CD REVIEWS: JAZZ

FELA KUTI: BLACK PRESIDENT - THE BEST OF FELA KUTI (Talkin' Loud)

This double-album sampler from the prolific recording career of Kuti (1938-97), the Nigerian bandleader and creator of Afro-Beat, is continuously entrancing, almost literally so. Time appears to dissolve in the few seconds that mark the beginning and end of a simple funk riff. Repeated again and again, the riff becomes internalised until, like a powerful virus, you can't get rid of it. It's 1970s James Brown funk taken back to the original African source. Only the absence of original recording details mars an otherwise essential compilation.