Fela Kuti Concert Poster

A Fela Kuti concert poster published on the occasion of his historic November 6th 1986 show at Madison Square Garden's The Felt Forum.

• Offset lithograph.
• This work is presented unframed.

Beginning in the 1960s, Fela Kuti pioneered his own unique style of music called "Afrobeat" and played a pivotal role in defining the genre.

Fela Kuti, byname of Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, also called Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, (born October 15, 1938, Abeokuta, Nigeria—died August 2, 1997, Lagos), Nigerian musician and activist who launched a modern style of music called Afro-beat, which fused American blues, jazz, and funk with traditional Yoruba music.

Kuti was the son of feminist and labor activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. As a youth he took lessons in piano and percussion before studying (1959) classical music at Trinity College London. While in London, he encountered various musical styles by playing piano in jazz and rock bands. Returning to Nigeria in the mid-1960s, he reconstituted Koola Lobitos, a band with which he had played in London. The Afro-beat sound emerged from that group’s experiments. Kuti passed on in 1997, roughly 1 million people attended his funeral procession, which began at Tafawa Balewa Square and ended at Kuti's home, Kalakuta, in Ikeja, Nigeria, where he was laid to rest in the front yard.