Fela Kuti - Upside Down / Music Of Many Colours (CD)

This two-on-one-disc CD reissue brings together a couple of the more unusual offerings in Fela's discography.

Upside Down, released in 1976, is the usual two-song, half-hour deal, the songs beginning with several minutes of instrumental solo trades before the socially conscious lyrics enter. The song "Upside Down" itself, however, is sung not by Fela but by Sandra Akanke Isidore. She was a woman who Fela met during his stay in the United States at the end of the 1960s, and who is credited with helping to elevate Fela's own social awareness and ethnic identity.

The other track, "Go Slow," is a little jazzier, and puts less emphasis on lyrics than most Felatracks, with the singing largely limited to chants that punctuate the instrumental arrangement. On Music of Many Colours, Fela collaborated with American jazz/soul crossover vibraphonist Roy Ayers. Ayerswrote and sang one of the two lengthy tracks that comprised the album, "2000 Blacks Got to Be Free."