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Femi Kuti & Sunny Ade @ Ravinia
by David D
On a cloudy over cast July evening, two premier Nigerian and International superstars played to a half full Ravinia Festival.
Femi Kuti opened up for one of the grand daddies of African and juju music, King Sunny Ade.
Blood they say is always thicker than water; and for Femi Kuti, championing social causes, demanding justice for the masses and taking potshots at Nigerian politicians and other African heads of states just falls in line with what his dad Fela Anikulapo Kuti did before his death.
Most of the music for the night came from his new release Day By Day. The evening started off with a bang with his well rehearsed band playing spirited groovy but less percussive brand of Afro beat; easy on the percussion but tinged with heavy elements of jazz, highlife and classic soul. Femi did most of the singing and was ably backed by three energetic young ladies who sang, danced, swirled and gyrated all through his set.
Femi just as his father before him tackled corruption, mismanagement, human rights, setbacks, and lack of progress in his native Nigeria. He also wondered why Africa with its vast minerals and resources was always looking for hand outs. In between the politics he peppered the set with “Eh Oh” imploring the creator to help us through our daily lives. The number was a crafty mix of brass, keys, horns and guitars reminiscent of Ohio Players/BT era but with the African polyrhythm floating ever so gingerly in the background.
“You Better Ask Yourself” borrows from the influences of jazzy greats – Jimmy Smith, Coltrane- in a soulful jazz mix showing Femi’s grasp and understanding of music. It also showcased his maturity as a musician and emergence as an arranger-composer. As with most of the sets music playlist, these songs weren’t as percussion heavy as other Femi sets and songs. They had a jazzy easy going flair and arrangement: An instrumental introduction, a vocal session, followed by another instrumental split either featuring brass or guitar solos much to the delight of the now dancing patrons.
Femi ended his set with an in depth version of Beng! Beng! Beng! that involved a humorous sex history and education class claiming tongue in cheek that men lasted only fifteen minutes when young to making out all night because of years of practice and experience. Now whether that claim is true is a different story!!
Sunny Ade and his band of merry musicians to the stage after a 30 minute break and broke directly into a spiced up juju grove. Of course he had a lot on musicians in the band but they knew what they were doing.
Sunny did not ruffle any feathers politically or otherwise. Without making any political statements Sunny and his band went through a repertoire of old classics and not so new numbers. Most of the songs were of the praise and religious persuasion. Sunny led most of the vocals and was ably backed up by the band. He didn’t display much of his guitar skills but was content to dance, sing and play with youthful exuberance. The groove was steady and well mixed; juju, fuji, highlife and danceable percussive backbeats that kept the audience dancing for most of the night even though Ravinia doesn’t allow “dancing in the aisles”.
Toward the end Sunny let lose two beautifully proportionate dancers on stage to do their thing. The danced, shook and gyrated to the commands of the talking drums and other rhythms generated by the band.
It was a wonderful night for Afro-beat and juju music.
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