Project 1001: Zombie by Fela Kuti and The Afrika '70
"a giant of twentieth-century music"
Fela Kuti is probably the most famous person whom I never heard of before embarking on this project. He was a giant of twentieth-century music1 and is credited with launching the modern musical style of Afro-beat, which fused American blues, jazz, and funk with traditional Yoruba music. Kuti was a major political activist in Nigeria who constantly clashed with the military government of his country. For his efforts he was regularly harassed by the military including a brutal attack on his compound (which he had dubbed the Republic of Kalakuta) which left the compound burned to the ground and led to the death of his mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a feminist and political activist leader of much renown, after she was thrown out of a second story window.2 Fela was arrested or detained by the police over 200 times.3
Fela addressed issues with his songs that remain relevant, like colonialism in Africa, the impacts of western imperialism on African cultures and values, and the challenges facing African governance. Partly for his musical influence, partly for his talent at self-promotion, and partly as a result of humanity’s penchant for seeking and mythologizing legends to help explain the world, Fela’s legacy and influence are still strong in the world today.4
I really enjoyed listening to this record. Afro-beat is a brilliant musical style that I probably find appealing because of my love for American bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores among others. The horns on Zombie especially stand out for me layered on top of the fantastic drumming. My Rating:
Sam Samuelson for AllMusic:
Since the groove was so absolutely contagious, it took the nation by storm: People in the street would put on a blank stare and walk with hands affront proclaiming "Zombie!" whenever they would see soldiers. If "Zombie" caught the attention of the populous it also caught the attention of the authority figures -- this would cause devastating personal and professional effects as the Nigerian government came down on him with absolute brute force not long after the release of this record. Also included are "Monkey Banana," a laid-back groove that showcases drummer Tony Allen's mastery of the Afro-beat, and "Everything Scatter," a standard mid-tempo romp. Both songs are forgetful in relation to "Zombie," but this is still an essential disc to own for the title track alone.5
Sputnickmusic review:
Zombie. Musically, Zombie is the pinnacle of Afrobeat. Combining traditional african rhythms with bouncy post-bop jazz and the sweaty, down low vibe of American funk, it swings like no other album before it or after.6
Jeff Terich for Treblezine:
The absolute pinnacle of Afrobeat, “Zombie” is charged from its opening guitar scratch—ecstatic but agitated, even dangerous, as drummer Tony Allen’s martial pulse transforms to a frenetic rhythm strewn with Fela’s spirals of saxophone. Music this alive and urgent feels powerful enough to actually wake the dead and provoke their weary bones to rapturous movement.7
If you care to learn about this amazing musician and leader, here are a few articles:
Fela Kuti is more famous today than ever – what’s behind his global power
Fela Kuti Biography
The Legacy of Fela Kuti’s Music of Resistance: Hear 15 Essential Songs In the late 1960s, Fela decided that he had no use for love songs or party tunes; he wanted to challenge unjust authority.
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Max Reinhardt wrote:
Over the previous decade, with drummer Tony Allen, his rhythmic guiding light, and his band Afrika ‘70, Fela had created a whole new school of music - Afrobeat. It fused together the jazz and funk elements of African-American music with West African highlife, Nigerian traditional music, and Yoruba rhythims, and added the fire of a Black consciousness-led political vision for Africa - powerful, witty lyrics, and an outrageous lifestyle. His records sold millions throughout Nigeria and West Africa; the superstars of the West (McCartney, Ginger Baker, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Lester bowie et al.) rushed to Lagos to dig the sounds and smoke the weed.8
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: n/a
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released in 1976. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Silly Love Songs” by Wings9
• Number one album: Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton10
• Number one movie: Rocky by John G. Avildsen11
• Most watched TV programs: All in the Family, Laverne & Shirley, Rich Man, Poor Man, Maude, The Bionic Woman, Phyllis, Sanford and Son, The Six Million Dollar Man, Rhoda, Happy Days.12
• Bestsellers, fiction: Trinity by Leon Uris, Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie, Dolores by Jacqueline Susann, Storm Warning by Jack Higgins, The Deep by Peter Benchley13
Sport
• Jan 18 Super Bowl X, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 21-17; MVP: Lynn Swann, Pittsburgh, WR.
• Feb 13 American Dorothy Hamill (19) wins the free skate to clinch the women's figure-skating gold medal at the Innsbruck Winter Olympics.
• Feb 15 David Pearson wins 18th Daytona 500.
• Mar 14 Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 7,000th race.
