The latest cornucopia of music and ideas from the Red Hot Organization is a zinger. This is number 14 in a series of multimedia projects the Red Hot folks have put together to raise awareness about AIDS, and also funds for the fight against it: seven-million dollars to date. The complex legacy of Fela Kuti provides particularly rich ground for a musical meditation on AIDS. The visionary singer and bandleader's death from the disease in 1997 came after he had spent years boasting his about sexual prowess and dismissing AIDS as a "white man's disease." These words seemed shocking at the time, but they were an honest expression of widespread misconceptions around the continent, and clearly, times have been changing since. Fela's family has taken the lead in raising consciousness about AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where as much as 20% of adults are believed to be infected with HIV. Fela's son and musical heir, Femi Kuti, along with his band Positive Force, contributes mightily to four of the 20 diverse tracks on this album.

Fela's art also merges well with the fight against AIDS because of its boldness, militancy, and its willingness to challenge African authority figures, who have been slow to act during this mounting crisis. The astounding array of musicians involved in this project make those connections in a variety of interesting ways. On a non-Fela number, "So Be It," Kelis cleverly merges the Fela and AIDS themes by singing that "misinformation and corruption" are "a virus to the youth." There are strong elements of rap and hip-hop in many of these tracks, and the engaged, edgy, American voices of Talib Kweli, dead prez, Common and others seem completely of a piece.

The same goes for the musical connections made here. Hip-hoppers come together with Positive Force and the voice of Brazilian pop icon Jorge Ben Jor on a great version of "Shuffering and Schmiling." These blends work well because both hip-hop and Afrobeat have roots in funk and R&B. It's easy for them to find common ground as on Lateef and Gift of Gab's rap take on "Kalakuta Show," or on "No Agreement," a long, satisfying track that brings in the singers of Senegalese rap act Positive Black Soul, as well as vocals from Baaba Maal and Ray Lema, the great Tony Allen on sizzling drums, Archie Shepp on sax and vocals, and Kaounding Cissoko on kora. Femi Kuti and Positive Force also drive a two-part rendition of the Fela classic "Water No Get Enemy," featuring one of Fela's quintessential horn arrangements, and beautiful vocal collaboration between Macy Gray and Femi Kuti.

There are many striking moments along the way in this rich musical journey: Roy Hargrove's crafted trumpet solo on "Zombie [Part Two]," Yerba Buena! introducing religious Cuban vocals on "Gentlemen," Cheikh Lo's searing vocals on a fabulously fused arrangement of the songs "Shakara" and "Lady," and Lenine of Brazil playing soft, gut-string guitar against the bombast of Fela horns on "Colonial Mentality," and Taj Mahal and Baaba Maal merging voices on the album's poetic, prayer-like closer, "Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am," which features New York based Afrobeat outfit, Antibalas. There are also intriguing interludes and short pieces that connect the larger works, such as Malian guitar maestro Djelimady Tounkara's intertwining lines on a thoroughly reinvented "Tears and Sorrow" with MeShell Ndegeocello and Common. In all, a powerful, worldly musical summit with an eye not only to mourning the tragedy of AIDS, but fighting it.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org