Inspiro Productions in partnership with The Lekki Coliseum will hold a tribute concert for Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti on Thursday, October 17.
Paris, France-based Roforofo Jazz Band will headline the concert also featuring Nigeria’s Seun Olota, Lufemi, De Funmi, YBNL Princess Temmie Ovwasa, Poshryna and Muma Gee amongst others at the Lekki Coliseum.
Roforofo Jazz is an orchestra that mixes old and modern ‘muddy’ grooves and genres into a unique signature. International bands like Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra, The Smith Brothers, Los Tres Puntos, No Water Please and Sax Machine all have members in the orchestra. Made up of experienced musicians in the Afrobeat and the hip hop scenes they joined forces in a novel style while adding a French touch to the Afrobeat rhythms of Nigeria and West Africa.
Seun Olota. (Featured Photo: Roforofo Jazz performing in Paris.)
Roforofo is the Yoruba word for ‘mud’ and a reminder of Fela’s ‘Roforofo Fight’. “Roforofo Jazz is not muddy because it is stagnating, but because it jumps about the beats,” the band says, adding that it sees jazz as an undertone in all musical genres.
Explaining his company’s decision to organise the concert, the CEO of Inspiro Productions and founder of the Lagos International Jazz Festival, Ayoola Sadare said it was to celebrate Fela’s music and activism, 22 years after his passing
He said, “Everyone has a Fela story and mine was growing up listening to the Maestro as his music blared in homes and public spaces. This tribute highlights the impact his music is making globally and the many fusions it has birthed. Afrobeat has given Nigerian music an identity, moving it from the general world music category to being in a genre of its own like Reggae and others. Fela, with music alongside strong activism, has ensured and shaped that. We use this concert to recognize that strongly.”
On why the concert was happening in Lekki when Fela was a people’s man, Sadare said, “Fela was for the poor and rich; for everybody but the Lekki area and environs haven’t enjoyed anything like this. More so, the management of the one-stop luxury destination and Lekki’s finest, The Lekki Coliseum, partnered with us to make the venue and its top-class amenities available.”