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Fela: The Life And Times Of An African Musical Icon, by Michael Veal
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A study of Nigerian musician and political critic Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. It demonstrates that over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa.
- Sales Rank: #537187 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Temple University Press
- Published on: 2000-05-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 10.00" h x .80" w x 7.00" l, 1.58 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Raucous, uninhibited and proud, Fela was one of Africa's most intriguing personalities, for his controversial public persona as much as for his music. It's difficult to say for what Fela, born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, was best known: his band publicized Afropop in the 1980s; he repeatedly spoke out against unfair politics in Africa and abroad; his life was abundant with drugs and sex. This exhaustive and objective profile, written by a Yale ethnomusicology professor, examines the Nigerian superstar's life and work from 1938 to his death in 1997. Veal traces Fela's roots to the diverse town of Abeokuta, noting the musical influences left by family and community members there. Following a typically mischievous childhood, Fela pursued an education at Trinity College of Music in London. Soon he and his orchestra were touring the U.S. under the name Nigeria 70, developing the new sound of Afropop. Although the tour was not a popular breakthrough, their subsequent return to Nigeria placed them on the budding African music stage. The book goes on to survey Fela's life at home and worldwide, detailing his imprisonment and physical abuse, his performances, his listeners' reactions and his compositions. Fela covered political corruption, mysticism, frustration with Western views on Africa and other significant subjects in his music, all the while continuing a sexually promiscuous life. Veal has taken on the staggering task of portraying a musician/politician/rebel, and he executes it well.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Fela was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1938 into an upper-middle-class family whose members included several well-known educators and religious figures. In 1958, he was sent to London's Trinity College of Music, where he discovered Charlie Parker and John Coltrane and soon formed his own band, Koola Lobitos. Over the years, he developed a jazz-funk fusion style dubbed Afrobeat. Little known in America, Fela recorded dozens of albums and became an international superstar with a social and political conscience. His blistering attacks on Nigeria's corrupt military government landed him in jail, in exile, and in danger of losing his life. Veal (ethnomusicology, Yale) became interested in Fela nearly 20 years ago as a student at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Extensive notes, a comprehensive bibliography, and a discography reflect the book's scholarly credentials. This is an important work on world music's most influential figure since Bob Marley, but most cost-conscious libraries will want to purchase the paperback edition.DDan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L., Federation, Curwensville, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon is both timely and bold... [It] has the potential of becoming a classic of African biography. It is written in an accessible style, rich in local color and musically informed... Veal's study is not the first book written of Fela. But it is by far the best." -Veit Erlman, Chair of Music History in the School of Music, University of Texas, Austin "I saw Fela perform in Nigeria nearly 30 years ago, and it remains my most powerful musical experience to this day. Michael Veal has written a fully comprehensive book on the life, music, and times of Nigeria's outstanding pop star, one which brings this complicated and controversial man back to life. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Fela." -Dr. John Collins, Professor of Music at University of Ghana, Legon, and author of Musicmakers of West Africa and West African Pop Roots "[Veal] has demonstrated a tremendous command of the literature, not merely on Fela and the Nigerian music scene, but the Nigerian context in which Fela grew and matured, the Afro-Diasporic musical context, and the kind of global/world music framework that has yet to appreciate Fela's contribution. This is more than a biography of one of Nigeria's most famous sons, it is a biography of an era, from the kind of pre-independence political and aesthetic culture of an anti-colonial elite through the trials and tribulations of the dictatorships of the late '80s and all of the '90s. Veal's command of the material is impressive, his knowledge of the music and music scene irreplaceable, and his contextualization of Fela's life essential to understanding the role that his music played." -William Eric Perkins, editor of Droppin' Science and Senior Research Scholar with the African American Literacy and Culture Project "This is a well-written, well-researched, and highly entertaining biography." -MultiCultural Review "...a fascinating and thorough contextual biography...in his compelling book, Veal has produced a distinctive and thoroughly engaging analysis of afrobeat and its historical, ideological and material underpinnings. He is to be congratulated." -Popular Music "This exhaustive and objective profile, written by a Yale ethnomusicology professor, examines the Nigerian superstar's life and work from 1938 to his death in 1997...Veal has taken on the staggering task of portraying a musician/politician/rebel, and he executes it well." -Publishers Weekly "...the most in-depth portrait so far." -The Utne Reader "Michael Veal's book presents a vibrant multifaceted portrait of, as the subtitle explains, 'an African musical icon'... With its exhaustive discography, archival photos, and vivid descriptions of Fela's life in performance-both on stage and off-this book provides a fantastic primer on one of the more intriguing musical personalities of the twentieth century." -Ethnomusicology
