Fela Kuti Ikoyi Blindness/Kalakuta Show CD

Includes liner notes by Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam, Rikki Stein and Mabinuori Kayode Idowu.

Digitally remastered by Pompon (Translab Paris, Paris, France).

This CD reissue combines two 1976 releases, Ikoyi Blindness and Kalakuta Show, on one disc. Ikoyi Blindness was a middle-of-the-pack release in a sea of mid-'70s Fela records that featured two songs and about a half-hour's worth of music. The rhythms were a little tighter and more highlife-influenced than they had been on albums from earlier in the decade. "Ikoyi Blindness" itself was pretty typical of Fela efforts from the period, both in its structure that built up to a call-and-response vocal and in its taut two-chord melodic base. "Gba Mi Leti Ki N'Dolowo (Slap Me Make I Get Money)" is a little more interesting due to its choppier rhythms, more vibrant percussion, stuttering low guitar riff, and extended haunting electric keyboard lines. By the time of 1976's Kalakuta Show, Fela's releases were starting to seem not so much like records as ongoing installments in one long jam documenting the state of mind of Nigeria's leading contemporary musician and ideological/political dissenter. The track "Kalakuta Show" was unexceptional by his own standards, though it was a respectable lock-groove song that followed the usual graph of Fela's song progressions. The lyrics, at any rate, go far outside the usual funk/pop spectrum, detailing his harassment at the hands of the Nigerian police. "Don't Make Garan Garan" was musically more effective, particularly in its use of Fela's characteristically eerie, out-of-sync-sounding electric keyboards. ~ Richie Unterberger

2 LPs on 1 CD: IKOYI BLINDNESS (1976)/KALAKUTA SHOW (1976).

Personnel includes: Fela Kuti (vocals, alto & tenor saxophones, piano); Ogene Kologbo, Leke Benson (guitar); Christopher Uwaifor (tenor saxophone); Lekan Animashaun (baritone saxophone); Tunde Williams (trumpet); Franco Aboddy (electric bass); Tony Allen (drums); Henri Kafi, Nicholas Addo (congas); Isaac Olaley (maracas).

Producer: Fela Kuti

Reissue producer: Jean-Pierre Haie

Personnel: Fela Ransome-Kuti, Fela Kuti & Africa 70 (vocals, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano); Regina Osuhor, Folake Oladeinde, Shade Shehindemi, Ola Balogun, Rita Eweka, Folake Oledejo, Suru Eriomla, Bernadettle Oghomienor, Felicia Idonije, Tejumade Adebiyi, Shade Komolate (vocals); Christopher Uwaifor (tenor saxophone); Lekan Animashaun (baritone saxophone); Stephen Ukem, Tunde Williams (trumpet); Franco Aboddy (bass guitar); Tony Allen (drums); Nicholas Addo-Nettey, Henry Kofi, Shina Abiodun (congas); Isaac Olaleye (maracas).

Audio Mixer: Demola Odebiyi.

Liner Note Authors: Mabinuori Idowu; Jacqueline Grandchamp-Thiam; Rikki Stein.

Photographers: Bankole Osunle; Bernard Matussiere.

Arrangers: Fela Ransome-Kuti; Fela Kuti & Africa 70.