Kuti

Kuti or Küti may refer to:

People

Places

Other uses

Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), also known as Fela Anikulapo Kuti or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre, human rights activist, and political maverick.

Biography

Early life and career

Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on 15 October 1938 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into an upper-middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement; his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

He attended the Abeokuta Grammar School in Abeokuta and later he was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music, the trumpet being his preferred instrument. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.

Seun Kuti

Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti (born 11 January 1983), commonly known as Seun Kuti, is a Nigerian musician, and the youngest son of legendary afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Seun leads his father's former band Egypt 80.

Biography

Seun and his brother Femi are the two commercially successful musical offspring of the late Nigerian afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti. Seun has one younger sister who used to sing in his band. At the age of nine Seun expressed the wish to sing to his father. A short while later Seun started performing with his father and the band. Since then, Seun has followed the political and social ethos of his father.

After Fela had died in 1997, Seun, then only 14 years old, became the lead singer of Egypt 80. While in school Seun had to choose between a career in music and one in African Football. His 2008 debut album, Many Things, was produced by Martin Meissonnier, who had already produced two albums for his father.

About three quarters of the current Egypt 80 line-up consists of musicians that not only played with Fela Kuti, but often were arrested and harassed alongside the founder of the Afrobeat movement. Live sets consist of both new material and originals from Seun’s father. Since during his lifetime, Fela Kuti had never performed any songs live on stage which he had recorded in the studio, this is the first chance for many long-time fans to enjoy classics like Shuffering and Shmiling, Colonial Mentality and Army Arrangement in a live setting. A new studio album called From Africa with Fury: Rise was released on 5 April 2011. It was recorded in London, produced by Brian Eno, John Reynolds and Seun himself.

Cheick Tidiane Seck

Cheick Tidiane Seck (born December 11, 1953) is a Malian musician, arranger and composer. He has written for and played with world-famous African (Fela Kuti, Mory Kanté, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour) and jazz (Hank Jones, Dee Dee Bridgewater) bands as well as rock musician Damon Albarn (Rocket Juice & the Moon).

Discography

References

External links

Femi Kuti

Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti (born 16 June 1962), popularly known as Femi Kuti, is a Nigerian musician born in London and raised in Lagos. He is the eldest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. and a grandchild of a political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.

Femi's musical career started when he began playing in his father's band, Egypt 80. In 1986, Femi started his own band, Positive Force, and began establishing himself as an artist independent of his father's massive legacy.

His first record was released in 1995 by Tabu/Motown, followed four years later by Shoki Shoki (MCA), which garnered widespread critical acclaim. In 2001 he collaborated with Common, Mos Def and Jaguar Wright on Fight to Win, an effort to cross over to a mainstream audience, and started touring the United States with Jane’s Addiction. In 2004 he opened The Shrine, his club, where he recorded the live album Africa Shrine. After a 4-year absence due to personal setbacks, he re-emerged in 2008 with Day by Day and Africa for Africa in 2010, for which he received two Grammy nominations. In 2012 he was both inducted into the Headies Hall of Fame (the most prestigious music awards in Nigeria), was the opening act on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ European arena tour and became an Ambassador for Amnesty International. He continues to expand the diversity of his artistry on his new album (2013) No Place for My Dream. Femi Kuti was a judge on Nigeria’s huge TV show Nigerian Idol Season 3.