never got jazz. It was something the generation ahead of me listened to. It wasn’t my music. I didn’t understand it. Then all of a sudden I heard Concert by the Sea. Particularly “Teach Me Tonight.” All of sudden it made sense to me.” He was 15 at the time and remained a fan.

    Bradley’s reporting career came to be during the Philadelphia riots of the 60’s. Before he knew it, he was covering the conflicts in Vietnam and Cambodia in the early 70’s as a reporter for CBS News (he was also injured by mortar fire in Cambodia). In 1981, he joined 60 Minutes, where he went on to win 19 Emmy Awards for his reporting.

    In his time away from work, Bradley spent time at his home in Woody Creek, just outside of Aspen, Colorado. He was a friend of Hunter S. Thompson, and apparently was the only person that Hunter allowed to speak during Sunday’s televised football games at Owl Farm (Thompson’s home).

    The photo above was taken during Bradley’s 60 Minutes piece on Bruce Springsteen in January of 1996. I thought I’d tie everything together this Veteran’s Day weekend with a Bruce song about the brotherhood (and struggles) of our veterans.

    Bruce Springsteen: Brothers Under the Bridge (mp3) – live from Brixton Academy, UK, April 24th, 1996

    Note: 60 Minutes is dedicating the entire program tonight (Sunday, Nov, 12) to the life and career of Ed Bradley.

  • Prince

    Prince: The Vegas Years

    prince

    In the storied tradition of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton, Liberace, and Carrot Top, Prince has gone and officially set up shop in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last night saw the grand opening of 3121, Prince’s new club inside the Rio Hotel & Casino. Oh, but that’s not all… also opening up for business is 3121 Jazz Cuisine, Prince’s new restaurant.

    Prince will indeed be playing regular gigs at the club, supposedly every Friday and Saturday night, kicking off this weekend. There’s no set start time. Doors open at 10pm. Tickets are $125 a pop. Pretty steep, but given the location, not so bad. You can drop that in 3 minutes at the roulette wheel (I know from experience). So I treat this news with more excitement than skepticism. I am a 40 minute plane ride from Vegas, and I will be making the trip in January, or February at the latest. Look for an exclusive Prince interview soon after my trip. Or maybe the busboy at 3121 Jazz Cuisine. We’ll see.

    Random trivia time. Here’s a list of some of the acts that have graced the nightclubs of Las Vegas over the years. It took years hours minutes of meticulous research.

    Elvis Presley – started a regular gig at the International Hotel (the Las Vegas Hilton) in 1969 at age 34.
    Frank Sinatra – debuted 1951 at the Desert Inn, age 36.
    Liberace – The Riviera, 1955, at age 36 ($50,000 per week!).
    Celine Dion – Caesar’s Palace, 2003, age 35.
    Elton John – Caesar’s Palace, 2004, age 57.
    Barry Manilow – Las Vegas Hilton, 2006, age 63.
    Prince – Rio Hotel & Casino, 2006, age 48.

    It’ll be interesting to hear the reviews, and see what comes of this. Prince in an intimate club setting is the way to see him. I remember almost 10 years ago, after seeing him at America West Arena (or was it Desert Sky Pavilion?) in Phoenix, I zipped over to the Electric Ballroom in Tempe for the Love 4 One Another charity aftershow. He was “hosting” these along the tour for $20 a pop. Sometimes he would play, sometimes he wouldn’t. Well this night at the Electric Ballroom, we lucked out.

    Some local band was on stage playing as everyone filtered in from the show. On to the stage came Prince and his band. The band handed over their instruments to Prince and company (even Prince played the guy’s guitar), and they tore into a short but sweet set. I can almost… hear it … noowww.

    Prince: Santana Medley / The Ride (mp3) – Live, April 28, 1997 – charity aftershow at the Electric Ballroom in Tempe, Arizona

    Check out 3121.com for Vegas info.

  • Rock

    New from the Clash, Sort of

    cs

    Well not really, but two members of the Clash have some interesting projects going. I’ve spoken before of Mick Jones’ collaboration with Tony James, named Carbon/Silicon. They keep pumping out fresh and free material via their web site.

