A style of African popular music. The term was coined in 1967 by Fela Kuti, who was known as ‘the king of Afrobeat’. Fela played Highlife music while studying music at Trinity College of Music, London (1958–63). Upon his return to Nigeria he referred to the style as ‘highlife jazz’. Geraldo Pino from Sierra Leone visited Lagos around 1966, playing a style referred to as Afro-soul. Pino's success encouraged Fela to develop an individual style.
Fela toured the USA in 1969 and was exposed to that country's Black Power movement. He also heard free jazz and rhythm and blues. His awareness of the political power of music is reflected in his subsequent development of Afrobeat, a fusion of jazz, soul and African musics with lyrics in Pidgin and Yoruba. He consciously highlighted the Africanness of his own music, claiming that he played African music since jazz was originally an African form of music.
The characteristics of Afrobeat include repetitiveness, pattern-structure, call and response, sudden breaks and solo passages. There is a clear emphasis on the role of percussion, and the highly politicized lyrics are highlighted with powerful horn riffs. At least five (often more) horns are featured on stage along with 15 other musicians and ten dancers. Fela sang and played tenor and alto saxophones and the electric piano.
Reflecting Fela's ideals of panafricanism, the Afrobeat style was adopted by many musicians throughout the continent including Fela's son Femi, who plays a distinct form of Afrobeat. Compositions in Afrobeat style have become a common element of dance music repertories including those of Tabu Ley Rochereau and Hugh Masekela.
After Fela's death in 1997 a revival of his music took place in Europe and the USA. Vinyl reissues of Fela's Afrobeat recordings were produced in Paris and his recordings became fashionable in dance clubs of western Europe in the 1990s, resulting in new dance-mix productions.
Zombie, perf. F. Anikulapo-Kuti, Creole CRLP 511 (1976)
P. Benson: ‘Jazz is African: I Play African Music’, New African (1981), 81
C. Moore: Fela, Fela: this Bitch of a Life (London, 1982)
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