Scion of Afro beat has gift and more

The tattoo across Seun Anikulapo Kuti's upper back became more discernible Saturday night as his commanding performance at the World Cafe Live surged on.

Alternately sing-chanting in pointed pidgin English, blowing alto sax or passionately dancing - with rump-shake emphasis that eclipsed even that of his two female backup vocalist-dancers - the 25-year-old Nigerian paced his 15-piece Afro-beat ensemble, Egypt 80, through 90 minutes of prime post-James Brown polyrhythmic bliss.

Having long since shed his snazzy dress shirt by the time they encored with "Fire Dance," from his debut CD

Many Things

, the accumulated coat of glistening sweat had made Kuti's tat clearly readable: "FELA LIVES."

It was an overall joyful display of an aspiring son actually living up to his father's legacy as a musical titan (sorry, Ziggy, Julian and Hank) with an ostensibly inherited band, no less. Although still a teenager at the time, Seun kept Egypt 80 in operation 11 years ago after his father Fela Anikulapo Kuti's passing from an AIDS-related illness at age 58.

As the rebellious architect of the blend of funk, jazz and African musical forms that is Afro-beat, Fela is impossible to replace and pointless to imitate. But unlike his nonetheless admirable older brother, Femi, who chooses to dabble more in R&B hybridization with his own Afro-beat band, the confident, poised Seun (a joke-cracking showman to boot) has found a way to make the genre live and breathe in the present tense with its classic power intact.

How well, you ask?

Seun and Egypt 80 were devastating Saturday in doing Fela's protean organized-religion putdown of 1978, "Shuffering and Shmiling"; everything clicked, with percussion percolating, guitars grooving and the five-man horn section repeatedly punching through in throaty brass unison - or deferring to Emmanuel Kunnuji's bright trumpet solo or Seun's own wind-down on sax.

Yet Seun and company proceeded to make the title track of his album and the following government-indicting anti-malaria tune, "Mosquito Song," come off just as potently. The latter resulted in a giddy close to the regular set, pushed along by guitarist David Obanyedo's racing repetitive hook and Egypt 80's venerable music director Baba Ani, 72, layering in keyboard lines - a decidedly older hand helping to keep things fresh.