Nigerian Femi Kuti, one of my all-time favorite performers, plays a show tonight, June 11, at the Variety Playhouse. This photo gallery is from a 2007 performance of Kuti's, also at the Variety Playhouse. It captures the spiritual nature of Femi’s show. His energy and passion during his performance feels like he is connecting with a force beyond himself — channeling, perhaps, his dead father Fela Kuti. Fela is known as the inventor of the Afropop form of music and suffered greatly for his political views against the repressive Nigerian government.
Fela Kuti served time in prison in Nigeria for his political views and suffered the death of his mother, who died of injuries from being thrown by soldiers out the window of Fela’s compound before it was burned to the ground. Femi Kuti continues his father’s tradition creating hypnotic music that mixes horns and percussion with political lyrics, weaving a sound that is otherworldly. King Sunny Ade, another Afropop legend, and his 17-pece ensemble open the show tonight at the Variety Playhouse.
(Photos by Joeff Davis)
