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Arts & Entertainment All the best in Arts & culture Across the metropolis Seun Kuti music Afrobeat’s new messenger doesn’t mince words By Dan Grunebaum Gr o w i n g u p t h e child of a legendary entertainer and political firebrand isn’t easy—especially when you’re the youngest of eight. Sean Kuti encountered all sorts of headwinds after his decision to take on the mantle of his towering father, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. “The family said, ‘Fela is dead, the band can’t survive,’” the lean 29-year-old Nigerian recalls on a sunlit afternoon at Naeba Ski Resort, where he and the band his father founded, Egypt 80, have just wrapped up a feverish two-hour set at the Fuji Rock Festival. “But I said, ‘No, we’re going to keep playing.’ It was hard, because people used to compare me to my Dad.” “I grew up hearing his music all my life, but I didn't understand how big it was because Fela was so humble,” the singer and sax player continues about their relationship. “He slept on the floor. He was not proud. To be that great and be down to earth is the philosophy of Afrobeat music. The connection to the common man is important.” The favorite son of Fela’s, Seun was joining his Dad on stage by age eight. He would open for Egypt 80, singing a few songs before they took the stage for marathon outings of jazz-inflected African beats and uncompromising messages of political empowerment. But then it was over. “I started playing in ’91 and ’92, but then Fela got sick and died,” Kuti says of his notoriously free-living father’s death of AIDS in 1997. It took t he you nger Kut i a We kept playing in Nigeria for ten decade to return Eg ypt 80 to a years before we broke out. But that place where it could act as a major helped my art. I never thought we draw at events like Fuji Rock. “The would play for 100,000, so we just government, which controlled the said, ‘Let’s do this.’” media, wanted Fela to be dead,” he A generation distant from its explains. “Everyday there was bad post-colonial creation, is Afrobeat press about me. They said I was a still relevant? “For me, what’s hap- cokehead. But my Dad taught me pening now is not a lot different about the reality of life. He said, the press has that name because they are there to press you down. 10 • download our podcast at • podcast.metropolis.co.jp from what happened in the ’70s,” Kuti responds. “To take a line from my father, he sang around 1978, ‘How can you say the country is getting rich when the people are so poor?’ The same thing is happening today. The government says the country is growing by eight percent, but every year 20 percent more people become poor. So we’re still going through the same shit our fathers went through.” Kuti has little time for the bling-bling lifestyle celebrated in contemporary pop, whether in Africa or the West. “In England now, they are taking Afropop, and they put a commercial gimmick at the end to make something they call ‘Afrobeats,’ and they sing about champagne and cars, which maybe only three percent of Africans can afford,” he says. “That is not the direction Afrobeat should go. Afrobeat cannot be used to sell Gucci.” A member of the tiny upper class he just described, Kuti could have taken the easy route and chosen the expat life in London or New York, but he prefers to remain in Lagos. “As a Nigerian, you have plenty of inspiration in your daily life. The politicians are talking lies every day on TV, you see people so demoralized they accept the bullshit,” he says. “That’s why I still live in my country. I want to understand how it is for my people. I know I am privileged, but I also know the music has to be for the majority. Art should be about what the people are going through. This is what drives me.” A new album is in the works and Kuti offers a hint of what’s on it: “I have a new song called ‘IMF’— international motherfuckers—that tells you all you need to know.” K u t i s a y s t h e d i f f e r e n c e between the situations his father faced and the ones facing contemporary Africa is that now Africans have the smarts to fight corruption and use the system to their own benefit. “If you look at how people are directing their anger, it’s properly, and that comes from education,” he concludes. “This is where the change is going to come from, and I hope Afrobeat can continue to be the music that drives that.” Club Quattro, Nov 20. See conce rt list i ng s (j a z z/world) for details. courtesy of plAnkton
art Yoshitomo Nara coming back to kawaii in yokohama By C. B. Liddell For better or worse, yoshitomo nara’s art has become part of the new face of Japan, a country that is now associated with manga, otaku, and all things kawaii, rather than the outmoded salaryman stereotypes of the 20th century. it is a Japan that can’t so much say “no” to America as one that instead rolls its oversized anime eyes, bites its lip childishly, and says, “Goo!” in this sense nara’s art, with its cartoon-like depictions of cute little girls with a hint of naughtiness and a touch of evil, is a perfect fit for the image of the new, infantilized Japan—several removes from its proud samurai past. but there have been signs that this artistic approach has not really been working for nara, especially when things “get serious” as they clearly did last year with the Great eastern Japan earthquake. in the aftermath of that mega-tragedy, painting cutesy caricatures of little girls must have seemed redundant, which is why he stopped painting for several months. sports searchiNG For a YokuzuNa the quest to be sumo grand champion at tokyo’s autumn tournament By Mark Buckton Most Japanese