User:Fatoumou/Afrobeat

group 10- Bam209

Article Draft

Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre that involves the combination of West African musical styles (which include traditional Yoruba and Igbo music and highlife with American funk, jazz, and soul influence) Afrobeat focuses on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion. The style was pioneered in the 1960s by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who is responsible for popularizing the style both within and outside Nigeria.

Distinct from Afrobeat is Afrobeats, a combination of sounds originating in West Africa in the 21st century, one that takes in diverse influences and is an eclectic combination of genres such as hip hop, house, jùjú, ndombolo, R&B and soca. The two genres, though often conflated, are not the same as Afrobeat is just the amalgamation of afrobeats .

History

Afrobeat was developed in Nigeria in the late 1960s by Fela Kuti who, with drummer Tony Allen, explored various contemporary musical styles of that era. Afrobeat was influenced by a variety of genres, such as highlife, fuji, and jùjú, as well as Yoruba vocal traditions, rhythm, and instruments. In the late 1950s, Kuti left Lagos to study abroad at the London School of Music where he took lessons in piano and percussion and was exposed to jazz. He subsequently returned to Lagos, where he experimented with a fusion of highlife and jazz. However, this blend did not achieve commercial success.

In 1969, Kuti and his band went on a trip to the U.S. and met Sandra Smith, a singer and former Black Panther. Sandra Smith (now known as Sandra Izsadore or Sandra Akanke Isidore) introduced Kuti to many writings of activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis, Jesse Jackson, and his biggest influence of all, Malcolm X.

Kuti, intrigued by African-American politics, relied on Smith to keep him updated on current events. In exchange, he enlightened her about African culture. Since Kuti stayed at Smith's house and spent so much time with her, he started to re-evaluate his music genre. That was when Kuti realized that he was not playing African music. From then on, Kuti transformed both the sound and the underlying message of his music.

Upon arriving in Nigeria, Kuti had also changed the name of his group to "Africa '70". The new sound hailed from a club he established called the Afrika Shrine. From 1970 to 1975, the band held a residency at the Afrika Shrine, during which time Afrobeat resonated deeply with the Nigerian youth. Also influential was Ray Stephen Oche [de], a Nigerian musician touring from Paris, France, with his Matumbo orchestra in the 1970s.

The name was partially born out of an attempt to distinguish Fela Kuti's music from the soul music of American artists such as James Brown.

Prevalent in his and Lagbaja's music are native Nigerian harmonies and rhythms, taking different elements and combining, modernizing, and improvising upon them. Politics is intrinsic to Afrobeat, as Kuti leveraged social criticism to champion change. His message was both confrontational and controversial, mirroring the political turbulence of many African countries in the 1970s. These nations grappled with political injustice and military corruption as they navigated the shift from colonial rule to self-governance. As the genre permeated the African continent, numerous bands embraced the style. The recordings of these bands and their songs were rarely heard or exported outside the originating countries but many can now be found on compilation albums and CDs from specialist record shops.[citation needed]

Influence

Many jazz musicians have been attracted to the genre of Afrobeat. From Roy Ayers in the 1970s to Randy WestonIn the 1990s, collaborations led to albums like "Africa: Centre of the World" by Roy Ayers, released on the Polydore label in 1981. In 1994, Branford Marsalis, the American jazz saxophonist, included samples of Fela's "Beasts of No Nation" on his Buckshot LeFonquealbum.