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' AZZ MUSIC INFLUENCES ON THE WORK OFFELA ANIKULAPO-KUTI MICHAEL VEAL

O f all Nigeria's popularmusicians, bandleader FelaAnikulapo-Kuti is probablythe most associated with jazz music.Although his music contains a numberof jazz elements, however, Fela doesnot play 'jazz' in the traditional stylisticsense of the term. Nevertheless, therearc reasons why his music is so stronglyassociated with jazz in Nigeria, and Iintend to examine some of thosereasons in this essay. The majorquestions I will address are: One, whatarc the specific jazz elements in Fela'sAfrobcat? Two, how did these come toexist in his music? Three, to whatextent can Afrobeat be called jazzstyle?Hopefully, this discussion willdemonstrate the process by which Felagradually distilled jazz elements into adistinctly African form, whileclarifying the relationship between jazzand Afrobeat on the stylistic, symbolicand functional levels.

Fela may be placed in a generation ofworld musicians born during the 1930swho fused jazz with a variety of localstyles to achieve internationalrecognition. Among these are HughMasekela of South Africa, Abdullah

Ibrahim, p.k.a. Dollar Brand of SouthAfrica, Randy Weston of U.S.A. andHermeto Pascoal of Brazil. The issue ofAfrobeat and jazz is complicated by theconflicting cultural perspectives whichfrequently occur when any artisticexpression crosses cultural borders andassumes a new functional and symbolicidentity. Fundamentally an African-American expression, jazz has in factbeen subjected to a variety of newinterpretations in cultural spheres asdissimilar as Japan, West Africa, Russiaand Western Europe. While Fela'sAfrobeat style is strongly associatedwith jazz in Nigeria, attempts to definehis music as jazz have been met withstrong resistance in Europe and theUnited States. An example of this isAfrika '70's headlining performance atthe 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival causing acontroversy in the German music pressin which jazz critics denigrated themusicianship of the Afrika '70 bandand Fela in particular. There are severalfundamental aspects - political, cultural,religious - which mitigate againstAfrobeat's simple characterization asjazz. In spite of this, I will assert thatFela's work - while not 'jazz' in thestrict sense - does represent a

contribution to jazz evolution.

In order to provide the widest perspectiveon the subject, it is necessary to discussthe continuous circulation of musicalelements of cultural symbols betweenWest Africa and its descendants in theAmericas, a process which has operatedat least since the earliest years of thiscentury, influencing stylisticdevelopment throughout Africa and theAfrican diaspora. This will enable us toplace Fela's work in the larger contextof jazz's historic influence upon WestAfrican popular music through the timethat the Afrobeat style was developed inthe late 1960s and early 1970s.

It must be noted that many of the musicalpractices identified as 'jazz' have strongWest African origins. They acquiredtheir distinct character through ablending with Western Europeanelements in the Americas, and they inturn served to transform West Africanmusic. The current African-Americaninterest in traditional African music andculture, and the reverse influence ofAfrican-American expressive formssuch as jazz and rap music incontemporary Africa, are merely the

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latest examples of a historical cycle ofcirculating cross-influence. Whilecharacterizations of Africa as the'traditional' and America as the'modern' are overtly simplistic andessentialist in nature, the symbolic polesof tradition and innovation havecontributed equally to the constructionof contemporary pan-African identity.Fela's music is an exemplary of thisprocess.

Since the introduction of phonographrecording technology into West Africain the 1920s, there have been successivephases of jazz influence on the popularmusic of the region. Ragtime andDixieland jazz (along with minstrelsy)was popular in the 1920s, while big-band swing styles were popular in the1930s. The main conduits for theintroduction of these styles into WestAfrica were highlife musicians such asE. T. Mensah and Bobby Benson -musically literate bandleaders who wereproficient on Western wind instrumentsand who had traditionally performed avariety of Western musical genres suchas foxtrots, two-steps, waltzes toentertain colonialadministratorsand Africanelites.

The jazzinfluence alsotook morei n d i r e c t l y ,through itspresence in otherstyles which inturn influencedWest Africanmusic. Theinfluenceof Afro-Caribbean stylesfrom Jamaica,Cuba andTrinidad was a decisive turning pointfor highlife during the 1940s. A creationof African descendants in the Americas,these styles combined transplanted WestAfrican rhythms with jazz-derived horn

'Bebop and modal

differed from earlier jazz

styles in that they were

more abstract and were

meant for reflective

listening than social

dancing. Ifius, neither of

these styles was

particularly popular in

flfrica, and Mela's first

attempts at playing jazz

in 9{jgeria were doomed

to failure.

E. T. Mensah: Highlife impressario.

arrangements. In its most developedform - such as the experiments withAfro-Cuban Latin Jazz, importantlinkages were forged between neo-African musical practices (such as the

liturgical music accompanying the neo-Yoruba Santeria cult in Cuba),European compositional techniques(byjazz composers such as Mario Bauzaand Machito), and virtuoso African-American jazz improvisers such asCharlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.Therein lies one importantexplanationfor the popularity of Afro-Caribbeansounds throughout Africa: the blendingof African and European musicalelements resulted in a modern,cosmopolitan sound which was theperfect sonic match for the rapidmodernization Africa experiencedduring the colonial and post-colonialperiod. Thus, the musical fusion ofhiglife became the music mostassociated with cultural pride, nationalidentity, and political independence.

The use of the word 'jazz' in the namesof many African dance bands of thisperiod (Bembeya Jazz, Rocafil Jazz)functions on three levels - musically(indicating the presence of jazz stylisticelements in the music), functionally(indicating large dance-bands utilising

W e s t e r ninstruments andperforming foru p p e r - c l a s saudiences), ands y m b o l i c a l l y( i n d i c a t i n g'modernity' andin te rna t iona l ,c o s m o p o l i t a nidentity).

It is the Ghanaianhighlife bandleaderE. T. Mensah who,with the help of hisdrummer, GuyWarren (KofiGhanaba), iswidely creditedwith integratingmodern jazz and

Afro-Caribbean elements into highlifemusic. Mensah and the Tempos causeda storm during the Nigerian tour of thelate 1950s. Soon, Nigerian

Fix 1 Sonny Rollins, 2: Miles Davis,J: Thelonious Monk, 4: John Coltrane,5: Louis Armstrong

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bandleader Bobby Benson transformedhis act from a variety show to Mensah'sstyle of highlife, and begun developingdistinctly Nigerian highlife sound withhis Jam Session Orchestra. Benson'sband spawned a host of youngerbandleaders including Zeal Onyia, RexLawson and Victor Olaiya who gavethe young Fela his first performingexperience in the 1950s as a singer withhis Cool Cats highlife band. Fela wasalready heir to decades of sty 1 istic cross-breeding between jazz and indigenousstyles.

Fela's years of study in a British musicschool during the late 1950s and early1960s exposed him to newer styles of

jazz - the bebop style popularized byCharlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie inthe 1940s and the modal stylepopularized by Miles Davis and JohnColtrane in the early 1960s. It wasinitially his goal to introduce thesetraditional styles to Nigerian audiencesupon his return with his Fela Ransome-Kuti Quartet. However, this presenteda creative quandary. Bebop and modaldiffered from earlier jazz styles in thatthey were more abstract and were meantfor reflective listening than socialdancing. Thus, neither of these styleswas particularly popular in Africa, andFela's first attempts at playing jazz inNigeria were doomed to failure.Regardless of his inability to attractlarge numbers of Nigerian jazz listeners,however, jazz remained an importantcatalyst for the synthesis of African andWestern musical traditions.

The mid-1960s found Fela affecting acompromise in his music, playing astyle he called highlife jazz with hisKoola Lobitos band. Songs UkeBonfo,Fere and Lo Wa Se Se combined thedanceability of traditional highlife withelements drawn from jazz such as hornsolos, elaborate horn themes, morecomplex harmonic progressions and big-band style of orchestration. KoolaLobitos' music also showed the clearinfluence of Afro-Cuban music in songssuch as Oritshe and Abiara. However,

Koola Lobitos' music did not meet thesuccess Fela had hoped; Africa wasfalling under influence of African-American rhythm-and-blues music andpopularity of highlife was rapidlydeclining.

In 1969, Fela and his Koola Lobitosband took a year-long trip to the UnitedStates where, in addition to experiencinga political and cultural awakening, hewas exposed to the latest stylistic phaseof jazz. This was the free-jazz typifiedby the work of Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman,Cecil Taylor and the later work of JohnColtrane. In addition to representing aradical break with jazz traditions, thesestyles also carried strong politicalassociations. Concurrently with thecultural awakening African-Americanswere experiencing during this period,many African-American free-jazzmusicians hoped to devise a non-Western musical logic which wouldresist comprehension and exploitationby white musicians. Linked to thieendeavour was an exploration of sonicparallels to non-Western musicaltraditions from Africa and India. Finally,free-jazz was perceived by many asexpressing the anger and frustrations ofthe younger generation of African-Americans. As this influence of free-jazz upon Fela took place concurrentlywith his political awakening, it wasinevitable that the style's influence, withits strong political overtones, would beevident in his subsequent work.

During the same period, there was alsoan indirect jazz influence on Felatransmitted via rhythm-and-blues music,another primary stylistic current in hislater works. The best example is themusic of James Brown, a major influencewhose work had become increasinglypoliticized by the time of the latter'sU.S. visit. Brown integrated free-jazzelements into his style to the extent thatthe would reinforce this political mood.Thus when, for example, in his 1970Super Bad, he asked his tenorsaxophonist Sinclair Pinckney to 'blowme some Trane' (a reference to John

Coltrane), he was making an implicitpolitical statement as well as an obviousmusical one.

The influences of these various phasesof jazz would be evident in Fela's artisticbreakthrough, his Afrobeat music of the1970s. This music combined a JamesBrown-styled use of the rhythm section,a modal harmonic approach, jazz-sty ledinstrumental solos and ensemblepassages, and indigenous percussion.These elements were all united bytraditional West African approach tocomposition and structuring utilisingtraditional devices such as call-and-response singing, percussivearticulation, ensemble stratification(layering of parts), hocketing (simpleparts combining to form complexstructures), and extensive use ofostinatos (repeating pattern). The Afrika'70 band featured a number of strongjazz-styled soloists including Fela(saxophones and keyboards), LekanAnimasaun (baritone saxophone),Tunde Williams (trumpet), Igo Chico(tenor saxophone), and the masterfuldrum set player Tony Allen. Afrika '70Compositions from the 1970s such asWater No Get Enemy, Suegbe Pakoand Who No Know Go Knowdemonstrate the seamless blend ofhighlife, jazz, Caribbean and soulelements in Fela's music.

Since the late 1970s, Fela has continuedto elaborate upon the Afrobeatconception according to both jazz andtraditional West African points ofreference. His Egypt '80band has nearlydoubled in size in comparison to Afrika'70. He has doubled the size of the hornsection, and included a rhythm pianowhich clearly recalls McCoy Tyners's'comping' accompaniment of JohnColtrane. His compositions for Egypt'80 have become longer and morecomplex; recent arrangements such asCustom Check Point (1980s), Just LikeThat (1980s) snAMusic Against SecondSlavery (1990s) demonstrate his materyas a big-band composer. The Egypt '80band has also introduced a number of

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FELA& EGYPT 80

WIL4. «*1W6> OUT

talented new improvisers to the publicincluding Keji Hamilton (bass guitarand piano), Rilwan Fagbemi (baritonesaxophone), Yinusa Akinbosun (tenorsaxophone). Olu Ifayehun (trumpet),Duro Ikujenyo (piano). Dele Shosimi(piano) and Nwokoma Stephen Nkem(trumpet) among others.

At the same time, Fela has looked towardtraditional models for inspiration. Hehas enlarged the sizeof the vocal chorus,integrated traditionaldrums such as thegbedu, andcomposed intraditional meters inworks such asGovernmentChicken Boy (basedon a typical apalapattern) orConfusion BreakBone (based ontraditional 12/8triplet rhythm). Sincethe early 1980s, hehas referred to hismusic as 'classicalAfrican music', andthe popularity of hiswork throughout theBlack world reflectsboth his avowedcultural stance and the way in whichelements of pan-African musicaltraditions have fused seamlessly in hiswork, resulting in a profoundly 'Black'musical mood.

Some listeners have attempted tominimise the jazz element of Fela'smusic by comparing the band'sinstrumentalists unfavourably withAfrican-American improvisers, citingthe rigidity of Fela's formal structures,or dismissing it as mere popular musicwith political or high-art pretensions.These listeners neglect that one, virtuosicimprovisation in the African-Americansense has been the goal primary of theseplayers, functioning as they do in anentirely different musical and cultural

context; two, the boundaries between'high' and 'popular' art are not as distinctin West African culture as they are inthe West; and third, the essence of jazzis not reducible to any single criteriasuch as complexity of improvisations orharmonic density.

Recent neo-conservative definitions ofjazz have to equate social dancing withfrivolity, banality and lack of artistic or

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philosophical depth. These moves areclearly politically-motivated andattempt to position jazz as an equal ofEuropean art music by emphasizing itsreflective, abstract qualities as a measureof its seriousness. Attempting to distancethemselves from (frequently) counter-hegemonic forms of African-Americancreativity such as rap, the neo-conservative musicians strive to achieveapproval of the dominant white cultureduring aperiod of increased support forthe arts in general. The funk musicwhich forms the musical foundation ofrap and which informed Fela's Afrobeatis based on the same structural principlesas much traditional music of WestAfrica. Thus, implicit in the neo-conservative critique are theassumptions that one, seriousness of

aesthetic purpose and social intentcannot be conveyed through a musicallanguage based in the stylistic norms ofthe Black world; and, two, any definitionof classicism must conform to thefunctional norms of European reflectiveart music, as opposed to those ofAfrocentric social dance genres in whichthe boundaries between high, popular,traditional and contemporary are oftenindistinct. They neglect the fact that

s o c i a l l y - f u n c t i o n a lcommunal music in WestAfrica has long been a vehiclefor the most profound insightsand that there have beenphases of jazz in African-America in whichdanceability was an importantcriteria of success.

The neo-conservativearguments are also based ona limited understanding of thejazz 'tradition'. The workmost often excluded in theneo-conservative view is thatof avant-gardemusicians likeJohn Coltrane, Cecil Taylor,Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra andArt Ensemble of Chicago.Derived from Europeanculture, avant-garde has oftenbeen used as an umbrella termto designate creative work

which falls outside of the functional orstylistic norms. In the case of African-Americas jazz avant-garde, it may bemore precise to note that such musicianswere attempting to introduce elementsof world perming traditions into African-American jazz practice, integrating nonmusical artistic media such as danceand poetry. John Coltrane formedmusical relationships with Nigerianpercussionist Babatunde Olatunji andIndian sitar master Ravi Shankar.Ornette Coleman collaborated withGnawa musicians in Morocco andtraditional Yorubaand Hausa musiciansin Nigeria. Miles Davis' ensemble ofthe 1970s featured West African,Caribbean and South Indian musiciansand instrumentation, while Sun Ra's

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Arkestra regularly included Africanpercussionists and dancers and lightshows. The Art Ensemble of Chicagoalso draws strongly on non-Western

performance traditions in their stagepresentation. Thus, these musicians wereat the forefront of attempt to devise aculturally-aware presentation

containing a deeper ritual significancethan the local nightclub or the concerthall. These factors must be taken intoserious consideration when constructinga composite, contemporary definitionof 'jazz' which eludes simplistic criteria.

A number of prominent jazz musiciansacknowledged the influence of Fela'smusic on their work. Trumpeter Bowieplayed with Fela and Afrika '70 duringan extended visit to Nigeria in 1977 andwas featured as a soloist on a number ofAfrika '70 recordings includingFrustration, Dog Eat Dog and NoAgreement. Bowie in turn has recordedFela's Zombie with his own group, theArt Ensemble of Chicago. VibraphonistRoy Ayers has also toured and recordedwith Afrika '70 in Nigeria. Bowie andAyers have made a number of guestappearances with Fela in the UnitedStates as has pianist Randy Weston.More recently, saxophonist BranfordMarsalis has included samples of Fela'sBeast of No Nation on his 1994 projectBuckshot Le Fonque. It is thus clearthat Fela's influence may be feltthroughout various regions of jazzpractice including the avantgarde, neo-classicist and fusion movements.Meanwhile, Fela's music has been theprimary catalyst for the development ofa movement of younger Nigerian jazz-influenced players including his sonFemi Anikulapo-Kuti, BisadeOlogunde, Kola Ogunkoya and FunshoOgundipe.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti' s ultimate successlies in his linkage of counter-hegemonicsocio-political protest, communalpleasure and a deeply-rooted mood ofmusical profundity; all of these havecharacterized the essence of jazz duringdifferent phases of its development.Thus, my conclusion is that - in additionto its contribution to African popularmusic, African-American funk, andworld political music - Fela's workrepresents a significant contribution tothe development of jazz. IGRI

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