19-july-1971 Fela
DATE: Friday, 19th, July, 1971
LOCATION: 90 Wardour Street
MAIN ACT: FELA
SUPPORTING ACT: Ginger Baker
Memories on this night:
"My second night at the Marquee: this was a strange one. To give you a clue who Fela Ransome-Kuti was, please read this link on him. Let me just cite one sentence from the site: 'To the Pan-African world, Fela was a towering figure who arguably combined elements of pure artistry, political perseverance, and a mystic, spiritual consciousness in a way that no other individual ever has.' Of course I was not aware who Fela was at the time. In 1971 actually almost nobody knew about him. His charisma and grade of stardom developed much later. But as we know now, he became a leading figure in the african musical and political community. But I was there to see Ginger Baker. But the focus point on stage was Fela. He was the announcer of the songs, the singer and played some keyboards every now and then. As you'd expect this african band was very much driven by percussion. It was a nice and very rhythmic mixture of African beats and some jazzy influences. This was definitively not a rockshow. For the better part of the evening Ginger Baker was just a member of the band playing drums. Fela guided the band as a good leader should. He aimed at the musicians when to change the beat, when to play a solo or when to stop. The crowd was amazed when he 'allowed' Ginger Baker to play a solo. This was what everybody wanted to hear. And to be honest, that was what I wanted to hear that night. And what a solo it was. He can't do wrong. His style fitted very much into this band. I strongly recommend the two albums Ginger recorded with Fela, one of which was recorded live. And I think the CD is still available."
Submitted by: Wilfred Lilie, Lohheide, Germany.
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