Fela With Ginger Baker Live!

I'm not sure whether I purchased this live CD of Afrobeat main-man Fela Ransome-Kuti, his Africa '70 big band and guest drummer Ginger Baker driven by an interest in Kuti [an interest kindled by watching the excellent BBC documentary "Father of Afrobeat"] or an interest in Ginger Baker [after recently revisiting Cream, Blind Faith and BBM].Before I go any further I have to admit that I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to really opine on the merits of the four songs included here, they are but a small part of what would become a prolific body of work from Kuti, but this performance came at an early point in his recording career and I'm not convinced that his afrobeat sound had fully developed by this time [an opinion based solely on a couple of his later albums that I have and prefer]. That said opener "Let's Start" and second track "Black Man's Cry" are to my untutored ear at times pretty typical of the frenetic multi-instrumental Fela Kuti afrobeat sound but thinner with a smaller number of instrumentalists and vocalists than he would work with later, and at less than eight minutes (with introductions) "Lets Start" is too short to fully develop; the eleven minute "Black Man's Cry" on the other hand is a cracker and the best track of the set.Baker only sits in on the third and fourth tracks [the original second side] alongside Kuti's collaborator, musical director and drum master Tony Allen. Disappointingly to my ear there is a poorer, duller quality to the sound on these tracks. Leaving that aside though the first of these "Ye Ye De Smell" with its lengthy call and response routine between Kuti and his horn section that the horns then pick up on before Kuti returns is superb, and then around the eight minute mark Baker gets his turn in the spotlight with a lengthy solo that's very much in keeping with the frenetic spontaneity of his host's afrobeat sound. The second track with Baker, the album closer "Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want to Die)" though is a more subdued number, less afrobeat and more mainstream jazz fusion than the other pieces here with Baker required to do little more than keep time as Kuti initiates a singalong with the band and audience, it doesn't really do much for me.And that's it, or would have been but my reissue also has a bonus track featuring a sixteen minute drum piece by Baker and Allen entitled, perhaps not unsurprisingly "Ginger Baker and Tony Allen Drum Solo" [note the oxymoron in the title, how can a solo can feature two artists, surely that's a duet?] But this is more of an add-on than a genuine bonus, the recording is not even contemporaneous with the previous live tracks being captured some seven years or eight years later and many thousands of miles away at the Berlin Jazz Festival. While undoubtedly this recording showcases two masters at work over its sixteen minutes it becomes frankly a little tedious, let's face it the drum isn't and never was really an instrument for a lengthy solo apart from in prog rock.So how many stars? I know that the cognoscenti rate this album and it's a must-hear-before-you-die, but it's not a five star album. If it's Ginger Baker's drum magic you're seeking then the original live set [leaving aside the drum solo/duet] is going to be a bit disappointing with Baker only appearing on two tracks and cutting loose on just one, it would perhaps have been better entitled as "... with Ginger Baker occasionally" and for that reason it's no more than four stars, but considering the sound quality on these tracks even that feels a tad generous.

he wasn't the best drummer there on the night

Having been lucky enough to see both these musicans indepentdant of each other, I bought this album! If it has fault it's to short in it's playing time.One of the best of Nigerian musican's meets with one the best British drummer's!

One of the best musical purchases I've made. This is something everyone who claims to love music should have!! 10 out of ten!!

very good

interesting to listen and compare the drumming styles

All good

Great drumming