Recorded together with Kuti’s Africa ‘70 band amid a period of musical transition, Gentleman was one of the more highlife-focused albums in the artist’s vast back catalogue and was probably the last time he sounded thus before establishing his signature Afrobeat style. It also sees him return to a degree to his 1950s jazz roots.

One of the first flowerings of Fela’s overtly political stance, Gentleman saw Kuti address (on the title track particularly) what he saw as a rejection of African style and behaviour by governments across the continent (and in his native Nigeria especially) as the result of colonialism and the imposition of alien religions such as Islam and Christianity.

There are only three tracks here: the title track, ‘Fe Fe Ne Eye Fe’ a comment on vanity and ‘Igbe (Na Shit)’, as Fela is beginning to stretch out, creating those hypnotic, open-ended and vast improvisations for which he later became so famous and influential. The music is beginning to take on a heavier, more brooding quality, in line with its weighty concerns, but it’s not yet acquired the ever-shifting density of later Afrika ‘70 and Egypt ‘80 recordings; there is still a good deal of spaciousness in the music, and players can often be heard soloing with minimal accompaniment. Horns are beginning to dominate, the guitar interplay is toned down, and the funk factor is ratcheted up.

Disappointingly, this anniversary edition contains no extras, but it is packaged with a handsome gold obi strip, brief liner notes on the inner sleeve and is pressed on ‘Igbo smoke’-coloured vinyl. The sound matches the quality of the packaging.