The Philharmonie de Paris and the Museum of Music pay tribute to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, figure of the “Black President” and creator of Afrobeat with the Rebellion Afrobeat #Nigeria exhibition.
Ahead of Rebellion Afrobeat, the exhibition which starts on October 20, 2022, the Philharmonie got into Afrobeat time, with a first evening on Saturday October 8, 2022 entitled “Lagos Meets London” with Femi Kuti, Made Kuti and guests like Kokoroko, Obongjayar and Asa. And it was during his concerts that we met the Kuti family and organized a father-son interview between Femi and Made.
Eldest son of Fela, Femi Kuti took up the torch from his father and, having formed his own group (Positive Force) during the 1980s, in turn transmits a highly energetic music with a strong political content, in the natural extension of the original Afrobeat. For the occasion, he invites the Franco-Nigerian singer Asa, author of five solo albums. Femi Kuti Feat. Asa on Arte.
Son of Femi, having become a seasoned musician with Positive Force, Made Kuti published in 2021 his first album, For(e)ward, which reveals a very personal universe, nourished by the family heritage to better free himself from it. For this concert, Made calls on one of the most beautiful revelations of the current Anglo-Nigerian scene: Obongjayar.
To open the evening, meet up with the London octet Kokoroko, which continues its meteoric rise with its irresistible mix of jazz and Afrobeat. Made Kuti Feat. Obongjayar on Arte.
Note of intent for the concerts from October 8 to 16, 2022.
Fela Kuti’s legacy is first and foremost that carried by his children: Femi Kuti, the eldest, is alongside his own son, Made, for the Lagos Meets London evening, in contact with the bubbling jazz and hip-hop scene. hop english. Seun Kuti took the lead of the mythical group Egypt 80. Tony Allen was not only Fela’s brilliant drummer, but also its artistic director. A host of musicians, including Oumou Sangaré, Sébastien Tellier and Cheick Tidiane Seck, will perform with the energy and generosity of the master. And because it’s all a matter of back and forth and handovers, Angélique Kidjo will revisit Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. Our program also offers a piece by Qudus Onikeku, immersed in today’s Lagos, where ten young dancers reclaim the energy of Afrobeat. But Fela’s legacy is also a political thought, which inspired the Burkinabè choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly, the piece Kalakuta Republik.
The exhibition
Trumpeter, saxophonist, singer, pianist and composer, the Nigerian musician Fela Kuti is also a thinker of pan-Africanism and an activist. Afrobeat – the style he invented mixing Yoruba, jazz, soul and funk rhythms – is music that allows both to dance and to think. In his songs, as in his public speeches, he relentlessly denounces injustice, elite corruption and neocolonialism: battles that have lost none of their topicality. The one who calls himself the “Black President” is also a hard worker, releasing up to twelve albums a year and touring around the world while remaining faithful to the Afrika Shrine, the club he created in Lagos. . He leaves us a major work that influences generations of musicians from all walks of life, from the jazz scene to hip-hop.
After the father-son interview between Femi and Madé, Sodi Marciszewer remembers his first time with Fela. Artistic director, sound engineer and mixer, Sodi has worked with 3 generations of Kuti. He collaborated on the last 6 albums of Fela, produced most of the albums of Femi and the 1st album of Madé. He is the founder of the Zarma studio, renowned for the use of vintage audio equipment (Fela Rebellion Afrobeat at Textuel).
We then went to Jean-Jacques Mandel, journalist, photographer, art collector. He is the first journalist to have interviewed Fela at the Shrine in 1975. 1st of his photos are in the exhibition.
The Republic of Kalakuta seen by Jean-Jacques Mandel
In 1975, Jean-Jacques Mandel, a young graduate in ethnology, decided to create an association to allow the French to go cheaply to the Festac, initially scheduled for that year. On the advice of a friend who pointed out to him the existence of an extraordinary musician in Lagos, Jean-Jacques Mandel decided to undertake the trip by car, crossing the Sahara, as the British drummer Ginger Baker had done a few years before. Having arrived in the Nigerian capital after several thousand grueling kilometres, he went, at night, to the Shrine.
At the end of the concert, late in the evening, Fela, intrigued by his presence, sends one of his musicians to seek him out to meet him. At the end of the interview, he offers to come and interview him the next day at the Republic of Kalakuta. Jean-Jacques Mandel is the first Frenchman to photograph the musician. He will return to Lagos two years later for a new series of photographs and an interview published on his return in Rock&Folk magazine.
His portrait of Fela on the saxophone, in front of the fences that keep the crowd of admirers at a distance, will become iconic after adorning the cover of the double vinyl Fela Ransome-Kuti published by Pathé in 1977, then in 1981 that of the Black President disc on the label Arista, in a black and yellow version (Excerpt from the exhibition book: Fela Rébellion Afrobeat at Textuel). Portrait of Jean-Jacques Mandel in Marianne.
playlist
Fela”Water No get No Enemy»
Made Kuti “Free Your Mind»
Femi Kuti”Young Boy, Young Girl»
Made Kuti “Blood»
Fela”Monday Morning in Lagos»
Fela”Lady/Shakara»