As discussed in Further Explorations of Funk, part 5, Fela Kuti shared James Brown’s love of the One, the first beat of each bar. This is one aspect among many of Fela’s music that has inspired other Afrobeat artists. Here are five great Afrobeat songs that hit the One.
‘Sorrow Tears and Blood’
Fela’s Sorrow Tears and Blood (1977) only featured two songs (as many of his albums did) but they’re some of his gnarliest, catchiest tunes. The title track’s lead guitar line could be a hook by itself, but it’s the backing singers’ “Hey, yeah” on the One that will most likely stay lodged in your head. And if it’s not those repetitions, it may be Fela’s “Them leave sorrow, tears and blood / Them regular trademark”. The song was written in reaction to the Soweto uprising in South Africa, where hundreds of students were killed in a protest during apartheid.
The scratchier rhythm guitar finds space in the offbeats, with the lead guitar, vocals, and horns all vying for attention. It’s nearly 8 minutes into the song (over 14 minutes on the extended 16-minute version) before the horns’ cathartic main theme arrives – a particularly energising moment in a discography full of them.
‘Colonial Mentality’ by Kokoroko
The other song on the Sorrow album, ‘Colonial Mentality’, has inspired multiple Fela followers to cover it. Kokoroko released a great studio version, but an even finer take was recorded at Sofar London. Kokoroko add fresh ideas to the song while very much paying tribute: it wasn’t typical of Fela to let a guitarist take centre stage, but among a handful of great solos, guitarist Shirley Tetteh’s shines.
The adjective of “gnarliest” above is most fitting of ‘Colonial Mentality’, where the horns’ screw-your-face-up melodies are some of the nastiest Fela ever wrote. Much of the song is dissonant, barely contained energy. That’s true in Kokoroko’s version, where Ayo Salawu’s restless drumming backs up Sheila Maurice-Grey’s trumpet solo. The band sounds on the verge of breaking point but manages to keep it together for several more minutes of brilliance.
‘E Just Dey Go’ by Dele Sosimi
Dele Sosimi was Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 musical director before leaving the band with Fela’s eldest son, Femi Kuti, to start Positive Force. Last year he released The Confluence LP with The Estruary 21, a less Afrobeat-inspired album. But his early solo material very much followed in Fela’s footsteps. Identity (2007) and You No Fit Touch Am (2015) had great arrangements, soloing, and earworm hooks. ‘E Just Dey Go’ uses the Fela blueprint of introducing instruments and melodies gradually, adding and subtracting elements as the song progresses.
There’s a vocal-and-percussion section (2:16) in the style of latter day Fela; Dele trades lines with the backing singers. The highlights of the song, though, are when the singers and the horns join for a joyful blast on the One (“E just dey GOOOO!”).
‘T.O.P.’ by Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Fela’s youngest son, Seun, has led Egypt 80 since his father’s passing. ‘T.O.P.’ opened one of the most joyous, energetic albums of last year – or any year – Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head). Rhythm Passport asked Seun about the sweeter sound of the album compared to his previous work. Seun said, “I wanted it to be optimistic, and that was deliberate. The album is a call to say that there is joy to be found in revolution.” Even as ‘T.O.P.’ rallies against people valuing “Things over people”, there’s joy in the horn motif and the bouncy three-note phrases (as from 1:08).
Although there’s joy, there’s also a hint of melancholy, especially in the polyrhythmic guitars. As discussed in part 4 of our funky explorations, James Brown and Fela Kuti started using polyrhythmic guitar parts around 1971. Since then, two guitars playing distinct, interlocking rhythm parts has been a fundamental part of Afrobeat. On ‘T.O.P.’, the rhythm guitar hitting its high-pitched chord on the One acts as a foundation around which all the other rhythms swirl. The horns sometimes join in on that beat; sometimes it’s the only beat where they leave space.
(The melancholy is also detectable in ‘Stand Well Well’, partly achieved by the guitars’ slightly more sustained notes (in contrast to Fela’s snappy guitars on songs like ‘Yellow Fever’ and ‘I.T.T. (International Thief Thief)’. Heavier Yet is more reminiscent of Fela’s later work such as Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (1986) and Underground System (1992) when some anguish had crept into his rebellion.)
‘Grietas (Ft. Lido Pimienta)’ by Newen Afrobeat
Newen Afrobeat describe themselves as the first Afrobeat band from Chile. They’ve collaborated with Seun Kuti (on covers of Fela’s ‘Opposite People’ and ‘Zombie’) and Sosimi (on last year’s ‘Mare Mare’). The album Sosimi featured on, last year’s Grietas, was only 29 minutes 16 seconds and not a second was wasted. Though they do sometimes build up songs gradually, Newen’s music is less based around adding and subtracting elements than Fela’s; they pack their ideas into 5-10 minute tracks rather than 10-30 minutes.
On ‘Grietas’, a lead guitar line hints at the ethereal vocals to come. The first triumphant, satisfying blast on the One happens from 0:48, led up to brilliantly by Roberto “Tito” Gevert’s drums. Aldo Gomez’s baritone sax squeals nimbly between syncopated rhythm parts. The three singers (Newen’s regular singers are Fran Ri and Ivania Arteaga), including the featuring Lido Pimienta, give fresh tones throughout the song. After some staccato vocals mixed with smoother phrases, there’s the best moment of the song: the whole band hitting the One shortly after 3:56.
Top image from Seun Kuti’s Bandcamp.