Afrobeat
Located in 1 route
Afrobeat is the long-form Nigerian funk-jazz-political style associated above all with Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. It uses interlocking guitars, horns, call-and-response vocals, extended grooves, Yoruba percussion logic, jazz soloing and relentless drums. The songs often build slowly, with the band becoming a political machine as much as a dance ensemble. Afrobeat is not the same as Afrobeats: it is older, longer, more band-centered and more overtly oppositional.
History
Fela Kuti fused highlife, jazz, soul, funk, Ghanaian and Nigerian club music, Black Power politics and Yoruba rhythmic ideas into Afrobeat, while Tony Allen's drumming gave the style its engine. The 1970s recordings with Africa 70 and Egypt 80 became its canon. Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti, Tony Allen's solo work, Antibalas, Dele Sosimi and global revival bands later carried Afrobeat into festival, jazz and world-music circuits.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Afrobeat histories
- Fela/Tony Allen catalogs
- band discographies
- contemporary Afrobeat revival coverage