Chanson française Jazz Mambo Cha cha chaVariété française Reggae Pop Rock progressif New Wave Funk Rap Ballade World
Instruments
Piano, guitare, basse, accordéon, harmonica
Années d'activité
1957 – 1991
Labels
Philips (groupe Universal Music)
Discography : 1958 : Du chant à la une ! 1959 : Serge Gainsbourg N°2 1961 : L'Étonnant Serge Gainsbourg 1962 : Serge Gainsbourg N° 4 1963 : Gainsbourg Confidentiel 1964 : Gainsbourg Percussions 1968 : Bonnie and Clyde, avec Brigitte Bardot 1968 : Initials B.B. 1969 : Jane Birkin - Serge Gainsbourg 1971 : Histoire de Melody Nelson, avec Jane Birkin 1973 : Vu de l'extérieur 1975 : Rock Around the Bunker 1976 : L'Homme à tête de chou 1979 : Aux armes et cætera 1981 : Mauvaises Nouvelles des étoiles 1984 : Love on the Beat 1987 : You're Under Arrest
Origine du Groupe : Turkey , Canada Style : Alternative Fusion World Music , Electronic Ethno
Discography :
Sufi Dreams (Golden Horn 1998)
Journeys of a Dervish (Golden Horn 1999)
Seyahatname (Doublemoon 2001)
Nar (Doublemoon 2002)
Fusion Monster (Numoon 2004) (as DJ Arkin Allen)
Su (Doublemoon 2003) (23 July 2003)
Sufi Traveler (High Times 2004)
Nefes (Doublemoon 2007) (22 June 2007)
800 (Doublemoon 2007) (5 November 2007)
Mercan Dede (born Arkın Ilıcalı, 1966, Bursa, Turkey), also known as DJ Arkin Allen, is a Turkish composer, ney and bendir player, DJ and producer. He divides his time between Turkey, Europe and North America. He is a world music artist, playing a fusion of traditional acoustic Turkish and other oriental musics with electronic sounds.
Dede was born to a working class and secular parents in Bursa.[1]
He moved to Istanbul from Bursa to study journalism and photography in Istanbul University. Upon his graduation, he received scholarship from University of Saskatchewan and moved to Montreal, Canada.[1][2]
Career
The Mercan Dede ensemble was founded in 1997,[3] by which time Arkın had been working as a musician for some years. Their first album was Sufi Dreams, released in 1998. This album got a boost when the music was used in a German television documentary on Sufi music.
In 2001 he released his third album, Seyahatname, which means "travelogue" in old Turkish, evokes the era of the great caravanserai crossing Anatolia on the silk road. The sound of the ney goes back to this period, and the music aspires to the spirit of the mystic Sufi poets of that time, such as Mevlana. Dede describes the sound of the ney as "a pure, universal spiritual sound" evoking deep feelings, deeper than we can comprehend in just our short time on earth. The ney "speaks the language of love, instantly comprehensible in the heart, compared to which all the mosques, churches, temples built to decorate (our spirituality) drift away". The album is Dede's personal effort to reflect on his own spiritual journey.[4]
His 2002 album Nâr (which means "fire" in Turkish) continued in the same vein. In 2004 he released Su ("water") stayed at number one on European World Music Charts for two months. The album was recorded with an international line-up of musicians and has more vocals on it than the previous works. One track featuring folk singer Sabahat Akkiraz was particularly popular in Turkey. Dede made his U.S. debut at the first Globalfest that year, followed by a North American tour and the release of the album Fusion Monster under the name 'Arkin Allen', which has a slightly different twist on his familiar sound. He was commissioned by the Turkish Ministry of Culture as the music director of the Guldestan project to represent Turkish culture and arts all around the globe, working alongside choreographer Beyhan Murphy.
The February 2007 album Nefes ("breath") included Transglobal Underground sitar player Sheema Mukherjee in the line-up. The album includes spoken songs in Turkish, Arabic, and French.
His sound incorporates traditional instruments and ney from Turkey and other parts of the world, with horns, dance beats, ambient electronic music, and a Sufi spirituality. The name Mercan Dede itself evokes Sufism as "Dede" is the word for 'elder' in the Sufi traditions, although the name Mercan Dede was taken from a character in a modern Turkish novel. Dede composes his own music, some of which is rhythmic, some new age.
He plays with groups of various sizes and fluctuating membership: the Mercan Dede Trio, the Mercan Dede Ensemble, and the Secret Tribe. The instrumentation used includes electronics and elements of classical Turkish music such as the ney (which he plays himself), percussion, violin, and zither. The groups often include Montreal-based percussionist Scott Russell, Canadian violinist Hugh Marsh, and Turkish clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici. The shows often include men and women in Sufi costume doing Sufi whirling.
Dede works as a DJ under the name Arkın Allen, specialising in music related to that of his live groups, in this case house and techno dance music with an oriental flavour.[5]
Dede has been criticised by Turkish music purists for not being steeped in the Sufi traditions and for not properly representing Sufism in his music and writings.[6] Another criticism is that the whirling dancers he uses to accompany his shows do not accurately display the correct dervish routines. However, as more than a ney player, working just as often as a DJ as performing live in concert, with an audience consisting of clubbers, not Islamic scholars, Dede aims to synthesise several different traditions rather than recreate a historically pure music.
