Fela Kuti Manager Rikki Stein to Publish His Memoir, ‘Moving Music’

Rikki Stein’s expertise in music has been decades in the making, so news of a memoir is a big affair. Yesterday, the veteran manager, music executive and producer announced that his book, Moving Music - The Memoirs of Rikki Stein, would be published on June 4.

“After 60 years of carrying some of the world’s most gifted artists around the world, I’ve written it all down in these, my memoirs,” he wrote in an Instagram post co-published with Yeni Kuti and Femi Kuti.

Stein famously managed the Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti until his death in 1997, the Nigerian and the London-born Stein becoming friends way back in 1983. Since then he has been actively involved in preserving and curating the Fela legacy. He is the CEO of Kalakuta Sunrise Ltd and Kalakuta Sunrise Publishing, which was set up in 2012 and consequently integrated Knitting Factory Records in the UK and across Europe. Repackaging and re-releasing Fela’s catalog of fifty albums, it also develops and promotes many other artists, including Fela's sons, Femi and Seun Kuti.

During the 1980s, Stein became immersed in the bubbling world of African performance. An agent for numerous artists, he organized international tours for artists from varying countries, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mali, South Africa and Burundi. He was the personal manager to Les Ballet Africains, a national dance company in Conakry, Guinea, between 1988 and 2000.

Internationally, Stein was very acclaimed for his roving nature, the depth and heart he brought to his interaction with musicians. Among several others he toured with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Kinks, The Moody Blues and the Grateful Dead; between 1981 and 1990, he was an executive team member of the Glastonbury Festival; he’s also consulted several times as an international adviser to the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA).

Stein’s forthcoming memoir shapes up to be an essential read for African music enthusiasts but also anyone who is interested in the background workings of music across genres, eras and national sensibilities. Its blurb on Wordville promises a book “full of extraordinary, sometimes hilarious, stories of life on the road…the joys, frustrations and surprises of juggling logistics, local politics and the whims of his creative clients to deliver true moments of moving music.”

Pre-order Moving Music - The Memoirs of Rikki Stein here.