<![CDATA[The Village Square - Arts, Music & Movies]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/ en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:47:31 GMT vBulletin 60 http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/styles/webpoint/misc/rss.jpg <![CDATA[The Village Square - Arts, Music & Movies]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/ <![CDATA[Jay-Z, Will Smith back Broadway show "Fela!"]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38786-jay-z-will-smith-back-broadway-show-fela.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:02:09 GMT He lives on.

DW

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Jay-Z, Will Smith back Broadway show "Fela!"

Source

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have officially signed on as co-producers of "Fela!," a musical about Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti that opens Monday (November 23) on Broadway.

The news confirms weeks of speculation that the three would back the show.

A representative for "Fela!" did not specify the amount of the celebrities' investment, but their endorsement alone gives the musical's profile a significant boost just a week before its premiere.

"There's going to be an enormous incentive for people to investigate Fela when they know that Jay-Z and Will Smith are all rabid fans," Rikki Stein, Kuti's former co-manager and executor of his estate, recently told Billboard. "It's a sign that the underground is moving overground."

"Fela!" will help find a larger audience for the music of Kuti, who pioneered Afrobeat from the sounds of James Brown and West African high-life music, became a political icon in his native Nigeria and earned the admiration of everyone from Paul McCartney to the Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil before his death in 1997.

"I have an abiding regret that Fela never achieved the recognition he deserved during his lifetime," Stein said. "We have a long row to hoe in terms of general knowledge and acceptance."

In addition to green-lighting "Fela!," Kuti's estate has licensed his catalog to the newly revived Knitting Factory Records. The well-timed deal will result in the reissue of Kuti's complete catalog -- 45 albums -- during the next 12 years.

"The industry always talks about who the next big legacy artist will be," said Ian Wheeler, label manager of Knitting Factory Records. "It should have been Fela years ago. We're really trying to bring a new audience around the world, and particularly in the U.S., to his music."

Up first is the October 27 release "The Best of the Black President," a compilation of Kuti's best-known material. The set is being sold at previews of "Fela!" and at Felabrations, a series of Afrobeat DJ parties organized by Knitting Factory Records and its marketing partner, Giant Step.

LOST IN THE SHUFFLE

MCA reissued Kuti's catalog in 2001, but Bernstein, who helped market that series, said its potential wasn't fully realized. "MCA was a major label, and no matter how much they said they loved Fela and how important he was, he was definitely lost in the shuffle," he said.

Stein is all too familiar with labels' conflicted admiration for Kuti. In the mid-'80s, he said he met with every major about a potential deal. "They all received me respectfully and saw Fela as akin to Miles Davis or any of the jazz greats," Stein recalls. "But they'd ask: 'Rikki, which three minutes of this 18-minute song do you want me to put on the radio?'"

"I'd ask Fela to write me a small tune," Stein added. "He used to say, 'I'm writing African classical music. Don't mess with Tchaikovsky.'"

A deal nearly came to fruition in 1993, when then-Motown Records president Jheryl Busby offered Kuti a five-album deal under his new Africa-oriented label, with a $1.3 million advance for each album and another $1 million for full ownership of Kuti's catalog, Stein said. But after talking to his spirit advisers, Kuti refused to sign until April 1995. Busby left Motown the week of the scheduled signing, and Andre Harrell's first action as Motown's new president was to ax the African label.

"Fela!" re-creates the Shrine -- the Lagos, Nigeria, nightclub where Kuti played multiple nights each week with his band, Africa 70. Singers, dancers and musicians perform Kuti songs including "Shakara," "Zombie" and "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" behind lead actor Sahr Ngaujah, who has won an Obie Award for his spot-on portrayal of Kuti in the show's Off Broadway run last year. The effect is less stuffy theater than raucous concert -- just as its creators intended.

"The Broadway experience can be like sitting with blinders on," "Fela!" director/choreographer Bill T. Jones said. "This is a show you enjoy as much with your body as with your mind. It's free and communal."

"There was a constant struggle between keeping Fela's music pure and deconstructing it for the audience," said the show's musical director, Aaron Johnson, who translated Kuti's Yoruba and pidgin lyrics and is also the conductor/trombonist of the acclaimed Afrobeat band Antibalas. "I've been very pleasantly surprised with the response so far."

Nor have the most controversial aspects of Kuti's life been smoothed over, from his simultaneous "wedding" to 27 women to his clashes with the Nigerian government that led to a brutal 1977 attack on his compound, which he called the Kalakuta Republic. "It's all out there," Stein said. "Fela has not been sanitized."

