Music / verdensmusik - world music

Fela Ransome Kuti and his Koola Lobitos : highlife jazz and afro-soul (1963-1969)


Reviews (2)


The guardian

d. 7. Apr. 2016

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By

Robin Denselow

d. 7. Apr. 2016

"Compiled by a Japanese chemistry professor who collects rare African vinyl, this intriguing three-album compilation traces Fela's musical development in the 1960s, before he became the revolutionary pioneer of Afrobeat. After studying music in London, he had returned to Lagos, where highlife was massively popular, and with the Koola Lobitos he presented his own take, incorporating his skill as a jazz trumpeter (he would later switch to saxophone, allegedly because playing the trumpet affected his kissing). The set includes both studio and live recordings, and though the sound quality is often rough, the enthusiasm and variety are impressive ...".


fRoots

2016 May

By

By

Rick Sanders

2016 May

"This latest output from Knitting Factory's Fela reissue campaign is going to delight a lot of enthusiasts. Kuti's main body of work hasn't been so hard to find. But these Koola Lobitos recordings - the early days, precursor and laboratory to Afrobeat - have been anything but ... Three albums of seminal Fela reveal the momentous meeting of jazz and highlife. We hear an initially somewhat gauche but outstandingly creative force, working his way from dance music to a powerful and revolutionary fusion with something deeper and more challenging, his confidence and authority growing from track to track ... The third album is Fela and band playing live at the Afro Spot. It is a statement, an announcement of a birth. You can sense the exhilaration".