The Nigerian musician with the band inherited from his father brings the Afrobeat of family tradition in a contemporary version to Milan. He is accompanied by Naima with her nu jazz trio and the emerging Spiff.
Article by Alessandro Cebrian Cobos
After the death of the legendary Fela Kuti, his youngest son picked up his musical legacy and began playing with Egypt 80his father's last band. Now with nearly 20 years of career, five albums, collaborations with artists as varied as Santana, Janelle Monaé and Sinéad O'Connor, the saxophonist and singer Seun Kuti door toAlcatrazinside the festival JazzMitheir most recent work. Titled Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head) boasts featuring with Damian Marley and Sampa The Great, and was produced by Lenny Kravitz. They precede him Naima Faraówhich in turn offers pieces from his solo album, and Spiff Onyukuwho is instead at the beginning of his career as a musician.
Spiff Onyuku
Spiff Onyuku opens the live show, alone on stage with his keyboard. He comes from Nigeria, has lived in Italy for 8 years and carries out an accessible, melodic, rhythmic Afropop project, with electronic accents, something that is still heard very little here. His compositions are well made, tight and engaging; he often uses loops and samples on rhythms of traditional inspiration but recreated electronically, over which he sings with a deep and measured voice. If anything, it is penalized a little by the time – it starts very early, and the room is still not very crowded – and by not having other instrumentalists in support, who could enrich the sound a little and also give more breathing space to the performance. Also because, despite a hint of shyness when he speaks, when he sings he is sure of himself and manages the stage and the audience well, especially with the latest single Cheerfulness.
In short, even with only four songs Spiff promises well. He will follow Seun on 2 other dates in Italy, in Rome and Conversano in Puglia, the same region where he lived in a SPRAR after arriving in Italy by sea, and where his musical career began after graduating from the Bari conservatory.
Naima Faraò
Naima Faraò occupies that delightful space of contemporary jazz music that mixes somewhat Britishly with funk, soul, drum and bass, hip hop and everything that has feeling. At JazzMi he mainly presents pieces from Dotsfirst solo album released in March to crown 10 years and more of underground apprenticeship (Black Beat Movement, Elephant Claps).
First of all he brought with him a compact lineup: his keyboardist Edoardo Maggioni lays out carpets of suspended harmonies, the drummer Matteo D'Ignazi uses strange damaged and branded cymbals that dampen the sound, transforming it into a clang! very dry that brings everything back to the ground. On bass Giuseppe La Grutta is versatile, because he knows how to be melodic in the highest moments and also trace beautiful thick grooves to support the rhythm. Naima's voice rests on these very solid elements: clean, direct, controlled and very precise, especially in the virtuoso cover of Yatra-Tá by Tania Maria. They are both enjoyable and stimulating, with Buoyancy Of Water they show it at its best: they start with a beat sloppy who plays Soulquarian, fill the verse with unexpected counterbeats, and then with her high notes the composition opens up and the solos lead to almost cosmic heights. Such a dense 30 minute live show would inevitably leave you wanting more, but there's no time and it's time for the headliner of the evening.
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
The Egypt 80 they go on stage without the frontman and start to heat up the atmosphere. The wind instruments (trumpet, tenor sax and baritone sax) set the playful tension of the band's sound with their dry melodies, in unison. The drums, which tonight also cover the role of percussion rhythmically speaking, every now and then break this tension with a single snare drum hit that marks the end of a solo section and the beginning of a new verse. On the guitar Anis Benhallack he leaves from Algeria as Hendrix might leave, while for the rest of the evening it will be the most rhythmic right hand I've ever heard live.
Egypt 80 was Fela's last band, and Seun inherited many of his musicians. Over the years they have retired and been replaced by a new generation of instrumentalists. In fact the only one on stage who has played with Fela is Kunle Justicethe bassist: seraphic, dressed in green, red and yellow like a Rastafari veteran, holds the line. Then there are the two singers and dancers, who never stop smiling and respond to Seun with their voices and the band with their choreographies, underlining the riffs with simple and symmetrical movements of their arms and hips.
Kuti makes himself wait, and goes on stage when the band has already revved up. He proposes melodies on the sax, laughs and moves around the stage. Every now and then he moves to the keyboards, then returns to singing with that enunciated style that was also his father's. The music has a slightly different style though: sometimes it is harder, the musical phrases are clearer and more aggressive, the groove hits harder, as in Dey. In other pieces, however, a more melodic, more delicate approach emerges: of course, you can't say that Love & Revolution It's an Afroballad, but I also can't deny that the saxophone reminds me of the softness of a Careless Whisper.
Compared to the last time I saw him live, he exposes himself more as a frontman, shows his personality more: he jokes and makes fun of us (“If you don't have kids, don't believe the hype. We parents have a secret code, and our goal is to convince all of you intelligent people without kids, to have kids”), but Kuti also engages in politics with their songs, and therefore it is not surprising that he tells us what he thinks about music as a weapon of change. Of course, it is a weapon, and Seun's job is to produce these weapons on a daily basis; but it is everyone's job to be inspired, to create the battles with which to improve our world. If this effort is missing, music is useless. It has to be a conscious effort, a struggle, or it will never be effective.
In short, even when it employs catchy refrains, when it imports less traditional elements such as the almost Caribbean vibes of TOP; Even when it makes all of Alcatraz dance together, Afrobeat remains a militant genre. While passing from one generation of a family to the next.
“You are not here because of me, I am here because of you“
SPLIFF ONYUKU – the setlist of the concert at Alcatraz in Milan
Egwu Udo
Make Me Dance
Water In The Desert
Cheerfulness
NAIMA FARAÒ – the setlist of the concert at Alcatraz in Milan
Heirloom
Vortex
Yellow Dandelion (cover by Joe Armon-Jones and Georgia Anne Muldrow)
Yatra-Tá (cover by Tania Maria)
Buoyancy Of Water
Run
SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80 – the setlist of the concert at Alcatraz in Milan
Opening
Shuffering and Shmiling (Fela Kuti cover)
Dey
Love & Revolution
Stand Well Well
TOP
Emi Aluta
Last Revolutionary
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
