Confusion (album)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Confusion is a 1975 album by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti and his Africa 70 band. It was arranged, composed, and produced by Kuti, who recorded the album after choosing to emphasize his African heritage and nationalism in his music. Confusion is a commentary on the confused state of post-colonial Lagos and its lack of infrastructure and proper leadership at the time. Kuti's pidgin English lyrics depict difficult conditions in the city, including a frenetic, multilingual trading market and inextricable traffic jams in Lagos' major intersections.
Confusion is a one-song Afrobeat album that begins with an entirely instrumental first half, which features free form interplay between Kuti's electric piano and drummer Tony Allen. It leads to an extended mid-tempo section with Allen's polyrhythms and tenor saxophone by Kuti, who subsequently delivers call-and-response vocal passages. In reviews since the record's release by EMI, the album was praised by music critics, who found it exemplary of Kuti's Afrobeat style and recommended it as a highlight from his extensive catalog. In both 2000 and 2010, Confusion was reissued and bundled with Kuti's 1973 Gentleman album.
Background
After becoming dissatisfied with studying European composers at the Trinity College of Music, Fela Kuti formed his first band Koola Lobitos in 1961 and quickly became a popular act in the London club scene. He returned to his native Nigeria in 1963 and formed another band that played a rhythmic fusion of traditional highlife music and jazz. Kuti dubbed his hybrid style "Afrobeat", which served in part as his critique of African performers who he felt had forsaken their native musical roots for American popular music trends. In 1969, he toured with his band in Los Angeles and was introduced by a friend to the writings of black nationalist and Afrocentrist figures such as Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver. Inspired by what he had read, Kuti decided to write more political and critical music, and changed the name of his band to the Nigeria 70 and later the Africa 70.Template:Sfn
During the 1970s, Kuti began to emphasize his identification with Africa and its culture in his music and opposed the colonial mentality of identification with Western powers such as the United States and the United Kingdom. His albums during this period expressed aspects of his ideology such as his African heritage and nationalism. On his 1973 song "Eko lie", Kuti declared that Lagos was his home rather than London or New York City, where he had performed earlier in his career.Template:Sfn Lagos and its landmark events became common themes in his songs.Template:Sfn He revisited the theme on Confusion in 1974 to acknowledge that he identifies with the city despite its problems.Template:Sfn
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.Template:Sfn
- James Abayomi – sticks
- Tony Allen – lead drums, solo drums
- Africa 70 – band
- Lekan Animashaun – baritone saxophone
- George Mark Bruce – bass guitar
- Segun Edo – tenor guitar
- Henry Kofi – first conga
- Daniel Koranteg – second conga
- Tony Njoku – trumpet
- Emmanuel Odenusi – engineering, mixing
- Isaac Olaleye – maracas
- Remi Olowookere – graphics
- Fela Ransome-Kuti – arrangement, tenor saxophone, piano, production, vocals
- Tutu Shoronmu – rhythm guitar
