SALON

Saturday, Aug 27, 2011 4:01 PM UTC

Quick Hits: Afrobeat sensation Seun Kuti performs live

Our Saturday music series debuts with a scorching performance from a young artist adding to his family's legacy

By

Topics: Quick Hits, Music, Television,

Quick Hits: Afrobeat sensation Seun Kuti performs liveSeun Kuti.

When African music legend Fela Kuti died in 1997, his son Seun — then just 14 years old — took over his father’s band, Egypt 80.

Now he’s well on his way to becoming a Nigerian afrobeat pioneer in his own right — as well as a fiery and energetic performer with a strong social and political conscience. In this episode of Quick Hits, we visit with Seun in Lagos and capture exclusive performances centered around his second album, “From Africa with Fury: Rise.” 

Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.

“Rise” is the title song on Seun Kuti and Egypt 80’s new album. In the Fela tradition of Afrobeat, it’s an angry song – protesting against corrupt leaders and corporations exploiting Africa’s resources. It’s also a big band tour de force, with echoes of James Brown and Miles Davis. Above all, it’s a call to rise against injustice.

This is Seun’s incendiary anthem, but there’s an underlying sadness here, too, as if he knows all too well the suffering his people have endured. The constant refrain: We want a better life but “our stomachs still empty.”

Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.

As a tribute to his father, Seun Kuti opens his concert with one of Fela’s signature songs, “Zombie,” a scathing indictment of the Nigerian army for blindly following repressive orders. This is Afrobeat at its most provocative written by a man who repeatedly challenged the military regime and paid the price in countless beatings and arrests. The older members of Egypt 80 played this dangerous, defiant song with Fela himself.

The lyrics are a mixture of English and Nigerian dialect: “Zombie no go go, unless you tell him to go…Zombie no go think, unless you tell him to think.” The song is featured in the musical “Fela!” which is now touring the U.S. after its Broadway and London runs.

Watch the full episode. See more Sound Tracks.

Seun apologized for being jet-lagged – those Europe to California hauls can wear you out – but he made time to talk with Quick Hits reporter Mirissa Neff before his show at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco.

Seun recalls playing Fela’s saxophone, comments on the Arab Spring protests, and bemoans the political nepotism and corruption that have frustrated the aspirations of African youth. Then he went upstairs and blew the crowd away with an all-out, sweat-drenched performance. Don’t miss his dance moves at the end. Stripped to the waist, Seun looks more like a soccer star than a bandleader.

More Salon Staff.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Quick Hits, presented in partnership with PBS Arts, showcases the most dynamic sounds from around the globe. Every week, we'll introduce you to a new musician, visit with them in places that inspired their sound, and capture their songs on stage in performances you won't see anyplace else. Produced by The Talbot Players.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations