Tony Allen (drummer)
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Tony Oladipo Allen (born August 12, 1940 in Lagos ; died April 30, 2020 in Paris ) was a Nigerian drummer and songwriter . As the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, he is considered one of the founders of Afrobeat . Kuti stated: "Without Tony Allen there would be no Afrobeat." In 2016 Rolling Stone listed Allen 33 of the 100 best drummers of all time .
Early career
At the age of 18, Allen began self-taught playing drums while working as a technician for a Nigerian radio station. Allen was influenced by his father's musical tastes ( Jùjú , traditional Yoruba and music of the Ibo ceremonies), but also by American jazz and the growing highlife scene in Nigeria and Ghana. He worked hard to develop a unique sound for the drums by studying LPs and newspaper articles by Max Roach and Art Blakey , but also material from Ghanaian drummer Guy Warren (now Kofi Ghanaba ), who developed a special wailing sound and drumming to go with it Ghanaian tribes combined with Bop; Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker , Thelonious Monk and Max Roach were the starting material for him.
Allen was hired by 'Sir' Victor Olaiya as a claves player for his highlife band Cool Cats . When the band's previous drummer left, Allen filled the gap created on the drums. Allen later played with Agu Norris and the Heatwaves , the Nigerian Messengers and the Melody Makers .
Fela & Africa '70
In 1964, Allen was invited to audition by Fela Ransome Kuti, who wanted to start a highlife jazz band. Kuti and Allen had already played together in the backing band of the Lagos Circus. Kuti was impressed by Allen's playing style: "How can it be that you are the only guy in Nigeria who can play like this - jazz and highlife rolled into one?" That is how Allen Kuti's high-life jazz band Koola Lobitos joined.
In 1969 Fela Kuti and the band, which had just been renamed Africa '70 , developed a new variant of African music after a US tour, in which the rousing rhythm of James Brown was combined with jazz, highlife and the polyphonic drumming of the Yoruba ceremonies. Allen developed a new style for Fela that unites the various genres of African rhythms.
Allen told how he wrote songs with Fela Kuti in 1970: “Fela usually composed the parts for all the musicians in the band (Africa '70). I was the only one who could influence his music. Fela always asked me which type of rhythm I wanted to play ... You have to discuss this with a good drummer because there were ... four of us ... and they ... played different things ... not just set pieces from Yoruba ... [also] from other regions of Nigeria and Africa. "(Graeme Ewens, Africa O-Ye!, 1991)
Allen recorded more than 30 albums with Fela Kuti and Africa '70 , which can be counted among the best of Fela Kuti. There were several disagreements among the ranks of Africa '70 in the late 1970s; Among other things, license fees and other payments were a cause for disputes, on the other hand, the band got more attention than before. As the inventor of the rhythms underpinning the Afrobeat and musical director of Africa '70 , Allen felt disadvantaged. Fela Kuti asserted herself and explained that Allen could claim royalties from his own songs, but not from songs that were collaboratively created at Africa '70 . As a result, Fela Kuti Allen supported on three solo albums: Jealousy (1975), Progress (1977) and No Accommodation For Lagos (1979). In 1979, Allen and a few other band members managed to leave Africa '70 . “What makes me decide it's time to go? It's ... everything ... and (his) ruthlessness ... how he doesn't care, how he doesn't know ... how he doesn't feel that he has done everything (wrong). And with all the parasites around it, it was the same ... there have been 71 people on tour so far and only 30 of them have worked directly with the band ... you have to ask yourself why. These people robbed Fela of his strength, his music. ”Everyone went on on his own, still searching for his very own soundscapes.
From Afrobeat to Afro funk
Allen founded his own band, recorded No Discrimination with her in 1980 and played with her in Lagos until he emigrated to London in 1984. After moving to Paris, Allen played with King Sunny Adé , Ray Lema and Manu Dibango . In 1985 he took up NEPA .
After the end of the collaboration with Fela Kuti, Allen developed a complex sound that dismantled Afrobeat and combined it with electronica , dub and hip-hop . Allen referred to this amalgamation of musical styles as "Afrofunk".
His 13th independently produced album, which was released on June 13, 2006, was a return to Allen's roots in Afrobeat after the avant-garde forays into the worlds of electronica ; it's a live recording from Lagos with the full afrobeat band Lagos No Shaking (Lagos is fine).
Brian Eno described Tony Allen as "perhaps the greatest drummer who ever lived".
In 2006 he played the drummer with Damon Albarn , Paul Simonon and Simon Tong on the debut album The Good, the Bad & the Queen by the band of the same name . Together with Damon Albarn, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Balzary and various guest musicians, he released an album of the same name in 2012 as Rocket Juice & The Moon .
Allen had been a member of the Moritz von Oswald Trio since 2016, to which Max Loderbauer also belonged in addition to von Oswald and Allen . Allen replaced Vladislav Delay , who was previously the third member of the group. In June 2016 the album Sounding Lines was released on Honest Jon's Records.
