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Connecting Africa, U.S. through musical dialogue
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WORLD MUSIC REVIEW, Connecting Africa, U.S. through musical dialogue >>
"Are you ready for Africa?" asked one of the MCs with Senegalese rap trio Daara J as he stormed the stage Sunday during the third installment of this year's KCRW World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.
Are we ever.
Born out of the horrors of slavery, the musical dialogue between Africa and the United States has never failed to generate fascinating stuff.
Sunday's show, a virtuoso display of intelligent programming, juxtaposed the dynamic African rap of Daara J with the big-band hip-hop jazz of Brooklyn rapper Mos Def and the Afrobeat of Femi Kuti.
Daara J's short set clearly sent the audience into culture shock. But the trio was wise to alternate its dizzying rhymes — performed in French and Wolof — with more conventional songs soaked in reggae and salsa.
The performance by Femi Kuti, son of venerated bandleader Fela Kuti, again raised the question of why Afrobeat remains a cult genre.
Kuti's Afrobeat is one of the most hypnotic, relentlessly danceable styles of music in the world, a potent fusion of layered African beats, vintage James Brown funk and politically inflammatory lyrics decrying endemic corruption.
Before his death in 1997, Fela toured with an entourage of dozens of musicians and female dancers (many of whom were his wives). The songs carried on endlessly, building up to climaxes of exceptional power.
Femi has condensed his father's approach — the songs were short, and the bandleader was backed by three dancers and 10 musicians, including his young son on saxophone.
But Afrobeat Lite this certainly was not.
The dense polyrhythms, wailing brass riffs and urgent call-and-response choruses were all there. Picture the intensity of a veteran salsa orchestra. Now multiply it by 10. You're getting close to the raw fire of Femi Kuti's combo.
Africa still beckons. Who can resist? 07/26/05 >> go there
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