Fela Kuti Fela Kuti Double Feature (Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense / Berliner Jazztage '78)

One of the most vital world musicians in history, Fela Anikulapo Ransome Kuti almost single-handedly invented Afro Beat, via his multihyphenate role as a musical performer, arranger, and producer. He was also hugely controversial for his seemingly boundless egotism, sexism, and uber-radical politics that made him something of an international outlaw prior to his death from AIDS in August 1997. This release celebrates Fela Kuti's musical influence with a pair of films related to him: the 1984 TEACHER DON'T TEACH ME NOW is a relatively straightforward documentary that mixes revealing Kuti interviews with rare footage of the man in performance, while thematically placing equal emphasis on his personal life, politics and musical ability. The second film in the set, BERLINER JAZZTAGE '78, originally aired on Nigerian and German television; it finds Kuti toplining the German Music Festival in a live set backed by Africa '70.