Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Something
In August, world music lost two masters
The demise of Olufela AnikulapoKuti (58) and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (48) is a staggering loss to music and beyond, writes Siddharta Both were schooled in the classical and finer arts but also innovators in contemporary styles, as much influenced as influential in the crossover between western and nonwestern melodies.
Fela Kuti had been described as the second funkiest man alive - James Brown denying him the top honour. Hailing from Abeokuta, (north of Lagos) in south western Nigeria, his parents were important influences. His mother was a prominent anti-colonial activist and recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize and his father a churchman, founded Nigeria's first teachers union. Fela won a scholarship to study medicine in England but when in London enrolled instead at the Trinity College of Music. He could already play piano but took to the trumpet
He also became a campaigner for the healing and meditative powers of mariJuana, which he had been introduced to in the U.S. He and the other members of his "republic" consumed liberally and openly. This provided the justification for numerous police raids, which were thinly disguised opportunities for harassment and intimidation.
In one of those raids his mother was thrown from a window and subsequently died. Fela's spell in jail between 1984 and 1986 led to him being adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. His brothers, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti,a human rights activist, is serving a fifteen year prison sentence on trumped up charges imposed by the Sani Abacha dictatorship
In musical terms, his fusion of the Latin and Jazz idioms with African music encompassing both traditional and modern influences was unique and hugely successful. Afro-beat provided an alternative to the highlife sound that was over-runworld music *
Fela Kuti's demise was followed barely two weeks later by the unexpected and untimely death of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Here was an artist at the peak of his creativity, accomplishing through a highly emotionally charged voice something Indians and Pakistanis had failed to achieve any semblance of. Unity!
Born into a family of excellent singers. Nusrat ascended to the highest heights, and early on was awarded the honorific Ustad (Master). He brought Qawwali music, based on Sufi Muslim spirituality and classical Punjabi verse, to the world, like Ravi Shankar did for Indian classical music. The intensity and the poetry of his performances extended to bhajans - Hindu songs of religious praise
Qawwali literally means "devotional songs aimed at bringing the individual closer to God". This corresponds to the Sufi notion of the exile of the soul from its maker, and its longing to return. These songs of praise appealed to Muslims, while his interpretations of bhajans capning north west Africa and the juju and tured Hindu hearts too. In Allah Hoo, he inspired by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and others in the United States.
Back in Nigeria he was looking for "a sound that fit." He stumbled onto the same sort of funky jazzy recipe as the gospel and soul-influenced James Brown. Fela dubbed it Afro-Beat.
His ability to bridge the gap between the pidgin English speaking masses and the more intellectual and politically conscious was cemented by a visit to the U.S in 1969. Here, Latin-Cuban-African and Jazz elements and melodies fused with an empowering message that added to the potency of the music. This reflected his exposure to radical groups like the Black Panther Party and works like Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
From his '69 Los Angeles sessions album, an out-take "Viva Nigeria" has the following lyric: "War is not the answer/ War has never been the answer/and it will never be the answer/one nation indivisible/long live Africa/Viva Nigeria." Confrontation with Nigerias rulers
His increased politicisation and growing popularity brought him into conflict with Nigeria's military regimes Branding the dictators as liars, and denouncing them as unpatriotic led to beatings, raids and imprisonment. One of his periods of imprisonment was in the Alagbon Close jail nicknamed the 'Kalakuta' (after the dark hole of Calcutta). On his release he named the compound enclosing his home and club "The Kalakuta Republic" - declaring it independent of state authority and interference.
later fuji styles dominating Nigeria. The spontaneity of compositions - often coming together live on stage - added to the spectacle of a large band with semiclad singers and dancers making his stage shows un-missable
When he was diagnosed as having
AIDS he continued touring but recording became more sporadic. This August he died of heart failure brought on by AIDS related complications.
sang "The Hindus call you Ram, the Muslims call you Allah, they are speaking of one and the same." Ecstasy, abandon and Allah
The motif of love entwined with that of faith, and the Sufi disdain for rules and rituals, and their mean-minded veneration, infuriated fundamentalist Islamic traditions. The ecstasy and abandon Nusrat evoked in his audience had them dancing joyously. Even at staid venues like London's Albert Hall, where Muslim, Hindu and Sikh flocked to hear him.
His music also fared well at the hands of remixers who added Latin, bhangra and hip-hop effects to his tracks in efforts to modernise the sound
He proved the versatility of his sound through collaborations with renowned western musicians like Peter Gabriel and on film scores for "Natural Born Killers" and "Bandit Queen". He translated his talents for Bollywood. (Indian commercial cinema) film soundtracks, without compromising his integrity.
Nusrat ballooned in weight by his late 30's and fought a losing battle from then on. The resultant pressure on his body, and his prolific and intense emotional performances both live and in the studio almost certainly contributed to his death of renal failure.
He was of an age with the postcolonial Indian sub-continent, a product of its previously combined culture and heritage; striving to reconnect links torn asunder. * Source: Socialist Outlook, October 1997
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100 years of Zionism