My Morning Jacket – “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” (Feat. Merrill Garbus & Brittany Howard) (Fela Kuti Cover)
The AIDS awareness group Red Hot has given us many great benefit compilations over the years, including 1993’s epochal No Alternative (“Unseen Power of the Picket Fence” FTW!) and 2009’s equally epochal Dark Was The Night. They also released a Fela Kuti tribute called Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti in 2002, and now they’re set to release another Kuti commemoration. It’s simply entitled Red Hot + Fela, and it features some of today’s most omnivorous musical stars including Questlove, Kronos Quartet, and members of TV On The Radio. Also on the comp is My Morning Jacket performing a typically sprawling and adventurous take on Kuti’s “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” with assists from tUnE-yArDs mastermind Merrill Garbus and Alabama Shakes singer Brittany Howard. They’ll perform the tune live on Fallon on 10/11, but you can stream the studio version right here, right now.
My Morning Jacket – “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” (Feat Merrill Garbus & Brittany Howard)
Red Hot + Fela is out 10/8 via Knitting Factory Records.