• Mar 29 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Michigan, 86-68; first time 2 teams from same conference (Big Ten) play in title game.
• Apr 11 Raymond Floyd wins Masters Tournament.
• Apr 25 Cub centerfielder Rick Monday rescues US flag from 2 fans trying to set it on fire.
• May 1 Kentucky Derby: Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr wins aboard Bold Forbes.
• May 16 Montreal Canadiens sweep Philadelphia Flyers to win Stanley Cup.
• May 30 Johnny Rutherford wins Indianapolis 500.
• Jun 6 30th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat Phoenix Suns, 4 games to 2.
• Jun 20 Jerry Pate wins US Open Men's Golf.
• Jul 2 Wimbledon: American Chris Evert beats Evonne Goolagong Cawley of Australia.
• Jul 3 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Sweden's Björn Borg beats Ilie Năstase of Romania
• Jul 18 63rd Tour de France won by Lucien Van Impe of Belgium.
• Jul 18 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 score (doing so 7 times) at Montreal Games.
• Jul 20 Hank Aaron hits 755th and last home run off Angels Dick Drago.
• Jul 30 Bruce Jenner (now Caitlin Jenner) sets WR 8,618 points to win decathlon gold.
• Aug 8 Chicago White Sox suit up in shorts.
• Sep 12 US Open Men's Tennis: Jimmy Connors wins his second US title; beats Björn Borg of Sweden.
• Sep 28 Muhammad Ali beats Ken Norton in a 15 round unanimous points decision for the WBA, WBC and The Ring heavyweight boxing titles.
• Oct 21 Baseball World Series: defending champions Cincinnati Reds sweep NY Yankees; MVP: Reds catcher Johnny Bench.
• Nov 21 26th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Cale Yarborough wins.
• Nov 30 42nd Heisman Trophy Award: Tony Dorsett, Pittsburgh (RB).14
Notable Births
• Jan 21 Emma Bunton British pop singer (Spice Girls), born in London, England.
• Feb 3 Isla Fisher, Australian actress (Arrested Development, The Great Gatsby), born in Muscat, Oman.
• Feb 9 Charlie Day, American actor ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"; "Pacific Rim") and producer, born in New York City.
• Feb 29 Ja Rule, American rapper and actor, born in New York City.
• Mar 22 Reese Witherspoon, American actress (Election, Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama), born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Mar 23 American actress (Felicity, The Americans), born in Fountain Valley, California.
• Mar 24 Peyton Manning, American football QB (Super Bowl 2006, 15; 5 x NFL MVP; 14 x Pro Bowl; Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos), born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Mar 25 Wladimir Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer (2-time world heavyweight champion; Olympic gold super-heavyweight 1996), born in Semey, Kazakhstan.
• Apr 5 Sterling K. Brown, American actor (The People v. O. J. Simpson, This is Us), born in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Apr 25 Tim Duncan, American NBA forward (San Antonio Spurs), born in Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands.
• May 31 Colin Farrell, Irish actor (In Bruges, Minority Report), born in Dublin, Ireland.
• Jun 4 Alexei Navalny, Russian political activist and opposition leader of the Progress Party, born in Butyn, Soviet Union. Murdered by filthy, thug dictator Putin in 2024/
• Jun 18 Blake Shelton, American country singer-songwriter and TV personality (The Voice), born in Ada, Oklahoma.
• Jul 17 Luke Bryan, American country singer ("I'll Stay Me"), and television personality (American Idol, 2018- ), born in Leesburg, Georgia.
• Jul 19 Benedict Cumberbatch, British actor, born in London, England.
• Oct 4 American actress (Clueless, Batman Forever), born in San Francisco, CA.
• Oct 23 Ryan Reynolds, Canadian-American actor (Deadpool), born in Vancouver, BC.
• Nov 19 Jack Dorsey, American entrepreneur and computer programmer who co-founded Twitter and Square/Block, born in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Nov 29 Chadwick Boseman, American actor (Black Panther), born in Anderson, South Carolina.15
Historical Events
• Jan 15 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot US President Gerald Ford.
• Feb 4 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras.
• Feb 28 18th Grammy Awards: "Love Will Keep Us Together" Record of the Year; Natalie Cole 1st African American to win Best New Artist.
• Mar 8 1,774 kg (largest observed) stony meteorite falls in Jilin, China.
• Mar 20 American publishing heiress Patty Hearst convicted of armed robbery for her part in a 1974 California heist.
