Highlife-Jazz and Afro-Soul (1963 - 1969)

• CD, 3×CD
• WAV / FLAC
• MP3

A compilation of some of Fela’s pre-Afrobeat singles, recorded between 1963 and 1968. Fela called the music “highlife jazz.” It is uncomplicated, good-time dance music inhabiting a different space than the gritty recordings of the 1970s onwards - though even at his most political, Fela always remained supremely danceable (he might have regarded the title of Funkadelic’s 1970 album Free Your Ass And Your Mind Will Follow as simplistic, but he would likely have agreed with the sentiment). By the time of these Koola Lobitos sides, two of the musicians who would be longstanding cornerstones of Fela’s bands had come aboard: drummer Tony Allen, bandleader until he quit Afrika 70 in 1978, and baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun, who took over as bandleader from Allen. Another important Afrobeat pioneer, trumpeter Tunde Williams, joined Koola Lobitos in 1967. Six of the album’s tracks were in 2001 added to the Wrasse (UK) reissue of the Sterns (UK) CD The ’69 Los Angeles Sessions.

TRACKLISTING DISC 1

1. Bonfo
2. Fere
3. Onifere No. 2
4. Oyejo
5. Oloruka
6. Awo
7. Great Kids
8. Amaechi’s Blues
9. Yese
10. Egbin
11. Orise
12. Eke
13. V.C. 7
14. I Know Your Feeling

DISC 2

1. Signature Tune
2. It’s Highlife Time
3. Lagos Baby
4. Omuti
5. Ololufe
6. Araba’s Delight
7. Wa Dele
8. Lai Se
9. Mi O Mo
10. Obinrin Le
11. Omo Ejo

DISC 3

1. Everyday I Got My Blues (Live)
2. Moti Gbrokan (Live)
3. Waka Waka (Live)
4. Ako (Live)
5. Ororuka (Live)
6. Lai Se (Live)
7. Onidodo
8. Ajo
9. Abiara
10. Se E Tun De
11. Waka Waka
12. My Baby Don Love Me
13. Home Cooking