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December 15, 2006

You Can’t Spell Disney without a $! – A Week in the African Velt with Fela Kuti

I have just resurfaced after being submerged in Di$ney culture for a week. I have been hobnobbing with Mickey, Goofy and Captain Hook in the many theme parks, characters dinners and hotels in the Di$ney World encampment in Orlando. Lounging around the pool at the Animal Kingdom Lodge viewing the many shapes and sizes of humanity using the watering hole I came across the $ floating on by. If you been to Di$ney, you know - You Can’t Spell Di$ney without a $!

The week passed quickly at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. From our hotel porch one could see zebras, giraffes, wildebeests and other non predatory animals strolling majestically around a watering hole (not the pool). I enjoyed the African environment and the food and was surprised with the choice of music they piped into certain areas of the hotel and the Animal Kingdom theme-park. Not the usual Paul Simon/Muzak crap, but wonderful mbanga, ju-ju and kwassa-kwassa styles. The best surprise however came one night down at the pool. The pool area was very busy because for most of this very hot day the pool had been closed for cleaning (the rumor went like this: an adult using the pool the night before decided to use the pool as a toilet and he took a DUMP in it). I digress. The Animal Kingdom Lodge threw a party to re-open the pool and blaring from the loud speakers was the originated of Afro-beat himself - Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Fela was one of Africa's most controversial musicians throughout his life. Born in Nigeria, Kuti’s life was to help the common man. In 1968, Fela came to the US and discovered the funk, jazz, blues and Motown sounds flooding through riot torn cities across the US. He took the music back to Lagos and combined all the styles to form what he called Afro-beat. His music was intricate, akin to Sun Ra or the later recordings of Roland Kirk. To some his style might be more arguably called Afro-jazz. His recordings often consisted of just a few songs which sounded more like a jam session than a specifically written piece of music. Fela hated performing any song after recording it, which left him to always be creating, evolving and expanding his musical senses. During his life he spent time in prison in Nigeria as he was at odds with who ever were running the country. Fela died of AIDS back in 1997. He was saxophonist and political activist; credited with the invention of afro-beat. In a career that spanned 4 decades he established himself as one of the most popular figures in African music, with a musical influence that has spread around the globe and in some strange way I’m happy Di$ney recognized it.

Posted by nick on 9:47 AM | Comments (0)