Femi Kuti - Day by Day (2008)

Personnel:

* Ademola Adegbola – Guitar
* Bose Ajila – Vocals (bckgr)
* Celine Bary – Vocals (bckgr), Guest Appearance
* Jacques Djeyim – Guitar, Guest Appearance
* Debo Folorunsho – Percussion, Drums
* Patrick Goraguer – Percussion, Keyboards, Fender Rhodes, Guest Appearance
* Keziah Jones – Guitar, Guest Appearance
* Femi Kuti – Organ, Trumpet, Sax (Alto), Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Vocals, Performer
* Made Anikulapo Kuti – Sax (Alto), Vocals
* Yeni Anikulapo Kuti – Vocals (bckgr)
* Gbenga Laleye – Trumpet
* Doris Lanzman – Vocals (bckgr), Guest Appearance
* Sébastien Martel – Guitar, Guest Appearance
* Guy N'Sangue – Bass, Guest Appearance
* Tiwalade Ogunlowo – Trombone
* Kunle Olayode – Percussion, Drums
* Francis Onah – Sax (Tenor)
* Positive Force – Performer
* Julia Saar – Vocals (bckgr), Guest Appearance
* Camille Sarr – Vocals (bckgr), Guest Appearance
* Onome Udi – Vocals (bckgr)


Total time: 53:51

Available from the 20th October. The world is full of celebrity offspring, yet it is almost impossible to think of one who lives up to expectations to the same degree as Femi Kuti, son of Fela, the originator of Afrobeat and former Public Enemy No1 in Nigeria. He is that rarity, a scion whose career rests on talent and hard work rather than the family name. His latest studio set, Day By Day, has been a long time coming. It is seven years since Fight To Win, four since the live Africa Shrine. “It’s been hard work keeping The Shrine alive,” he explains. “I’ve also been on tour, so it was hard to pin me down in a studio until we got to Paris in the summer of 2007.” He is also father to 7 children! This sabbatical also saw him learning a lot more about being a musician. Femi has learnt to play piano properly and gone back to the trumpet, his first instrument, which he gave up in favour of the sax. The benefits are immediately apparent on Day By Day. “Listen to They Will Run and Better Ask Yourself, they are more jazz than anything I’ve done before. That’s the effect of playing the trumpet coming out.” You can tell that the long lay off has inspired Femi. He is upbeat, enthusiastic and raring to go again. “Everybody is back in training now,” he smiles, “we have to re-establish my music”.
Wrasse Records.

"Having a famous father is a burden not often borne well, and few famous fathers cast quite as long a shadow as Fela Kuti, a giant of African music.

To his credit, Femi has thoroughly assimilated both his father's musical innovations and his political spirit but, as Day By Day demonstrates, he struggles to impose his own personality, settling for hackneyed bouts of anti-neocolonialist rhetoric like "You Better Ask Yourself". "Oyimbo" opens the album with Kuti hymning the curative power of music, claiming that "harmony and melody will surely bring peace", over a typical guitar vamp punctuated with a fiery, majestic horn arrangement fit to stiffen the sinews. It's one of the most effective tracks, setting up a hypnotic pulse echoed in the repetitive chanted coda ("Politician don't care!") of "Tell Me" and the basic groove of "Demo Crazy". Kuti has steeped himself in jazz, as witnessed by "Do You Know", a litany of heroes – Miles, Coltrane, Ellington, etc – capped by the query, "Do you know Fela Anikulapo Kuti?". The big difference between father and son appears to be Kuti's Christian beliefs – and even he doesn't seem too convinced, judging by the way he prays in "Demo Crazy" for "Jesus Christ to come down with his shining light, or something".

Reviewed by Andy Gill. The Independent News and Media Limited.

Tracklist:

01. Oyimbo
02. Eh oh
03. Day by Day
04. Demo Crazy
05. Do You Know
06. You Better Ask Yourself
07. One Two
08. Tell Me
09. They Will Run
10. Tension Grip Africa
11. Dem Funny
12. Let's Make History