Fela Kuti - Live!

Live! is a live album by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and the Africa '70, originally released in August 1971 via Regal Zonophone.

Live! is an album recorded in 1971 by Fela Kuti's band Africa '70, with the addition of former Cream drummer Ginger Baker on two songs. The album was released in 1971 via EMI Records in Africa and Europe and via Capitol Records in the United States and Canada. The album helped garner Fela Kuti and world music greater recognition in western music circles with the involvement of Ginger Baker on two of the songs on the album. His twelve piece band Africa ‘70 really cooks on these recordings, fusing African rhythms and music with jazz and soul.

Ginger Baker spent several years in the 1970s living and recording in Africa, often with Fela Kuti, in pursuit of his long-time interest in African music. In November 1971, Baker decided to set up a recording studio in Lagos (ARC studios), then the capital of Nigeria. This studio was eventually used by the McCartneys to record “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)” from the Band On The Run album (which was recorded at EMI Records studios in Lagos).

Ginger Baker travelled with Fela Kuti into Africa in a Land Rover to learn about the continent's rhythms, and was documented in Tony Palmer's film Ginger Baker In Africa (1971).

This album is included on Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Greatest Live Albums Of All Time, and is also included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

This album is a 2014 reissue on black vinyl with a printed insert, pressed in the US via Knitting Factory Records.