WHAT a fantastic way to remember Fela Kuti, the Nigerian multi-instrumentalists, maverick and human rights activist.
Fela played political music, the force of which still comes across, more than ten years after his death, at the age of 58.
Yet what is apparent, with even greater force, is the sheer musical joy and exuberant energy on display in the first of a series of anthologies. This music just leaps out and spins the listener round the room.
Many of the best anthems are very long, such as Swegbe And Pako, Black Man's Cry or the 15-minute Why Black Man Dey Suffer.
This is world jazz, Nigerian style - music driven by relentless beats, over which Fela lays rap-style vocals and some thrilling saxophone playing.
The two CDs look in turn at the early years, where the occasional lapse in recording quality is easily forgiven, and the increasingly political later career. Both are uniformly to be cherished, and there is a DVD documentary too about Fela Kuti's life. What a Fela.
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