    Here’s one that’s pretty damn catchy, and appeals to my I.T. geek-ness.

    Carbon/Silicon: The Network’s Going Down – this and many many more full mp3’s available from this page on their web site. I’ve heard rumblings of a U.S. tour, which would be very very cool.

    cover

    Also active again in the music arena is Clash bassist Paul Simonon. I read about his latest project in the latest Rolling Stone. Made up of former Blur & Gorillaz front man Damon Albarn, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong, Simonon, and former Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen. And produced by Brian Burton, AKA Danger Mouse (the hipster favorite who, with Cee-Lo, makes up Gnarls Barkley – “Crazy” never did anything for me, by the way). Cool lineup, huh?

    I’ll have to post some Fela Kuti soon. For those who haven’t heard of him, he was a Nigerian musician / political activist who popularized Afrobeat in the 60’s and 70’s. Find out more about him here. I’ll put a post together soon, though. Shame on me for not posting Fela sooner.

    Back to the eclectic project. The album, titled The Good The Bad and The Queen, will be released in January. The first single, “Herculean”, is already available in the UK. As for the band name, Rolling Stone says they’re still nameless, but it appears by their web site and MySpace page that they’re calling themselves The Good The Bad and The Queen too.

    As for the single, it’s nothing mind-blowing to me personally, but given the lineup, I’m willing to give it a healthy dose of listens and let it seep in. My musical resume doesn’t include a lot of Blur or Danger Mouse,and just a little bit of Gorillaz. Recommendations?

    The Good The Bad and The Queen: Herculean (mp3) – check out their official web site.

  • Electronic

    Mmm-mmm M.I.A.

    I’ll freely admit that a large part of what draws me to M.I.A.’s music is her looks. Her exotic Sri Lankan roots, her sexy Brit-rap, and infectious beats like this (courtesy of Diplo), make for some damn fine listening. And like Borat would say, she make me think of sexytime. Very nice! High Five!

    M.I.A.: XR2 Turbo (mp3) – this download and others available on her MySpace page.

  • Folk,  Miscellaneous

    It’s Election Day…

    constitution

    Tuesday, November 7th is Election Day in this U.S. of A. I will be hitting the polls first thing Tuesday morning, and for what it’s worth, I encourage all of you American readers to do the same. Get out and vote, people!

    Warning: Political Opinion Section following…

    I try to keep to music 99% of the time, but given the times we live in, it’s impossible for me to not say anything.

    I keep hearing that tomorrow is a referendum on George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Well no kidding. I thought the 2004 election was the same, but the very slight majority of my countrymen and women were scared into decided to re-elect GW, and to keep the Republicans in control of Congress. I still marvel at how people can listen to and watch our president and be swayed or impressed by him. It’s really beyond me. Many feel different, and that’s fine. I just don’t get it, that’s all.

    What’s even more stupefying to me is how people allow Bush and his puppeteers to manipulate them with fear. To listen to them tell us how they are the party that keeps us safe, while at the same time they strip us of our civil liberties (habeus corpus, bah, who needs it?), and foment the situation in Iraq by “staying the course”. God bless the brave troops who have been killed, maimed, and who put themselves in harm’s way every day, all for the tragically misguided policies of this current administration.

    I encourage you to read Thomas Friedman’s recent New York Times op-ed. In part, it says:

    What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

    What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

    The pollsters say the Democrats are in pretty good shape going into tomorrow. There may be a Democrat majority in Congress for the first time since the GOP took control in 1994. There could be hearings on Iraq. Imagine, this administration could actually be held accountable. They’re certainly not going to own up to any failures themselves. Bush, Rummy, or Cheney admitting mistakes? Please.

    So make your voice heard, America, whatever your beliefs and political leanings. Yes, I am hoping more Americans feel the way I do (for the first time in 10 years). I am hoping we all collectively wake up, and get on the road to taking our country back. Bush and company think we’re stupid, folks. Let’s show them finally that we’re not.

    That concludes my Political Opinion Section.

    Here’s an election day song from the late Texas troubadour, Blaze Foley.

    Blaze Foley: Election Day (mp3) – from Live at the Austin Outhouse, available on Amazon and iTunes.

