The same audio compilation has, in fact, been available in Europe, as The Best Of Fela Kuti, on a variety of labels since 2000.
The two disc set�the Deluxe Edition also contains a DVD�includes 13 titles made by Kuti, first as Fela Ransome Kuti with Africa 70, then as Fela Anikulapo Kuti with Afrika 70. The Best Of The Black President is Knitting Factory's opening gambit. Its reissue series will mark the first time all Kuti's titles have been released on vinyl in the US�they'll also be available on CD and in a range of online formats�and will include the first official release of the entire catalog of Kuti's 1960s band Koola Lobitos, which began as a highlife and jazz group but which by the end of the decade was playing Afrobeat in everything but name. The Knitting Factory program can, however, be welcomed without hesitation. Jones is a leading light of American modern dance, and brings an appropriate rebel aesthetic to his project, but it remains to be seen how well even he will be able to transfer Kuti's sprawling, multi-faceted life and music to the stage. Jones' musical, Fela, is to open on Broadway on November 23, 2009, and meanwhile New York's Knitting Factory label has begun a reissue program which will, between fall 2009 and the close of 2010, see 45 Kuti titles released. Twelve years after his death, activity around the legacy of Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti is growing exponentially and the US, finally, is getting in on the act.
