Fela Kuti -- The Best Of The Black President, vol. 2

So I once was fortunate enough to be working at a used record store in Phoenix when someone traded in 10 CDs by Fela Kuti, each a "two-fer" (two albums on one disc).  I knew enough about world music then to know I needed these, so I bought 'em all ... and then promptly forgot about them for several years.  Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician active between the 1960s and his death in 1997 whose music was uncompromisingly radical in its socialist, anti-colonial and anti-military politics.  Once I finally got around to listening to Kuti, the experience was every bit as exciting and satisfying as many critics have described his music. I've since gone on to collect several more CDs by Kuti (and I love 'em all), so I was most intrigued by the copy of Best Of The Black President I saw at the library one day....

I had the CD for a couple of weeks, listened to it incessantly, and now I've got a few things to say about this compilation.  First off, this is (obviously) the second volume in a series of "best of" records Knitting Factory has released of Kuti's music.  Unfortunately, PCPL doesn't have the earlier volume in our collection, but this one is still a great place to start exploring Kuti's afrobeat music.  Neither of the Black President compilations are chronological in terms of the original release dates of the songs collected on them.  Instead, each is a somewhat haphazard career-spanning cache of tunes.  However, Kuti's catalogue is sufficiently solid that even a grab bag like this can change your life.  His lyrics are steeped in protest, the grooves his band churns out a unique blend of funk, jazz and African styles performed with virtuoso professionalism.

Kuti's LPs often contain only 2-4 songs apiece, each running 10 minutes or more in duration.  The Black President collections feature edited versions of the originals, usually omitting an extended instrumental introduction.  In most cases such editing is just fine for the beginner.  For example, "Na Poi" appears here in a version 13 minutes in length, but the song is also available in an alternate version which is almost twice as long.  While I've grown to appreciate the jamming offered in the longer version, the edit included here is much more accessible (and heck, you can actually get through it on just one drive to work rather than in a journey, ah, there and back again).  The music on this collection has been skillfully remastered, greatly improving on the sound quality of the original LP releases.

On the other hand, one of Kuti's better-known tracks, "Sorrow, Tears and Blood," is featured on this compilation in a previously unreleased extended version in which an instrumental jam is restored to the intro of the song.  The instrumental passages in Kuti's songs are often revelations in themselves, as the vocalist picks up his sax and suddenly sounds like a great lost jazz musician.  Then he's back at the mic issuing taunts and jibes at dictators, corrupt politicians and vindictive police.  "Sorrow" itself is a 16 minute account of the South African police's brutal repression of the Soweto Uprising in 1976, and is a vivid tale of horror set to a solid, funky groove.

There are a slew of "best of" compilations out there of Kuti's music, but the two Black President records are a step above the rest thanks to their remastered sound, wise track selection and quality liner notes (although I was pretty skeptical about Akon's introductory notes to vol. 2--Chris May provides a more credible and informative track-by-track assessment in the same booklet).  What's needed now is a collection of quality remixes of Kuti's music, as top-name DJs like Louie Vega, Roger Sanchez, Timmy Regisford and Masters At Work have put together respectful remakes of Kuti tracks which are also very dancefloor-friendly for audiences in the euro-american part of the world.

You can reserve a copy of the Black President by clicking on the link below:

http://librarycatalog.pima.gov/search/X?search=Fela+Black+President