• Mar 24 Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup headed by Jorge Rafael Videla.
• Mar 29 48th Academy Awards: "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", its stars Jack Nicholson & Louise Fletcher, and director Miloš Forman win.
• Mar 29 Eight Ohio National Guardsmen indicted for shooting 4 Kent State University students in 1970.
• Apr 1 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs' parents’ house in Cupertino, California.
• Apr 18 30th Tony Awards: "Travesties" (play) & "A Chorus Line" (musical) win.
• Apr 22 Barbara Walters becomes the first female US nightly network news anchor (ABC News).
• May 17 28th Emmy Awards: "The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Jack Albertson & Michael Learned win.
• Jun 19 US Viking 1 goes into Martian orbit after 10-month flight from Earth.
• Jun 23 CN Tower, world's tallest free-standing structure (555 m/1,815.3 ft), built by Canadian National Railway, opens in downtown Toronto, Ontario (surpassed in 2007).
• Jun 25 Soweto Uprising: in South Africa leaves an estimated 200 to 700 blacks and 2 whites dead following 10 days of rioting.
• Jun 27 Air France A-300B Airbus hijacked from Athens arrives at Entebbe, Uganda; four hijackers, members of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Bader-Meinhof Gang in Germany.
• Jun 28 1st woman was admitted to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• Jul 2 US Supreme Court rules death penalty not inherently cruel or unusual.
• Jul 4 Israel launches hostage rescue mission of 106 Air France crew and passengers held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers. Three hostages die along with all the hijackers, numerous Ugandan soldiers and Yonatan Netanyahu, an Israeli soldier.
• Jul 14 Democratic Convention in NYC nominates former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter for president and US Senator Walter Mondale, from Minnesota, for vice president.
• Jul 20 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing.
• Jul 20 Vietnam War: The US military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
• Jul 21 1st outbreak of "Legionnaire's Disease" kills 29 in Philadelphia.
• Jul 28 Tangshan Earthquake, 7.6 in magnitude, kills over 300,000 in northern China, the largest loss of life from an earthquake in the 20th century.
• Jul 29 In New York City, the "Son of Sam" kills one person and seriously wounds another in first of a series of attacks.
• Aug 17 An earthquake & tsunami in the Philippines kills up to 8,000.
• Aug 19 President Gerald Ford wins Republican presidential nomination at KC convention.
• Sep 3 Viking 2 soft lands on Mars (Utopia), returns photos.
• Sep 5 Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show" premieres on television.
• Sep 9 Mao Zedong dies.
• Sep 16 American Episcopal Church approves ordination of women as priests & bishop.
• Sep 17 NASA publicly unveils space shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, California, named after Star Trek Enterprise with cast attending.
• Sep 20 Playboy releases US presidential candidate Jimmy Carter's interview which includes the quote “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust."
• Oct 11 Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing and the "Gang of Four" are arrested and charged with plotting a coup.
• Nov 2 Democrat candidate Jimmy Carter is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford; Walter Mondale elected vice president.
• Nov 25 Viking 1 radio signals from Mars help prove the general theory of relativity.16
Notable Deaths
• Jan 8 Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China, dies of bladder cancer at 77.
• Jan 10 Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett], American blues musician, dies of complications during kidney surgery at 65.
• Jan 12 Agatha Christie, English crime writer, dies at 85.
• Jan 23 Paul Robeson, American stage and screen bass-baritone singer ("Old Man River"), actor, and civil rights activist, dies of stroke complications in Philadelphia at 77.
• Feb 1 Werner Heisenberg, German physicist who discovered the uncertainty principle (Nobel 1932), dies of kidney cancer at 74.
• Mar 24 Bernard Montgomery, British WWII Field Marshal and WWI officer, dies at 88.
• Apr 5 Howard Hughes, American reclusive billionaire, filmmaker and aviator, dies at 72.
• Jun 6 American oil magnate and billionaire (Getty Oil), dies at 83.
• Jun 25 Johnny Mercer, American singer, Academy Award-winning lyricist ("Moon River"; "That Old Black Magic"; "And the Angels Sing": Come Rain Or Come Shine"), and record label executive (Capitol Records), dies from an inoperable brain tumor at 66.
• Oct 15 Carlo Gambino, Italian-born American mafioso (Gambino family), dies of a heart attack at 74.17
Reinhardt, Max, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p.370.
Reinhardt.
His son Femi still tours and is very much worth seeing. There’s also a great doc on Femi.
Fêla Kuti is amazing.