Felabration at Record Bar
Saturday, Oct 18th marked the official celebration of the birthday of musician and activist Fela Kuti across the country known as “Felabration”. The Kansas City edition at Record Bar, featured local afro-beat group Hearts of Darkness and Cincinnati, Ohio’s Baoku and the Image Afrobeat Band. Hearts of Darkness opened the show with a set of original tunes with a couple of Fela Kuti covers including: “Zombie”, and “Water” among others. For the performance of “Water” Baoku Moses and Image Afrobeat joined HOD on stage for a collaboration. The energy was incredible and the lively crowd danced and shook to the music.
Baoku Moses, the Image Afrobeat band leader, hails from Kuti’s home country of Nigeria. On this evening he stated it was the first time in over 15 years studying and performing afrobeat music that he performed a Kuti number live out of respect for the musician. It was an excellent rendition of “Water” one of Kuti’s more recognizable pieces.
For the Image Afrobeat set, the band was on point. The horns were incredibly crisp with a rhythm section that was absolutely locked in. Moses primarily plays a collection of hand drums with large mallets set up near the front of the stage and sings. For other numbers he plays various cowbells, shakere and sings. Moses’ incredible energy and enthusiasm is infectious and really makes for a great performance. We hope to see them again in the near future.
Here’s some images from the show (clicking the ‘back’ button on your browser will return you to this page):
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| Click to start Hearts of Darkness slideshow |
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| This set features images from the performance of Kuti’s “Water” featuring both HOD and Baoku and Image Afrobeat. Click to start slideshow |
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| Click to start Baoku and Image Afrobeat slideshow |
For more coverage of other local music events, head over to KC Live Music Blog!
