Multi-instrumentalist MádéKuti, son of composer Femi Kuti and grandson of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, made his U.S. debut as a solo artist at the Winter Jazz Fest in New York City earlier this year. The Lagos-based musician, who studied classic composition at Trinity College in London and has previously performed with his father’s band, Positive Force, appeared at venues including Brooklyn Bowl, NuBlue, and LPR, performing his own material and joining musicians who include Kassa Overall and the Freedom Riders, on the heels of his latest album, “Chapter 1, Where Does Happiness Come From?,” which was released last July. Kuti, who performs most of the instruments on his albums, was unable to bring his Lagos-based band to the U.S. due to visa restrictions and budget restraints. Despite some apprehension, “it worked out amazingly well,” Kuti told the AmNews in an exclusive interview via Zoom from Lagos, Nigeria. Kuti tapped Weedie Braimah after meeting at a performance in Africa led by Wynton Marsalis. The renowned djembe player put Kuti in touch with the right people in NYC to put together a formidable band. “They were fantastic. We played at [the] Brooklyn Bowl; it was our first gig. … It was also special because, going on stage, I realized my dad had played there a few times. That full circle moment was really nice.”
Kuti comes from a long line of artistry and activism rooted in afrobeats — a unique blend of socially charged funk, jazz, African rhythms, and pop that was pioneered by Fela Kuti in the 1970s. The youngest Kuti continues to carry on the legacy and work of his family while carving out his own unique voice, using his own experiences and drawing influence from perhaps unlikely sources like Japanese indie-rock and classical piano, while maintaining what he describes as the core of the genre of music: “groove.”
On his latest album, Chapter 1, Kuti continues a family tradition of reflection and observation on the socio-political climate of his home in Nigeria. “In Nigeria, a lot of people still call Fela a ‘prophet,’ and I take offense [to] that because a prophecy is predicting something that will happen in the future. Fela never did that. He was always speaking about the immediate reality of the situation that was around him,” Kuti said. “A lot more ideological change could have happened in our mindset, if he had a tiny bit of support.”
Kuti recalled the infamous 1977 attack on Fela Kuti’s house by 1,000 Nigerian soldiers that ended in the burning of the musician’s home and the eventual death of Fela’s mother, activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. “The military entered, they raped the women, they threw his mother out from the window, they beat and mercilessly abused a bunch of people inside the house including his brother, but what they don’t mention is that there were thousands of people outside of Fela’s house watching it all happen without any interference, because they were afraid,” Kuti told the AmNews. “We’re sort of ruled by this fear — we’re afraid to do anything drastic for the kind of change that we want because we are afraid of losing the things that we have. Looking at all of this, I decided that my music, I think, should reflect more about the necessity of the individual to be responsible for the kind of change that they want to see in the world.”
Kuti is currently writing new music and has plans to tour the U.S. this summer. You can stay up to date at madekuti.com and listen to “Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From?” wherever you stream music.