13. Fela KutiUnderground System
My father said, “You can’t be an artist if you don’t know Fela. Sit.” I was young, and to this day, there will be no one ever to touch him. No one. The cadence, time signature, chord progressions, the choices, the musicality, it’s all the things. It is so incredibly brilliant.
This album is so forward, so nutty, that I left it for last because it is the period in every sentence. I encourage every musician who is seeking complexity and simplicity at the same time to know Fela. The simplicity lies in you that have no choice but to receive. You play it, and then let the technicalities go where they go, and you just go like you have to sit with it. When someone is that talented, there is nothing else you can do but acknowledge, and that is what that legacy will always be.