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
interesting but doesn't read fluently
By Marc Verburgh
This book contains a lot of interesting information concerning Fela Kuti(family background, historical, cultural and political environment) but sometimes I had the distinct feeling I was reading a scientific research report. A little more fluency in writing would have made reading more enjoyable
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense
By Arash Saedinia
A timely exploration of the father of Afro-beat. Veal, who we learn had occasion to play with Fela and spent time at the Shrine, is obviously a fan of the music and his enthusiasm is palpable. Veal's work is distinguished on many levels. As an ethnomusicologist, Veal offers rigorous descriptions and insights into the compositional aspects of Fela's work. We are given the specifics of Fela's innovations and refinements with Afro-beat. Veal locates Fela's accomplishments within the context of its forbears (E.T. Mensah, James Brown, John Coltrane, etc.)and 20th century African/Afrodiaporic music in general. From Nkrumah to Obasanjo, Veal's discussion of Nigerian/African culture and politics is well researched and thoughtful. There are great nuggets of biographical information from Fela's brief feud with Paul McCartney to November 14th, "Fela Day" in Berkeley (go figure). Veal offers a wealth of information on Fela's family and the impact his parents (his mother in particular) had on his musical and political development. We get the blow-by-blow account of Fela's confrontations with the Nigerian authorities (often, as with the Kalakuta Massacre, in harrowing detail). On the critical throretical tip, Veal 'samples' Gilroy, Jameson, Fanon, Spivak (and others), engaging in a extended discussion of Fela's compositions as postcolonial 'texts.' Though at times distractingly academic, Veal is rigorous in his deconstruction of Fela and gender, the "specific symbolic and psychological functions" of strategic historical essentialism, mysticism, etc., avoiding the cheap and oversimplistic assessments that often surround the man (often, as Veal notes, in service of hegemonic notions of "civilization"). There is much I loved about this book: the bits about Fela's "punk" approach, the rejoinder to jazzbo(zos) and their complaints about the lack of technical virtuosity in Fela's playing, the similarities between Fela's work and blaxploitation cinema, the Yoruban (tragic) basis of his music, his later compositions as underrated "African symphonies." Veal isn't afraid to write about Fela's misguided relationship with Professor Hindu, the emptiness of Fela's vaguely anarchic rhetoric as a concrete political agenda (Fela wasn't kidding about his aspirations), the problematics of Fela's lifestyle (too much pot, rampant and unprotected sex) and the effect of his lifestyle on his wives. I would have liked to have seen more on the parallels between Fela's development of Afro-beat and the stylistic exchanges with the J.B.s, and the Afrodiasporic interchanges that led to the development of hip-hop and modern dancehall. More on Dennis Bovell's involvement with Fela and more than passing reference to the Biafran conflict. The passage on Fela's continuing influence (and the intense rediscovery taking place as we speak by a new generation of musicians and music lovers) is all too brief. But these are minor quibbles. Veal has written a marvelous book on a man who was, by turns, confrontational, generous, autocratic, wild, and always brilliant. Essential reading on an essential figure. Long live Fela!
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
It's about time!
By A Customer
Fela is almost as important as Bob Marley in the world of black music, but no one has really written a serious book about him until now, and Michael Veal's book is an excellent one in my opinion. Sometimes it's a bit academic but it still provides a lot of detail on Fela's entire life, on the music of his entire career, and all of the Nigerian political backgound, which is substantial. I love Fela's music and I knew he was a legend, but I never quite realized how he put his life on the line to make the music he made and say the things he said, and how heavy it became between him and the Nigerian government. And I also never realized how crazy he was - not surprising considering the fact that he was a brilliant (insane?) artist, and also considering how heavy things became as time went on. That this man managed to survive as long as he did and turn out so much great music is nothing short of miraculous! I think the book is an invaluable document of the political and musical legacy of the 1960s as it developed in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. I learned a lot about Africa, not only musically but culturally and politically too.
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