  • Video

    Beck on SNL: Gettin Funky at the Dinner Table

    Watch this before it gets removed…this is the best SNL musical performance I’ve seen in some time.

    Update: YouTube pulled it off. A damn shame too, since NBC is too lame to have it up on their site. They have to make these things available. Get with the times NBC!!!!

    Update II: The game of cat and mouse continues. Try this one!

    Update III: Gone baby gone…

  • Country

    Dwight’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.

    Dwight

    My appreciation for country music has always lied squarely outside of the Nashville mainstream country machine. I’ll take the old school country any day of the week: the Willies, Waylons, and Johnny Cashes. But the manufactured new school of country will never interest me. Not to knock ’em, but I don’t see myself ever getting into Toby Keith, Rascall Flatts, Brad Paisley, or for crikey’s sake, Carrie Underwood (TM). Now I see another American Idol princess of the ditzballs, Kelly Pickler (TM), has a debut album. And what is a Dierks Bentley?? (To be fair, if anyone wants to recommend the best of the New Nashville in the comments, feel free). It’s just that anything that makes me think of George W. Bush and red staters just makes me, well, not listen (and I live smack dab in the middle of a red state – egads, they’re everywhere!).

    One of the artists I’ve always admired, and who has always stuck to his independent, honky tonkin’ ways is Dwight Yoakam. In my late teen years, between 1986 and 1990, he released these great four albums: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc., Hillbilly Deluxe, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, and my favorite, If There Was a Way (mostly due to the title track and “Turn it On, Turn it Up, Turn Me Loose”). All fantastic albums, all dabbling in traditional country, western swing, and good ol’ hillbilly honky-tonk music.

    Well now Rhino, yes Rhino again, has released a special 20th Anniversary deluxe edition of Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. 2 discs of music containing early demos from 1981, a remastered album, and an entire live 1986 show from the Roxy in Hollywood. Yep, Dwight is so far outside the Nashville mainstream that he’s called Los Angeles home since 1977 (he turned 50 on Oct. 23rd).

    I listened to the live show tonight. Dwight Yoakam live and loose on the Sunset Strip, playing to the likes of John Fogerty and Emmylou Harris. Belting out his early hits (“Guitars, Cadillacs”, “I’ll Be Gone”) as well as some classics (Bill Monroe’s “Rocky Road Blues”, “Mystery Train”, Hank Williams’ “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It”).

    So definitely folks, the Ickmusic Seal of Approval is dipped into a tub of moonshine and *dinggg* firmly adhered to this CD (and all D.Y. albums for that matter).

    Dwight Yoakam:
    This Drinkin’ Will Kill Me (mp3 – the 1981 demo version)

    Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. eCard | The Rhino Listening Party.

    Dwight’s Official Site.

    Buy the Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. Deluxe Edition.

    cover

    GUITARS, CADILLACS, ETC., ETC.
    Track Listing

    Disc 1
    The 1981 Demos
    1. “This Drinkin’ Will Kill Me”
    2. “It Won’t Hurt”
    3. “I’ll Be Gone”
    4. “Floyd County”
    5. “You’re The One”
    6. “Twenty Years”
    7. “Please Daddy”
    8. “Miner’s Prayer”
    9. “I Sang Dixie”
    10. “Bury Me”

    Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
    11. “Honky Tonk Man”
    12. “It Won’t Hurt”
    13. “I’ll Be Gone”
    14. “South Of Cincinnati”
    15. “Bury Me” – Duet with Maria McKee
    16. “Guitars, Cadillacs”
    17. “Twenty Years
    18. “Ring Of Fire”
    19. “Miner’s Prayer”
    20. “Heartaches By The Number”

    Disc 2
    Live at The Roxy 1986
    1. “Hear Me Calling”
    2. “Honky Tonk Man”*
    3. “Guitars, Cadillacs”*
    4. “Rocky Road Blues”*
    5. “Heartaches By The Number”
    6. “I’ll Be Gone”*
    7. “It Won’t Hurt”*
    8. “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It”
    9. “South Of Cincinnati”*
    10. “Mystery Train”*
    11. “Ring Of Fire”*
    12. “Since I Started Drinking Again”*

    *Previously Unissued