An Uncle Roddus Album Review
African music month
1. My Lady Frustration (7:01)
2. Viva Nigeria (3:47)
3. Obe (3:13)
4. Ako (2:43)
5. Witchcraft (5:27)
6. Wayo[2nd Version][Version] (3:29)
7. Lover (6:10)
8. Funky Horn (4:43)
9. Eko (4:14)
10. This Is Sad (4:23)
This set recorded in Los Angeles when Fela visited the US in the late 60s was issued in Nigeria as the "Fela Fela Fela" Album and later in the US/UK in the early 90s. It now comes packaged with several earlier tracks from the Koola Lobitos album I reviewed earlier this week. Several tracks had been released in Nigeria as singles before this was issued on LP and it marks the transition of Fela's Music from the earlier Highlife style to the awesome Afrobeat of the rest of his career. Listening carefully to this music(if you can without leaping from your chair and boogieing throughout) you certainly can detect the Highlife elements but this set is much more funky and many of the elements of Afrobeat are in evidence. Leo once mentioned that he didn't find this set as powerful as Fela's later pure Afrobeat, but I have come to totally love this album as an awesome statement of the wonder of Fela's music. The songs are becoming etched into my psyche as classics and the steamroller rhythms and excellent horn playing just blow me away.
This album opens with, what is for me, Fela's first true monumental slab of pure Afrobeat in the astounding "My Lady Frustration" This song gives me goosebumps and brings up emotions of pure ecstasy of the type that I haven't had from a piece of music for many a year. "Viva Nigeria", "Obe", "Ako", and "Witchcraft" are all great slabs of Proto Afrobeat and the later tracks hark back to the Highlife that Fela apprenticed in. An outstanding set and gets a Roddus rating of 5+/5
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