R. Kelly gets raw on ‘TP.3 Reloaded’

Sufjan Stevens, “Illinois”
After his lauded debut, “Greetings from Michigan: the Great Lake State,” Sufjan Stevens announced his intentions of making an album about each of the other 49 states. People were even more surprised when Stevens, now 30, made it clear he was absolutely serious.

“Illinois” is the second entry in his wildly ambitious musical tour of American geography. The question is, when the 50 are done, what does one do with Puerto Rico? Guam? Afghanistan?

Questions of pseudo-statehood notwithstanding, Stevens has moved southwest from his home state of Michigan, continuing what may be the most bizarre (and seemingly un-ironic) journey for any banjo player since Kermit the Frog decided he wanted out of the swamp.

This singer-songwriter surrounds his soft voice and delicate banjo and guitar playing with a small symphony of piano, horns and strings; the backing “Michigan Militia” has been temporarily renamed “The Illinoisemakers.”

Performing in matching Boy Scout-like uniforms, Stevens and his followers sound something like what Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang might dance to in their more confusing teenage years.

With song titles like “Casimir Pulaski Day,” “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts” and “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!” Stevens digs through Illinois life and history for 22 songs that might be more accurately called psalms.

The musical theme meander from the parries to the skyscrapers of Chicago, from John Wayne Gacy Jr. to Superman. Though there’s a lot of operatic filler, songs like “Jacksonville,” “Chicago” and especially, ahem, “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!” reach great heights.

Really, none of this is as weird as it sounds. In “Night Zombies,” the Illinoisemakers spell out the letters to Illinois over a great bass line and swelling strings — emblematic of the overall effect of adolescence meets mature musical arrangement.

It will be interesting to see if Stevens keeps up his 50 states project or putters out somewhere in the Dakotas. If he can maintain the energy and the oddball combinations of Nick Drake-style songwriting, church choir grandiosity and elementary school simplicity, here’s hoping he makes it to both coasts.    —Jake Coyle

“The Best of Fela Kuti” is a snapshot of the late Nigerian tribal funk-master in his prime. There are 2 CDs and 1 DVD full of the scathing 12- and 13-minute lyrical diatribes against the Nigerian government that earned him the nickname the “Black President.”

The tracks showcase some of Fela’s best unending grooves in the genre he birthed called “Afro Beat.” Fela floats above cycling guitar licks, pulsating drum beats and call-and-response vocal themes with his syncopated phrases and poignant saxophone solos. Occasionally he taps out a melody line on the organ.

His suspicion of religion is featured on “Shuffering and Shmiling,” and his ever-present passion for the survival of his people is represented by “Sorrow Tears and Blood.”

The “Music is the Weapon” DVD, released in 1982, chronicles Fela’s life from his early education in London to his constant skirmishes with government forces. It shows him holding interviews nearly naked and portrays his independent “Kalakuta Republic” where he maintained, at one point, 27 wives. (He died in 1997 of AIDS.)

If you watch Fela’s DVD and Femi’s “Live at the Shrine” (2004) DVD back to back, the physical resemblance between the two is uncanny. Femi looks to be a younger, less sinewy version of his father. His band, “Positive Force,” is more refined, the dancers much more erotic. The horns are tighter and clearer, the vocals more in tune, the bass lines works of art.

The original tracks on Femi’s “Live at the Shrine” CD complete the CD/DVD set. They are as hypnotic and anti-government as his father’s. However, Femi’s live four-hour concert performed at the music club built to honor his father is not intended to spark a political movement, just stress-relieving butt-shaking.

The people cheer Femi’s name and toss chairs out of the way to clear a path for him. With a single hand gesture he summons the attention of his entire stage crew and directs them to the stage. The audience, an impromptu tribe, has found their new black president.    —Aimee Maude Sims

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