Welcome!

Hello world!

I am an avid music lover, currently in my senior year as a jazz guitar performance major at Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, OR. Though my major is jazz, my musical interests are varied, and I hope to explore many genres with you, my loyal readers, this semester.

Fela Kuti

So, let's get started today with some afrobeat. Afrobeat is a genre popularized in the '70s by the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti. Fela's music combines a number of Western musical styles, notably jazz and rock, with African melodies, compositional style and form. The result are long, multi-part groove-athons with horns, electric keyboard, and funky drum parts. Fela, who is known for many of his albums, is particularly recognized for the 1977 release "Zombie." The title track is a harsh criticism of the Nigerian government's military, and resulted in the destruction of Fela Kuti's commune and the vicious murder of his mother. 


But I don't want to talk about Fela, really. I want to talk about the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra,  a New York City band founded in 1998. The Antibalas (which is Spanish for "Bulletproof") in many ways, is a throwback to the bumpin' Afrobeat of the 70s. Their 2006 album, Security, seems to come right out of that decade--at least, half of it does. 

The other half is a much more modern take on Afrobeat, particularly the first track, "Beaten Metal." Beginning with a dissonant horn line, this track gets funky fast, as the beat drops and the horns line is repeated. The unconventional introduction (at least, in relation to the Afrobeat tradition this group hails back to) is followed by an even more unconventional middle section, featuring a distorted electric guitar (or a synth? you tell me) and, wonderfully, what sounds like small metal rods hit against a larger metal sheet (perhaps a piece of "Beaten Metal"?). This percussive section is right in-line with the sentiment of traditional Afrobeat--but quite distinct from the tones and textures used in the Afrobeat of the 20th century. 


Anyway. Check it out. It's good.


More soon, on a completely unrelated musical subject, no doubt.