SEUN KUTI
Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)
(Record Kicks)
The offspring of established musicians and musical stars have it tough. On the one hand they generally inherit a high degree of musical and compositional talent, and on the other are permanently overshadowed by a legacy they can't escape from.
(I won't bother listing them, we all know who they are..)
So you would expect it to be with Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Instead four of his children have forged careers in music with no little degree of success.
Fela's youngest son Seun Kuti is now 16 years into solo recording career and about to release his seventh solo album, Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head), backed by his father's band Egypt 80. The set is co produced by Fela Kuti’s original engineer Sodi Marciszewer (artistic producer) and Lenny Kravitz (executive producer). Whatever the respective contributions of those two heavyweights, the result is impressive, if a touch laid back at times.
As you'd expect given his pedigree and the talented backing musicians he has at his disposal both the vibe and the musicianship are firmly in place.
Musically the six tracks presented here are firmly in his father's Afrobeat tradition with some flashes of jazzier west coast sax playing on "Love and Revolution", and rapping on the single Dey, courtesy of Jamaican singer-DJ, Damien Marley - Bob's Marley's youngest son - can you see what they did there?
Lyrically too Seun is treading a familiar paths, with the songs tackling themes of personal and public politics - resistance, self realisation and revolution.
Stand out track has to be the harder and more up-tempo 'Emi Aluta' (aluta means struggle) featuring guest vocals from Zambian rapper, singer and lyricist Sampa The Great, and which pays tribute to "all the great revolutionaries". Arguably it's the closest in both feel and execution to the best of his Father's huge oeuvre, but most definitely not in its shadow. Rather it deftly continues Fela's tradition, updating and extending its range.
It's an impressive achievement and one worthy of five stars on its own.
(live version minus Sampa)
Footnote: Which is not say that Seun is above performing his father's best known numbers.
This video of Seun and former Fela sideman Cheick Tidiane Seck and other members of Egypt 80 playing with Chilean crossover ensemble Newen Afrobeat is frankly stunning. Better even than the original? Let's say it's certainly keeping the flame alive.
Seun Kuti plays an altogether too short tour in UK in November 2024
November 17th-London, KOKO
November 18th-Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds
November 19th-Trinity, Bristol
November 20th-Waterfront , Norwich
November 21st-Chalk, Brighton
