the hum / By Bob Doran

Positive Force

(July 19, 2007)  If you dig African music, you probably don’t need to know much more than the fact that saxophonist/bandleader Femi Kuti is the eldest son of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the undisputed Godfather of Afrobeat. If you know that, then you know you want to hear him play on Monday.

Femi quit school in 1978 to take a place in his father’s band, Egypt 80. A few years later he found himself leading Fela’s band when his revolutionary father was jailed for two years for his rebellious ways. Upon Fela’s release, Femi struck off on his own, creating an outfit he calls Positive Force. With the group, Femi delivers his take on Afrobeat, a horns and percussion-driven merger of primal rhythms and Nigerian highlife with the drive of funk and the freedom of jazz. When Fela died in 1997, Femi was heir apparent to the Afrobeat throne and became the crown prince. The funky style is still going strong, with American bands like Antibalas out of New York City, Albino from San Francisco (playing locally Aug. 22) and, locally, a new outfit called Afromassive. Those who caught Femi at Reggae in 2000 know he’s the real deal.

Femi Kuti. Photo by Bob Doran

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His show at the Mateel Monday, July 23, is billed as “a very special Mateel Forever fundraising event.” What exactly does that mean? “Essentially any show we do that is referred to as a Mateel Forever event is offered to support keeping the hall open and our programs alive,” says Mateel staffer Justin Crellin. OK, but as opposed to what? It’s not like Femi’s coming up here for free. It’s a show like any other where the Mateel hopes enough people buy tickets to cover costs and have something left for the organization.

I’m guessing flames will flare over my saying so, but I’m growing tired of the bunker mentality that the “Forever” suffix seems to represent, just as I’m tiring of the ongoing “Reggae War,” its associated moral posturing, name-calling and general negativity. Can peace, love and unity ever come back to SoHum?

Is there a connection between the Reggae War and Army , the reggae singer from the Virgin Islands appearing at Indigo on Thursday, July 19? Not the slightest. Born Fritzmaurice Williams and raised on St. Croix, Army was in the U.S. Army before he became lead singer for the X Factor Band. His mission, as noted on the Sierra Nevada World Music Fest website: “To send positive universal messages to people through my music, without the commercialism we see so much today.”

Saturday, July 21, around the time Humboldt Folklife’s All Day Free Fest rolls to a close, the Jambalaya marks the start of the “Everybody Hates The Eagles But Me Tour,” featuring the Portland-based country punk band My Life In Black and White and Blue Lake-based punk country band The Rubberneckers , both of them led by singers whose whiskey and cigarettes voices draw on the sound of Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

What’s My Life In Black and White all about? “Well, we’re really just a combination of things,” says lead singer Dylan Summers. “We try to be as eclectic as possible. We’re definitely ’77 punk rock in feel and mood, but a couple of guys in the band are metal heads. I really like traditional Irish stuff like The Pogues, stuff like that.”

Wait a second, The Pogues are traditional Irish? Isn’t traditional more like reels and jigs and old Celtic music? “Oh, you mean like The Chieftains? Of course if we tried to go the full extreme and played like The Chieftains or The Dubliners, all those old guys, it’s beautiful and I love it, but it’s not gonna make it. I need something with more of a beat behind it. But as far as the themes of travel and the Irish feel, it’s definitely there, but it’s more of a pub approach.”

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