Baker/Kuti

Peace.

It has been a long time. Started school back in August, and I just haven't been able to catch up. Anyhow, here is something dope for all of you.

Ginger Baker - Stratavarious (ATCO, 1972)

For those of you who do not know, Ginger Baker was the drummer of the band Cream, and is one of the best Rock drummers out there. He got this album together after the dissolution of Cream. Baker drops some pretty amazing tracks, "Tiwa (It's Our Own)" - a deep African-Funk and "Blood Brothers" - which is a great example of drumming from an African-Funk perspective of Guy Warren and Baker's own Rock/Blues sensibility. "Coda" is another good track, but mostly because of its own avant-garde feel: it is not an amazing track, but a neat look into the experimentation taken up by later artists in the mid-1970s (Alan Parsons Project, David Bowie perhaps?)

But the most significant work on this album is the work done by Fela Kuti. Kuti, if you will recall, is one of the pioneers of African-Funk (Afrobeat, if you will) and has done some of the most amazing work in this field. His organ-work throughout the album will immediately call to mind the Jazz, Rock and Funk of the early 1970s (think of The Doors and Headhunters by Herbie Hancock). Some of the best music ever produced, in my mind, goes to Fela Kuti. His work in Afrobeat shines here, and takes over the half of the album he is on. Baker's drumming makes this album well worth it, but Kuti's own work is the light that makes this album shine. If you see it, get it...you will not want to miss out.