Afrobeat
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Afrobeat
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| Development phase: |
Ghana : 1920s Nigeria : 1960 / 70s |
| Place of origin: | Ghana, Nigeria |
| Stylistic precursors | |
| Highlife , Fuji, jazz , funk , soul | |
| Instruments typical of the genre | |
| Bass , conga , drums , guitar , horn , Hammond organ , keyboard instrument , percussion instrument , saxophone , Shékere | |
Afrobeat is a combination of American funk and jazz paired with West African highlife as well as the percussion and vocal traditions from Yoruba music. It first became popular in 1968 in Lagos .
The Nigerian Fela Kuti is the most famous Afrobeat artist. He coined the name and (together with his drummer Tony Allen , who later lived in London) the musical structure in the 1960s and was responsible for the political component of this style. Ray Stephen Oche toured from Paris with his Matumbo Orchestra.
At the end of the 1990s, various DJs began to take up the Afrobeat and develop it further.
Afrobeat artists of the 2000s and the present, following in the footsteps of Fela Kuti, include his sons Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti , the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra from New York, Franck Biyong & Massak from Cameroon, Segun Damisa & The Afro-beat Crusaders , Newen Afrobeat from Chile , Eddy Taylor & The Heartphones from Cologne, Bantucrew, the Albinoid Afrobeat Orchestra from Strasbourg , Karl Hector & The Malcouns from Munich, Afrodizz and Dele Sosimi as well as the ex-Africa '70 members Oghene Kologbo (guitar) with Afrobeat Academy , Nicholas Addo-Nettey (percussion), also known as Pax Nicholas , with Ridimtaksi , both based in Berlin, and Tony Allen (drums). The Namibian Ees , actually Eric Sell, also combines Afrobeat with reggae and kwaito .
Web links
- BBC Worldservice: Afrobeat; Interviews and text about the movement and the music
- National Public Radio (NPR) on Afrobeat
- DLF (Deutschlandfunk) Long Night from 2/3 January 2016: Lagos dances. The Long Night over Afrobeat by Susanne Amatosero, directed by Jan Tengeler