Tuesday, October 15 would have been Afrobeat orginator Fela Kuti‘s 75th birthday, had he been still with us.
It’s fitting, then, that not only has the final tranche of Fela reissues albums and a series of celeb vlogs saluting the man been released, but also the Red Hot + Fela compilation, which features interpretations of Fela tunes by a raft of top drawer artists, including Angelique Kidjo, ?uestlove [The Roots], M1 [Dead Prez], Spoek Mathambo, tUnE-yArDs, Nneka, Kronos Quartet, Tony Allen, Baloji, Chance The Rapper, My Morning Jacket and others. All profits of from this album go towards HIV/AIDS education and relief worldwide.
The final batch of re-issues are Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense, Original Suffer Head/ITT, Live In Amsterdam, Army Arrangement, Beasts Of No Nation/ODOO and Underground System.
To honour Fela, worldwide ‘Felabration’ events are taking place including a week-long Felabration Festival in Lagos, organised by the Kuti family at the New Afrika Shrine, 13 Felabration concerts across the US, one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and one in London – full details to be announced soon.
A number of celebrity vlogs have also been collected which show artists and other personalities, including Paul McCartney, Brian Eno and George Clinton, known to hold Fela in high esteem, saluting the Nigerian icon and talking about their favourite Fela song. These will be released in batches throughout this week via the official Fela You Tube channel: http://youtube.com/fela
Released Now:
Brian Eno http://youtu.be/tABl5cVKJhM
Common http://youtu.be/z4JtjORrj7U
George Clinton http://youtu.be/BHuJ0J1zcSo
Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs http://youtu.be/zc5oxSKysuw
Paul McCartney http://youtu.be/E4Jnl4jERqE
Alex Gibney http://youtu.be/lxEv4n-QAxY
Robert Glasper http://youtu.be/KrRWkZb7yZA
Ray Lema http://youtu.be/RuSVBPSoghw (French version: http://youtu.be/UrjnXRiTct4)
Released Thursday, 17 October:
Bill T Jones http://youtu.be/I2AZ-DJN298
Questlove http://youtu.be/ap_XEYjIKZc
Baloji http://youtu.be/kV2rEyQrzk8 (French version: http://youtu.be/yivVDuR4ZVU)
Brittany Howard http://youtu.be/lenEsy3uZsE
Released Friday, 18 October:
Jim James http://youtu.be/qP8Gxx79ChU
M1 of Dead Prez http://youtu.be/o5ffgemQhUc
Wumni http://youtu.be/VtyM_ovlGgY
Dele Sosimi http://youtu.be/Op0lb12dknk
