Dey – Seun Kuti Feat. Damian Marley
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rss-club/dey-seun-kuti-damian-marley/
Dey, produced by Lenny Kravitz, with Damian Marley as author, is the first single from the upcoming album by Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head), expected on October 4. Afrobeat for sure!
“This is the first time that Kutis and Marleys have collaborated and recorded together.”
More on AMF: https://amf.didiermary.fr/heavier-yet-seun-kuti/
Seun Kuti – IMF
https://amf.didiermary.fr/seun-kuti-imf-long-way-beginning/
Seun Kuti released his album “A long way to the beginning” in 2014, with the single IMF, an acronym that stands in the context of the song for “International MotherFuckers.”
At a recent, exhilarating and triumphant concert in Memphis by the Afrobeat star Seun Kuti, son of the late Fela and leader of his father’s […]
Bixiga 70 – Vapor
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bixiga70-vapor/
A political force since 2010, the activist group Bixiga 70, in reference to Fela Kuti’s Africa 70, almost didn’t survive Covid and Bolsonaro’s mandate. Resurrected, they released a new album, Vapor, in October 2023.
São Paulo’s Afro-Brazilian groove visionaries Bixiga 70 return with an ecstatic 5th album – Vapor – their first […]
Bixiga 70 – Quebra Cabeça
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bixiga70-quebra-cabeca/
São Paulo’s acclaimed 10-piece instrumental collective released their 4th album in 2018, “Quebra Cabeça”.
Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism and massive dance floor inspiration.One of South America’s most exhilarating musical propositions. Almost four centuries after the first slave ships loaded their cargoes and set sail, the connection between [...]
Anelis – Sonhando Feat. Karina Buhr
https://amf.didiermary.fr/anelis-sonhando-karina-buhr/
Normally existing between rap, downtempo and Brazilian influences, Anelis Assumpção samples Fela Kuti’s “Mr. Grammarticalogylisationalism Is the Boss” on this song featuring Karina Buhr. [...]
Fela Kuti – Roforofo Fight
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-roforofo-fight/
Roforofo Fight refers to senseless violence: it describes 2 fools who batter themselves into the mud as a crowd gathers to watch them.
Roforofo Fight is about human intolerance towards each other. Issues that could be resolved amicably usually end up in fist fights. Sometimes such fights end up bloody or muddy. Dramatizing the scenario […]
Ruth Tafebe & The Afrosoulmessengerz – Croco Walk
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ruth-tafebe-afrosoulmessengerz-croco-walk/
Après avoir monté les Afrorockerz avec le soutien de Tony Allen et de Julien Raulet (Fanga), voici Ruth Tafebe de retour avec un projet à géométrie variable teinté d’influences ouest africaines et de Soul Jazz américain sur lequel rode le spectre du Black President.
Tony Allen – Film of Life
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tony-allen-film-life/
“For his tenth album [‘Film Of Life’ in 2014], the human metronome of afrobeat has pulled out all the stops.“
At his side are The Jazzbastards, a trio of producers at the cutting edge of contemporary sound, and fellow world-class musicians, including Damon Albarn, who […]
Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife
https://amf.didiermary.fr/electronic-highlife-ghana-special-2/
“Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93” is a collection of 18 Burger Highlife, Electronic Afrobeat and Reggae tracks, highlighting a time when the burgeoning Ghanaian diaspora across Europe and North America was utilising new music technology and recording techniques. [...]
#80smusic #90smusic #Compilation #Ghana #Highlife #AfroBeat #Electro
Fela Kuti – Sorrow, Tears & Blood
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-sorrow-tears-blood/
“Sorrow, Tears and Blood”, a 10-minute track from 1977 with Africa 70, has Fela Kuti calling out the unjust killings that occurred in Nigeria, South Africa and all of the continent more broadly, under multiple authoritarian and totalitarian rules. […]
Abayomy Afrobeat Orquestra
https://amf.didiermary.fr/abayomy-afrobeat-orquestra-brazil/
Abayomy Afrobeat Orquestra is a band from Rio de Janeiro.
“Maluguinho” is a religious candomblé chant from Recife that Abayomy transformed into an Afrobeat track.
The band was founded for Fela Kuti day in Rio in 2011.
Apart from their own compositions rooted in Afro-Brazilian tradition, they play cover versions of afrobeat classics and reinterpretations of […]
Fela Kuti Special
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-special-documentary/
This post “Fela Kuti Special” is a selection of documentaries on the life, music and political commitment of the great Nigerian musician and how he evolved from Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the man with “death in his pouch.”