In July 2018, Allen announced a new collaboration with Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills . Their joint EP Tomorrow Comes the Harvest was released on September 28, 2018. The radio station ByteFM was enthusiastic about the single The Seed : “Allen's complex and soulful beat is decorated by Mills with jazz samples and electronic ornaments. It is a hypnotic joy to listen to these two masters grooving collectively ”. In March 2020 the album Rejoice was released , which was created in 2010 when he met the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and was completed in 2019 with further overdubs; In the third quarter of 2020 it made it onto the list of the best of the German Record Critics' Prize .
Allen died of an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta in Paris in late April 2020 at the age of 79 .
Discography
| year | title | Artist | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Koola Lobitos (64-68) / The 69 'Los Angeles Sessions | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1970 | Fela's London Scene | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1971 | Live ! | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1971 | Open & Close | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1972 | Roforofo Fight | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1972 | Shakara | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1973 | Afrodisiac | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1973 | gentlemen | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1974 | Confusion | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1974 | Hey Miss Road | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Jealousy | Tony Allen | Strut |
| 1975 | Alagbon Close | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Everything scatter | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Excuse O | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Expensive shit | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Monkey banana | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1975 | Noise For Vendor Mouth | Fela Ransome Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Ikoyi blindness | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Kalakuta show | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Well poi | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Unnecessary begging | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Upside down | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1976 | Yellow fever | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | progress | Tony Allen | Strut |
| 1977 | Fear Not For Man | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | JJD - Live At Kalakuta Republic | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | No agreement | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | Opposite people | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | Sorrow Tears And Blood | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | Stalemates | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1977 | zombie | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1979 | No Accommodation For Lagos | Tony Allen | Strut |
| 1979 | Unknown soldier | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1979 | VIP | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1980 | No Discrimination | Tony Allen | Strut |
| 1980 | Music of Many Colors | Fela Anikulapo Kuti / Roy Ayers | Barclay |
| 1986 | I Go Shout Plenty | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Afrodisia |
| 1988 | Never Expect Power Always (aka NEPA) | Tony Allen with Afrobeat 2000 | Moving target |
| 1998 | Ariya | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 1999 | Black Voices | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 1999 | Ariya (Remixes) | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 1999 | The Two Sides Of Fela - Jazz & Dance | Fela Anikulapo Kuti | Barclay |
| 1999 | Racubah! - A Collection of Modern Afro Rhythms | Various artists | Comet |
| 2000 | Black Voices Alternate take Featuring Mike 'clip' Payne | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 2000 | Black Voices Remixed | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 2000 | Mountains Will Never Surrender | Doctor L | Jive |
| 2000 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 1 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2000 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 2 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2000 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 3 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2000 | Modern Answers To Old Problems | Ernest Ranglin | Telarc |
| 2000 | Afrobeat… No Go Die! | Various artists | Shanachie |
| 2001 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble | Various artists | Comet |
| 2001 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 4 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2001 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 5 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2001 | The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble Part 6 | Various artists | Comet |
| 2002 | Home cooking | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 2002 | Every season | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 2002 | Eager Hands & Restless Feet | Tony Allen | Wrasse |
| 2004 | Awa band | Bababatteur | Ekosound |
| 2004 | live | Tony Allen | Comet |
| 2006 | Lagos No Shaking | Tony Allen | Astral work |
| 2006 | To give is to get | Sofi Hellborg, Tony Allen and Timbuktu | Ajabu |
| 2007 | The Good, The Bad & The Queen | The Good, The Bad & The Queen | EMI |
| 2007 | Kilode | Tony Allen | Honest Jons |
| 2009 | Secret agent | Tony Allen | World Circuit |
| 2009 | Inspiration information | Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen | Strut |
| 2012 | Rocket Juice and The Moon | Rocketjuice And The Moon | Honest Jon's |
| 2014 | Film Of Life | Tony Allen | Jazz Village |
| 2015 | Sounding Lines | Moritz von Oswald Trio | Honest Jon's |
| 2017 | The Source | Tony Allen | Blue note |
| 2017 | A Tribute to Art Blakey [EP] | Tony Allen | Blue note |
| 2020 | Rejoice | Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela | World Circuit |
See also
Web links
- Tony Allen at Discogs (English)
- Tony Allen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
obituary
- Julian Weber: Cool energy: Obituary for Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. In: taz from May 1, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Daniel Kreps, Elias Leight, Daniel Kreps, Elias Leight: Tony Allen, Pioneering Afrobeat Drummer, Dead at 79. In: Rolling Stone. April 30, 2020, accessed May 1, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Rolling Stone , March 31, 2016, accessed August 6, 2017 .
- ↑ "Radio rockets with rocket drive" in the blog Tonträger der Zeit
- ↑ Moritz Von Oswald Trio return with new member Tony Allen on Sounding Lines at factmag.com, accessed on July 25, 2016
- ↑ Afrobeat meets Detroit-Techno: New EP from Tony Allen and Jeff Mills. Retrieved on August 20, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Meeting (Rejoice)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Allen, Tony |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Allen, Tony Oladipo (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Nigerian drummer and afrobeat pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 12, 1940 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lagos , Nigeria |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 2020 |
| Place of death | Paris , France |