Seun started learning saxophone and piano when he was eight and has been performing on stage since he was nine years old. He started his career as an opening act with his father’s band, Egypt 80, with whom he still performs today.

And since his father’s death, when he was just fifteen, he has led Egypt 80 as lead vocalist and saxophonist — the focal point of a band that his father had forged into one of Africa’s most legendary ensembles.

His singing voice is deep, and his alto-saxophone hits the lines and hooks his father composed with the same muscular style, although he tries to bring his own flavor to the obligatory solos on saxophone and synthesizer.

And like Fela, on stage Seun lives up to a reputation as a sex symbol, shimmying, winding his hips and often discarding his shirt, to the delight of his female fans.

Fela’s Afrobeat was a pungent blend of funk and jazz with an African sensibility, reminiscent of James Brown but grittier, nastier and vaguely unsettling, like fermenting fruit.

With Seun, Egypt 80 is as explosive as they were under Fela, combining horns, keyboards, percussion, guitars and vocals in a sophisticated and overpowering blend that is always insistent.

In the 70s the band performed almost nightly at The Shrine, a club Fela established, but these days they rehearse once a week and play three or four times a month at various venues around Lagos, sometimes in huge stadiums alongside other artists.

For Seun, taking up where his father left off is about building on Fela’s legacy, not trying to escape it.

He wrote a song about Malaria for a festival in Dakar where he jammed with Manu Dibango and Tony Allen for the BBC film ‘Africa Live: the RollBack Malaria concert’.

Seun says he and his father were close, and Fela’s death at the age of 58 hit the teenager hard. Fela had other children by other women, but took a special interest in Seun, who is one of only two sons to follow their father into a career in music.

But having inherited the leadership of Fela’s band, Seun can be more selective about what else he chooses to take from the example of Fela’s life.

In artistic terms he is also determined to chart his own course.

He has just finished two of his own tracks, ‘Think Africa’ and ‘Fire Dance’ — soon to be released on iTunes.

And now the rest of the world has the opportunity to sample his delights.

www.myspace.com/seunkuti
www.itstillmusic.com

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 On Tour: 2007