Gentleman

Gentleman was written and produced by Fela and recorded with his Afrika 70 band, then released by EMI in 1973. The sleeve shows a monkey's head on a suited body, a reference to the title track, in which he comments on the colonial mentality of Africans who adhered to European customs and clothing.

He solos on tenor saxophone over most of the title song's nine-minute intro and moves to electric piano for the vocals. He had learned the instrument after Igo Chico left Afrika 70 in 1973. The title song is followed by two more pieces, Fefe Naa Efe and Igbe. The estate counts the album as the first fully formed Afrobeat album.

AllMusic's Sam Samuelson gave it five stars. MCA reissued it with Confusion in 2000, the last instalment of a ten-CD, twenty-album reissue project, and Robert Christgau graded that reissue A-. Knitting Factory bundled the two albums again in 2010, and Paste's Michaelangelo Matos gave that edition 9.3 out of 10.