An Evening With Seun Kuti.
3 min read
It was a great sunny afternoon. The Uber driver was waiting and in few minutes time, the reporter was ready to go and they took off to Fela’s house, Gbemishola Street in the highbrow area of Ikeja. Because of the road construction going on in Ikeja, Awolowo Road, there was a highly noticeable traffic jam. The reporter was running late, he had to alight from the car and took an express emergency service (okada) to Ikeja.
On arrival at the Fela’s house, which is officially known as Kalakuta, the security men at the gate were very friendly as the ushered him in, directly to where Seun Kuti was presiding as the chief judge of Afrobeat during a rehearsal. It has been twice the reporter who happens to be the publisher of Umuaka Times had an appointment with Seun Kuti but the first appointment failed. The last time the reporter and Seun Kuti met was during the time Omoyele Sowere was launching his Sahara Reporters Media Lab in Ikeja GRA a couple of years ago.
On this special evening with the youthful and energetic Seun Kuti, the full members of the band were on duty, each displaying his mastery of the musical instrument he has learnt over the years. When the reporter gained access to the mini hall, he cited Seun seated like a high court judge with his big keyboard properly placed before him. The reporter then shouted, “Africa’s baddest boy!” He is the only person that addresses Seun Kuti with that name. Seun momentarily paused what he was doing with his phone, looked up and responded, “Yeeaaa Darlington, how far?” The reporter looked at the direction of the instrumentalists, bowed down before them in greetings and Seun directed him to where he would sit and have a clear view of events going on.
Each of the instrumentalists who plays with Seun Kuti, indeed reflects the original Afrobeat sound the great Fela Anikulakpo Kuti invented over 4 decades ago. This mastery also comes alive when you watch the three female backup singers in the band. If it were in Reggae music, Bob Marley or Lucky Dube would name the female backup singers I-3 (pronounced eye 3). Their voices created a reflection of Fela’s female backup singers.
As the rehearsal went into full action, the Africa’s baddest boy had his eyes glued to his phone. Someone who never knew him previously would assume he was not following the rhythm critically. So the reporter assumed until when the band played a note he considered inappropriate and intervened immediately. He gave a musical directive like a British trained orchestra choirmaster and the band followed immediately.
There is no dull moment with Seun Kuti as far as Afrobeat music is concerned. Any musical command he gives is translated into deep Afrobeat sounds by his band. His band members also have a deep grip on his musical body language. Because the band trains weekly and creates a lot of Afrobeat sounds good enough to be mistaken for Fela’s sounds. Seun Kuti has worked a lot to achieve this remarkable feat. Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti, born on 11 January 1983 is a master keyboardist and saxophonist. He is also a master of the microphone when it comes to vocals and song arrangements.
As the rehearsal went on, Seun asked the band, “Can we start the new song?” He immediately followed with a command and the new song hit the sound waves with an electrifying musical wizardry. Before the song could play for up to a minute, he halted the flow, faced the female backup singers and announced, “somebody is singing off key”. He dictated the fellow and corrected the mistake immediately and the groove came to life once again.
With an enriching musical experience the reporter gathered from watching Seun Kuti perform live rehearsals with his band, one would definitely ask, “where is his own Grammy Award”?