Nigeria Afrobeat Special
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nigeria-afrobeat-special/
Compilation “Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound In 1970’s Nigeria”
The Liberators was a band of some of Sydney’s best musicians playing Afrobeat and AfroFunk Jazz music.
For "Rags to Riches" from their 1st album, released in 2011, the accompanying music video was a tribute to Blaxploitation.
https://www.didiermary.fr/the-liberators-rags-to-riches/
Warning: this music video could be considered #NSFW…
Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band – Sonbonbela
https://amf.didiermary.fr/baba-commandant-mandingo-band-sonbonbela/
Je vous ai déjà présenté Baba Commandant dans un précédent billet. Sonbonbela est le 3ème album du groupe Mandingo Band, enregistré fin 2022 au Burkina Faso. […]
Rocky Dawuni – African Thriller
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rocky-dawuni-african-thriller/
“Performing his self-described ‘Afro-Roots’ sound, a fusion of reggae and Afrobeat groove, few artists have a more positive vibe than Rocky. His show is an incandescent Afro-Roots dance party.”
— LA Weekly
[…]
Tony Allen – Afrobeat Revolution
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tony-allen-afrobeat-revolution/
The Afrobeat Revolution started in Lagos at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963 when Tony Allen met Fela Kuti. Allen was working as studio engineer at the time and Kuti had been hired as a disc jockey with his own jazz request programme.
The Nigerian drummer Tony Allen is credited with creating Afrobeat along with […]
Fela Kuti – Upside Down
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-upside-down/
From the LP “Upside Down” released in 1976 (CD release 1997).
Sandra, the woman who stood by Fela and also brought him in contact with the Black Panther during his transformation years in the United States, came back to visit a highly popular and successful Fela in Nigeria in 1976.
The track was written by […]
The Recording Academy Announces 2026 Special Merit Award Honorees: Carlos Santana, Chaka Khan, Cher, #FelaKuti, Paul Simon, Whitney Houston & More.
https://www.grammy.com/news/special-merit-awards-2026-grammys-honorees-recording-academy
Somi – The Lagos Music Salon
https://amf.didiermary.fr/lagos-music-salon-somi/
The Lagos Music Salon is the 4th studio full-length album by jazz hybrid singer and songwriter Somi. It was released in 2014. Somi is an American Jazz and Pop singer and songwriter.
Her music is influenced by her Ugandan and Rwandan roots, and she resides between New York City and Lagos, Nigeria. […]
Seun Kuti and Black Thought remix
https://amf.didiermary.fr/seun-kuti-black-thought-kuku-kee-me-remix/
Nigerian musician Seun Kuti and HipHop veteran Black Thought (head of legendary band The Roots) teamed again for a new remix EP African Dreams, that includes 3 tracks, nearly two months after the release of “Kuku Kee Me (Remix).”
“This EP is something new. I don’t think that something like this has been done before,” […]
From the LP I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) released in 1979.
Fela and his political party Movement Of The People are banned from contesting Nigeria’s presidential election. Fela forms a new Afrika 70 and plays a comeback concert at the University of Ife. He also defies police opposition and opens a new Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, […]
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-international-thief-itt/
Fela Kuti – Gentleman (LP)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-gentleman-lp/
1973’s “Gentleman” is the 7th in the series of celebratory Fela 50th Anniversary reissues.
Like Fela’s other early 70’s releases, he used each side of his LPs to create a deep groove that pulls the listener in and follows with metaphoric lyrics that call out and critique the corrupt hangover of colonialism. Gentleman is the […]
Fela Kuti – Confusion Break Bones (C.B.B.)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-confusion-break-bones-cbb/
Confusion Break Bones is a long track (29:10) by Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 on their album “Underground System” from 1992.
“Fela releases Underground System, which will be the final album of newly recorded studio material to be issued during his lifetime. The album is inspired in part by the 1987 assassination of Fela’s friend, […]
Fela Kuti – Mr Follow Follow
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-mr-follow-follow/
Fela Kuti’s Mr Follow Follow was released in 1976/77 on the Zombie album.
The song is about those who allow themselves to be led blindly by others.
“…if you dey follow them book! Na inside cupboard you go quench!… Cockroach dey! Rat dey!… Na inside darkness you go dey! If you have to follow them books, […]