Discography
Sufi Dreams (Golden Horn 1998)
Journeys of a Dervish (Golden Horn 1999)
Seyahatname (Doublemoon 2001)
Nar (Doublemoon 2002)
Fusion Monster (Numoon 2004) (as DJ Arkin Allen)
Su (Doublemoon 2003) (23 July 2003)
Sufi Traveler (High Times 2004)
Nefes (Doublemoon 2007) (22 June 2007)
800 (Doublemoon 2007) (5 November 2007)
Achievements
His album 800 was selected as the World's Best World Music Album of 2008 by WOMEX!
Mercan Dede has been nominated by BBC 3 Awards for World Music in the Middle East and North Africa category twice and three times in the Club Global category.
Su stayed at #1 spot for two months on the European World Music Charts
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife.[5] In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.[6]
In 1967, he went to Ghana to think up a new musical direction.[4] That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat.[4] In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party — which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria '70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.
1970s
After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed The Africa '70, as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues.[5] He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"),[7] stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name. The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated.[citation needed]
Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general.[8] In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972, Ginger Baker recorded Stratavarious with Fela appearing alongside Bobby Gass.[9] Around this time, Kuti was becoming more involved in Yoruba religion.[10]
In 1977, Fela and the Afrika '70 released the album Zombie, a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Fela claimed that he would have been killed had it not been for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten. Fela's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo's residence, and to write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier", referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier.[11]
Fela and his band then took residence in Crossroads Hotel as the Shrine had been destroyed along with his commune. In 1978, Fela married twenty-seven women, many of whom were his dancers, composers, and singers to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic. Later, he was to adopt a rotation system of keeping only twelve simultaneous wives.[12] The year was also marked by two notorious concerts, the first in Accra in which riots broke out during the song "Zombie", which led to Fela being banned from entering Ghana. The second was at the Berlin Jazz Festival after which most of Fela's musicians deserted him, due to rumors that Fela was planning to use the entire proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.
Despite the massive setbacks, Fela was determined to come back. He formed his own political party, which he called Movement of the People. In 1979, he put himself forward for President in Nigeria's first elections for more than a decade, but his candidature was refused. At this time, Fela created a new band called Egypt '80 and continued to record albums and tour the country. He further infuriated the political establishment by dropping the names of ITT Corporation vice-president Moshood Abiola and then General Olusegun Obasanjo at the end of a hot-selling 25-minute political screed titled "I.T.T. (International Thief-Thief)".
1980s and beyond
In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari's government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currencysmuggling which Amnesty International and others denounced as politically motivated.[13] Amnesty designated him a prisoner of conscience,[14] and his case was also taken up by other human rights groups. After 20 months, he was released from prison by General Ibrahim Babangida. On his release he divorced his twelve remaining wives, saying that "marriage brings jealousy and selfishness".[12]
His album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually he stopped releasing albums altogether. In 1993, he and four members of the Afrika '70 organization were arrested for murder. The battle against military corruption in Nigeria was taking its toll, especially during the rise of dictator Sani Abacha. Rumors were also spreading that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment.
Death
On 3 August 1997, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, stunned the nation by announcing his younger brother's death a day earlier from Kaposi's sarcoma which was brought on by AIDS. More than a million people attended Fela's funeral at the site of the old Shrine compound. A new Africa Shrine has opened since Fela's death in a different section of Lagos under the supervision of his son Femi Kuti.
The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native "tinker pan" African-style percussion that Kuti acquired while studying in Ghana with Hugh Masekela, under the uncanny Hedzoleh Soundz.[15] The importance of the input of Tony Allen (Fela's drummer of twenty years) in the creation of Afrobeat cannot be overstated. Fela once famously stated that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat".
Afrobeat is characterized by a fairly large band with many instruments, vocals, and a musical structure featuring jazzy, funky horn sections. The "endless groove" is used, in which a base rhythm of drums, shekere, muted West African-style guitar, and melodic bass guitar riffs are repeated throughout the song. Commonly, interlocking melodic riffs and rhythms are introduced one by one, building the groove bit-by-bit and layer-by-layer to an astonishing melodic and polyrhythmic complexity. The horn section then becomes prominent, introducing other riffs and main melodic themes.
Fela's band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones, whereas most groups were using only one of this instrument. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles, and can be seen in funk and hip hop. Fela's bands at times even performed with two bassists at the same time both playing interlocking melodies and rhythms. There were always two or more guitarists. The electric West African style guitar in Afrobeat bands are paramount, but are used to give basic structure, playing a repeating chordal/melodic statement, riff, or groove.
Some elements often present in Fela's music are the call-and-response within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. Fela's songs were also very long, at least 10–15 minutes in length, and many reaching the 20 or even 30 minutes, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. This was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside Africa. His LP records frequently had one 30-minute track per side. Typically there is an instrumental "introduction" jam part of the song, perhaps 10-15 minutes long, before Fela starts singing the "main" part.