And there's further proof that a Kuti revival of sorts is under way: A screenplay for a biopic is in the works, to be directed by the U.K. filmmaker Steve McQueen ("Hunger").

"I believe that with the show, the film and the reissues, a lot is going to change," Stein said. "We'll see a much wider audience for Fela. There were a million people at his funeral shouting, 'Fela will live forever.' Of course, they were right." ]]> DoubleWahala http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38786-jay-z-will-smith-back-broadway-show-fela.html Maye Hunta - Ekaette http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38528-maye-hunta-ekaette.html Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:44:57 GMT Some people find this song stereotypical, some find it annoying, I think its just brilliant. Its funny, its very well done - catchy tune, creative... Some people find this song stereotypical, some find it annoying, I think its just brilliant. Its funny, its very well done - catchy tune, creative lyrics. If the rest of the album is anything like this, I am going to be all over it.


Check it out:

]]> smartomoge http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38528-maye-hunta-ekaette.html Fela on Broadway http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38492-fela-broadway.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:31:21 GMT Check it out if you're interested

http://felaonbroadway.com/index.php


]]> MrsChocT http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38492-fela-broadway.html <![CDATA[Valteena's Feel Good Dance Groove]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38448-valteenas-feel-good-dance-groove.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:36:09 GMT Donell Jones : U Know What's Up




Montel Jordan's ; Get it on tonight





Montell Jordon - This is how we do it

]]> valteena http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38448-valteenas-feel-good-dance-groove.html Blacks Without Borders http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38433-blacks-without-borders.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:25:43 GMT I saw this movie recently, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very balanced. They talked about the opportunities, yet warn you of the... I saw this movie recently, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very balanced. They talked about the opportunities, yet warn you of the pitfalls. The main thing I got from it was to learn something about their culture, bring your money with you, and don’t present a superior attitude coming to save the “natives.” Also there are AA business groups and others that can acclimate you to the society and what is available.

I personally think a person should just go periodically and get in the know, before they take their money with them. I think SA is the best move, since they have infrastruture. I think this is something the young entreperneural types should be exposed to.

I’ve been to S.A. I know why they like it. It is almost like you are in the US. It is foreign, but not too foreign. You really have to go to the village to see traditional ways of life.
]]> Pooky http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38433-blacks-without-borders.html African American Social Dance Creations http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38278-african-american-social-dance-creations.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:10:50 GMT There are no dances in the US that is worth anything that has not been created by Black Americans. The whites try to claim it as their own, but we... There are no dances in the US that is worth anything that has not been created by Black Americans. The whites try to claim it as their own, but we create them and they imitate them by creating a bastardized forms. If you want to see how the dances are to be danced, you must go back to the the creators. Enjoy!

Black American Social Dancing 1901-1950s

Spirit Moves

Lindy Hoppers

Other Social Dances
Frank Manning Doing the Charleston

The Cakewalk
The Cakewalk is a plantation dance created by the slaves to make fun of the stiff and pretentious dancing the master class at their social functions.

The Big Apple
The Big Apple includes a collection of various dances mentioned above
]]> Pooky http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38278-african-american-social-dance-creations.html Nigerian Pop Oldies http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38259-nigerian-pop-oldies.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:53:09 GMT Amazing how simple videos help you place yourself in time and space... Bongos Ikwue. YouTube - Still Searching - Bongos Ikwue And The... Amazing how simple videos help you place yourself in time and space...

Bongos Ikwue.







Chris Mba




Kris Okotie

]]> tengallons http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/38259-nigerian-pop-oldies.html Cheryl Cole Rocks!! http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37998-cheryl-cole-rocks.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:31:22 GMT YouTube - Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love To all nvs folks at the start of their working week. YouTube - Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love


To all nvs folks at the start of their working week. ]]> omaks http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37998-cheryl-cole-rocks.html Bassey Ikpi http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37974-bassey-ikpi.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:47:08 GMT


]]> Anike http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37974-bassey-ikpi.html Bouqui http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37963-bouqui.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:22:09 GMT Have you heard about this Naija christian rapper? No? Una dey miss o. She got some hot stuff going on. Her latest lead single: YouTube - BOUQUI... Have you heard about this Naija christian rapper? No? Una dey miss o. She got some hot stuff going on.

Her latest lead single:


And Molejo her hit first single


more about her and how to get her stuff here

Una welldone o:rose::clap: ]]> smartomoge http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/arts-music-movies/37963-bouqui.html