will tell you that sumo is the national sport. it is not, and never has been—few nations on earth have passed legislation to this effect. it is, however, recognized as something just a little bit “more” than a sport by most, what with men weighing anything up to a quarter of a ton launching themselves at each other after several minutes of slow and careful preparation. throw in a sizeable dollop of shinto-based pomp and ceremony, and it is one aspect of the local culture most first timers and tourists will never forget. And with september rolling around once again, so too arrives the holding of the latest Aki Basho (Autumn tournament) at the ryogoku kokugikan, from september 9 to 23. With sumo tournaments held every two months, and with a mongolian ozeki, harumafuji, winning the July basho down in nagoya, all eyes will be on the 129kg lightweight to see if he can win back-to-back tourneys and thus guarantee himself promotion to yokozuna—a the large solo exhibition of his work at the yokohama museum of Art charts his route back to painting via sculpture, a new medium of expression for the artist. subtitled “A bit like you and me…” the exhibition seems to be employing the same techniques as nara’s subjects by trying to be cute and appeal to our sympathy, before getting up-close-and-personal with a life-sized recreation of his studio. but interesting as this is, the artistic reality is that there are serious flaws with the giant sculptures that form this exhibition’s centerpiece. the key point about nara’s art has always been its cartoonish two-dimensional quality. transposing the flat spaces and naïve lines of his little ladies into 3-D creates something gross and off-putting. there is a whole room of these swollen-headed monstrosities at the exhibition, but, in accord with the wheedling, emotionally manipulative vibe of the show, we are encouraged to judge them not purely as artworks but also as “therapy pieces” that helped nara return to painting. Actually, they might have achieved this simply by demonstrating what an abysmal sculptor he is. As for his new drawings and paintings, some of them like Miss Spring (2012) show signs of an enriched palette, with a few added touches of color in the hair and glitter in the eyes, but essentially his latest works show no advance or development. these are still the same iconic, naughty, little imps he was painting 20 years ago; nebulous enough for visitors to associate with their own “mischievous darlings.” title usually translated as “grand champion” in english. should the fighter—who is known for his passion for painting—manage to triumph, his nationality will cause quite some consternation in the local media—since no Japanese sumo wrestler has been promoted to the top rank in the sport since 1998. Depending on whom you ask, this is either something of a national embarrassment, or evidence that the world of sumo is opening its doors to the world. yokozuna Grand champion hakuho, a mongolian, dominates sumo today. in the second rank of ozeki, besides harumafuji, there are five other fighters vying for promotion to yokozuna, of which just two are Japanese—kisenosato and kotoshogiku. the remaining trio is made up of an estonian (baruto), a bulgarian (kotooshu) and another mongolian (kakuryu). come september 9, fans will be watching harumafuji in his quest for promotion. Whether or not he will repeat the perfect 15-0 score he put together in nagoya remains to be seen, but in two previous attempts after winning his first two emperor’s cups he flopped badly— scoring 9-6 over 15 days of action in 2009, and 8-7 this time last year. the pressure will thus be on the man like never before. yokozuna hakuho and the rest of the men in the ozeki rank are all approaching peak form, and there is a talented crop of Japanese rikishi champing at the bit in the ranks below—all awaiting their own chance for advancement. myogiryu, Goeido, and chiyotairyu are all names outside the upper two ranks to keep an eye out for, as is osunaarashi (literally “big sandstorm”) way down in the Sandanme division, sumo’s fourth from top. egyptian by birth, he is the first African, first muslim and first from his nation to enter the professional game. to date, he has fought just 12 times and has yet to be defeated. he is one who will surely be making his way upward to the topmost Makunouchi division—home of hakuho, harumafuji and company—sooner, rather than later. courtesy of nihon sumo kyokAi Miss Spring (2012) the earthquake threw nara out of his cozy stride and even temporarily into the heroic world of sculpture, but this exhibition shows that normal service has been resumed. imagine a toddler who gets upset and bawls her head off for a few minutes before getting a nice candy from her mum. instantly, the dark shadows are dispelled, and the sunshine smile is resumed, perhaps with a hint of a cunning, manipulative leer. that naughty little miss is yoshitomo nara. Yokohama Museum of Art, until Sep 23. See exhibition listings (other areas) for details. Harumafuji has Hakuho on the back foot as Bulgarian Kotooshu looks on TickeT Tips ● Don’t be put off by tales of exorbitant prices and tickets as rare as hen’s teeth. Prices for reserved seats on the second floor start at a reasonable ¥3,600, moving up to ¥11,300 per person for box seats on the first floor. ● Day tickets cost just ¥2,100 and are usually available at the stadium’s ticket office any time Monday to Friday. On weekends, lines for these tickets usually start around 6am, and with just 400 available, they sell out pretty fast. #962 • www.metropolis.co.jp • 11 ©nArA yoshitomo - photo by: kioku keizo
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