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Afrobeat legends Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 just headlined the Fine Line Music Café, in Minneapolis, on July 26, 2024.
Opening the show was local “cultural rapper” Fanaka Nation, fusing hip hop and Afro sound. He really know how to work the crowd, encouraging and directing them to dance and sway. The audience was really into it, and made for a memorable show.
At the end of his set, he asked the audience to help him sing Happy Birthday to one of his band members.
If you like what you heard, he is headlining First Avenue Goes to the Fair, at the Minnesota State Fair, on August 30, 2024. Other bands on the bill: Jake Balistrieri & Sarah Mevissen (Pit Stop), Lars Pruitt (Yam Haus), student 1, The Foxgloves, and hosted by Diane with Al Church and The Congregation.
Before Seun Kuti came on stage, we had a long intro music. The jam song will spotlight solos from his world band, starting with Nigeria’s Kunle Justice on bass. Then Paris’ Mario Orsinet on drums, Algeria’s Anis Benhallak on guitar, the French horns section: Nicolas Sakélario on baritone sax, Fabrice Fila on tenor sax, and Valentin Pellet on trumpet. We also got singing from Princess Cynthia Aong and Yetunde Anikulapo-Kuti, the two backup vocalists and dancers. All this went on for about what seems like 15 minutes before Kuti actually showed up on stage… but man, what an entrance.
We previously saw the group at Rock the Garden in June 2015 and said, “How fitting on Father’s Day that the heir to the Afrobeat throne, Seun Kuti , led his father Fela’s band, Egypt 80, playing undoubtedly the highest energy hour of the weekend. The Nigerian group was the worldbeat entry to the festival and the first African band to grace its stage. Kuti and his fifteen-plus cohorts made their short time worth it with the tribal, jazz, funk, and rhythmic hybrid that his father pioneered.”
With the Fine Line show, Kuti started his set, once again, by honoring his late father, Fela Kuti, with a very political song called “Coffin for Head of State”. Kuti is right to pay tribute to his father, as Fela started the Afrobeat sound, and influenced a whole generation of musicians (including Chicago Afrobeat Project) with this powerful sound.
There are other Kuti’s that carried on Fela’s name… and Seun Kuti, who is the youngest son, continues the legacy by continuing Afrobeat with his father’s former band Egypt 80.
Opening the show was local “cultural rapper” Fanaka Nation, fusing hip hop and Afro sound. He really know how to work the crowd, encouraging and directing them to dance and sway. The audience was really into it, and made for a memorable show.
At the end of his set, he asked the audience to help him sing Happy Birthday to one of his band members.
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First Avenue Goes to the Fair (30 Aug 2024) |
Before Seun Kuti came on stage, we had a long intro music. The jam song will spotlight solos from his world band, starting with Nigeria’s Kunle Justice on bass. Then Paris’ Mario Orsinet on drums, Algeria’s Anis Benhallak on guitar, the French horns section: Nicolas Sakélario on baritone sax, Fabrice Fila on tenor sax, and Valentin Pellet on trumpet. We also got singing from Princess Cynthia Aong and Yetunde Anikulapo-Kuti, the two backup vocalists and dancers. All this went on for about what seems like 15 minutes before Kuti actually showed up on stage… but man, what an entrance.
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Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 (21 June 2015) |
With the Fine Line show, Kuti started his set, once again, by honoring his late father, Fela Kuti, with a very political song called “Coffin for Head of State”. Kuti is right to pay tribute to his father, as Fela started the Afrobeat sound, and influenced a whole generation of musicians (including Chicago Afrobeat Project) with this powerful sound.
There are other Kuti’s that carried on Fela’s name… and Seun Kuti, who is the youngest son, continues the legacy by continuing Afrobeat with his father’s former band Egypt 80.
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Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 at Fine Line (26 July 2024)
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