33. Fela Ransome-Kuti and the Africa ’70 with Ginger Baker, ‘Live!’ (1971)

Though already celebrated as one of rock's greatest drummers from a three-year run in Cream and Blind Faith, Ginger Baker's curiosity brought him from England to war-embattled Nigeria to learn more about rhythm. "I don't dance," he said about hearing his old friend Fela Kuti's new band Africa 70, "but I just had to dance to Fela's stuff." This intimate collaboration was actually recorded in Abbey Road studio instead of a traditional rock venue, but was electric nonetheless. Said Baker in his autobigraphy, "an audience of 150 crammed into a large studio…with colored spotlights dancing about the walls to give it the feel of a proper live gig." Baker and Afrobeat bricklayer Tony Allen handle the grooves, and one of the world's funkiest bands gets a little free-rock pummel. Christopher R. Weingarten