His songs were mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language. Fela's main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards, but he also played the trumpet, electric guitar, and took the occasional drum solo. Fela refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which also hindered his popularity outside Africa.
Fela was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often quite outlandish and wild. He referred to his stage act as the Underground Spiritual Game. Fela attempted making a movie but lost all the materials to the fire that was set to his house by the military government in power. Kuti thought that art, and thus his own music, should have political meaning.[10]
Political views
“
Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.
As a supporter of traditional religions and lifestyles, Kuti thought that the most important thing for Africans to fight is European cultural imperialism.[10] The American Black Power movement also influenced Fela's political views; he was a supporter of Pan-Africanism and socialism, and called for a united, democratic African republic. He was a candid supporter of human rights, and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the militaristic governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a social commentator, and he criticized his fellow Africans (especially the upper class) for betraying traditional African culture. The African culture he believed in also included having many wives (polygyny) and the Kalakuta Republic was formed in part as a polygamist colony. He defended his stance on polygyny with the words: "A man goes for many women in the first place. Like in Europe, when a man is married, when the wife is sleeping, he goes out and fucks around. He should bring the women in the house, man, to live with him, and stop running around the streets!"[17] His views towards women are characterized by some as misogynist, with songs like "Mattress" typically cited as evidence[18] In a more complex example, he mocks the aspiration of African women to European standards of ladyhood while extolling the values of the market woman in his song "Lady".
Bypassing editorial censorship in Nigeria's predominantly state controlled media, Kuti began in the 1970s buying advertising space in daily and weekly newspapers such as The Daily Times and The Punch in order to run outspoken political columns.[19] Published throughout the 1970s and early 1980s under the title Chief Priest Say, these columns were essentially extensions of Kuti's famous Yabi Sessions—consciousness-raising word-sound rituals, with himself as chief priest, conducted at his Lagos nightclub. Organized around a militantly Afrocentric rendering of history and the essence of black beauty, Chief Priest Say focused on the role of cultural hegemony in the continuing subjugation of Africans. Kuti addressed a number of topics, from explosive denunciations of the Nigerian Government's criminal behavior; Islam and Christianity's exploitative nature, and evil multinational corporations; to deconstructions of Western medicine, Black Muslims, sex, pollution, and poverty. Chief Priest Say was cancelled, first by Daily Times then by Punch, ostensibly due to non-payment, but many commentators[who?] have speculated that the paper's respective editors were placed under increasingly violent pressure to stop publication.
The Fela revival
In recent years there has been a revitalization of Fela's influence on music and popular culture, culminating in another re-release of his catalog controlled by Universal Music, off- and on-Broadway biopic shows, and new bands, such as Antibalas, who carry the Afrobeat banner to a new generation of listeners.
In 1999, Universal Music France, under the aegis of Francis Kertekian, remastered the 45 albums that it controlled and released them on twenty-six compact discs. These titles were licensed to other territories of the world with the exception of Nigeria and Japan, where Fela's music was controlled by other companies. In 2005, Universal Music USA licensed all of its world-music titles to the UK-based label Wrasse Records, which repackaged the same twenty-six CDs for distribution in the USA (replacing the MCA-issued titles there) and the UK. In 2009, Universal created a new deal for the USA with Knitting Factory Records and for Europe with PIAS, which included the release of the Fela! Broadway cast album.
Thomas McCarthy's 2008 film The Visitor depicted a disconnected professor (Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins) who wanted to play the djembe. He learns from a young Syrian (Haaz Sleiman) who tells the professor he will never truly understand African music unless he listens to Fela. The film features clips of Fela's "Open and Close" and "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)".
On August 18, 2009, award-winning DJ J.Period released a free mixtape to the general public via his website that was a collaboration with Somali-born hip-hop artist K'naan paying tribute to Fela, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, entitled The Messengers.
In October 2009, Knitting Factory Records began the process of re-releasing the 45 titles that Universal Music controls, starting with yet another re-release of the compilation The Best of the Black President in the USA. The rest is expected to be released in 2010.[dated info]
^ abcGrass, Randall F. (1986). "Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: The Art of an Afrobeat Rebel". The Drama Review: TDR (MIT Press) 30 (1): 131–148. doi:10.2307/1145717. JSTOR1145717.
Moore, Carlos (1982). Fela, Fela! This Bitch of a Life. Allison & Busby. UK. [authorized biography]
Idowu, Mabinuori Kayode (2002). Fela, le Combattant. Le Castor Astral. France.
Olaniyan, Tejumola (2004). Arrest the Music! Fela and his rebel art and politics. Indiana University Press. USA.
Olorunyomi, Sola (2002). Afrobeat: Fela and the Imagined Continent. Africa World Press. ??.
Schoonmaker, Trevor (ed) (2003). Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway. Palgrave Macmillan. USA.
Schoonmaker, Trevor (ed) (2003). Black President: The Art & Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti. New Museum Of Contemporary Art, New York. ISBN0-915557-87-8.
Veal, Michael E. (1997). Fela: The Life of an African Musical Icon. Temple University Press. USA.
Jaboro, Majemite. (2009). The Ikoyi Prison Narratives: The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti. lulu.com. ISBN978-1-4452-2626-2.
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