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Fela fanatics Antibalas honors legendary afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti
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Chicago Tribune, Fela fanatics Antibalas honors legendary afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti >>
By Aaron Cohen
These are not easy times for the New York-based Antibalas, a large ensemble
that uses Nigerian afrobeat to proclaim its adherence to such causes as
pacifism (its Spanish-language name means both "bulletproof" and
"anti-bullets").
But because recapturing the spirit of legendary afrobeat founder Fela Kuti
has always been a challenge, the group, which performs Friday, March 29, at
Double Door, can handle any reaction to its message. Fela's influential
afrobeat bands from the 1960s and '70s mixed jazz, funk and West African
idioms and usually featured a throng of interlocking guitarists, horn
players, keyboardists and versatile percussionists. Saxophonist Martin Perna
(a.k.a. Martin Antibalas), who founded Antibalas four years ago, says that
initially he could convince only seven other people that they could form an
afrobeat band in the United States. Eighteen musicians perform on the
group's new disc, "Talkatif."
"I think things come a lot more fluidly in the music now," Perna says. "The
vocal part has been really tough because so much of afrobeat is based on
Fela's own charismatic spirit and his way of getting across social messages
in his very dark but very humorous way of doing it. So the whole question
is, 'How do we get forth these same messages without trying to copycat
Fela?'"
While Fela spoke out for African unity and against governmental corruption,
he was sometimes as messianic as he was idealistic. Perna says that in using
Fela's words as Antibalas' key influence it's important to "see all the good
things that Fela did, all the sensible things that he talked about within
themes of his songs." What he's found out is that even though those songs
were written about Nigeria 25 or 30 years ago, they have taken on new
relevance. "After this Enron thing happened we decided to play [Fela's]
'Authority Stealing,'" Perna says.
Along with selecting judiciously from Fela's messages, Antibalas has
astutely decided to work within one particular form of African music, even
though Perna says that the members of the group enjoy listening to records
from across the continent. As a result, the group does not present a diluted
African pop hybrid.
"There's a huge breadth of knowledge of African music, but we're still
trying to master afrobeat," Perna says. "Each one of those is a different
language and we've got to concentrate on this one right now rather than try
to create a pastiche of something we're not masters of."
One of the most identifiable characteristics of afrobeat has always been
marathon concerts that might consist only of a few songs of epic length. But
Perna says his group adapts to the wishes of club owners and festival
organizers who request specific set lengths. What also distinguishes
Antibalas from the current jam bands that use lengthy improvisation is that
this group has regimented parts for each instrumentalist.
"The sticks, or claves, mark the time," Perna says. "As a horn player, we're
called on to do a lot of soloing. The guitars are strictly rhythm
instruments. Maybe once every five months the guitar player might take a
solo. There's a lot of discipline and a lot of convention that we follow and
I think that definitely comes out of African and Afro-Latin music where
every instrument has a particular rhythmic or melodic role."
When Antibalas' builds its compositions around lengthy simmering grooves,
that blueprint is closely followed.
"A lot of the longer tunes have a very meditative aspect," Perna says. "It's
10 minutes before the melody comes in and in that sense the melody hits even
harder. Just keeping people in suspense for the longest time and then
fulfilling it."
Perna says that "a big goal for everybody" in Antibalas is to perform in
afrobeat's birth place, but the logistics of touring for its extensive
musical family are always a concern. "We're trying to get over to Nigeria,
but just to get to Boston is tricky."
Cohen is a Chicago freelance writer. 03/29/02 >> go there
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