Rončel in Šiška: Tony Allen

‘Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat’ (Fela Anikulapo Kuti)


The legendary Nigerian drummer and composer Tony Allen is considered the founder and co-author of Afrobeat, the music genre that was created in cooperation with Fela Kuti in 1970's. A self-taught musician, Allen decided to pursue a professional music career at the age of eighteen. He would listen relentlessly to albums by A. Blakey and M. Roach as well as the Ghanaian drummer Guy Warren; his main idol was Gene Krupa, whereas the roots of his unique drumming sound can be traced back to the early traditional Yoruba music and American jazz.

In his hometown of Lagos he played in various »highlife« bands (Cool Cats, Nigerian Messengers, The Melody Makers). The decisive year of his career was 1964 when he began playing in Fela Kuti's »highlife« jazz band "Koola Lobitos". Five years later, after visiting the USA they renamed as Africa 70' and presented a fresh African sound: strong elementary groove and universally popular James-Brown soul meet in the jazz-highlife sphere featuring the echoes of Yoruba polyrhythmic tribal music. Allen made the drums emit sounds that would connect, upgrade and open up new dimensions of this exciting world of music – Afrobeat was born. Together with Fela Allen recorded more than 30 albums with Africa 70' as the drummer and musical director of the band. In late 1970's Allen opted for a solo career and recorded 3 albums (Jelousey '75, Progress '77, No Accomodations for Lagos '79), then finally chose to leave Africa 70'. In 1980 he formed his own band No Discrimination in Lagos and in 1984 he emigrated to Europe due to financial troubles, increasing racial discrimination and political repression. He settled in Paris to record with musicians of world renown, such as King Sunny Ade, Ray Lema and Manu Dibango. In 1985 he recorded N.E.P.A. (Never Expect Power Always).

During his “post-Fela” solo career Allen again began developing his hybrid sound. He used to say that not one, but four drummers were playing on the same set simultaneously, each limb playing by itself and contributing to the final result. In the 1990's Allen was passionate in building and expanding both his career and his horizons in music, combining his sound with other genres, such as electronic music, R&B, rap. Such diverse music syntheses he would call Afrofunk. In 2002 he released the album Home Cooking, and soon afterwards, in the same year, also Eager Hands and Restless Feet: The Best Of Tony Allen, a resume of his »post-Fela« period. In 2004 he released a live album and in 2006 returned to Africa, back to his roots. He recorded the Afro-beat album Lagos No Shaking in Lagos. In the same year he co-founded the British alternative rock band The Good, The Bad & The Queen, the other members of which were Paul Simon (the Clash), Simon Tong (the Verve) and Damon Albarn (Blur). In 2007 they released a well-received album, whereas Tony Allen and Damon Albarn also collaborated for the album Home Cooking. In his latest, this year's release Secret Agent, Tony Allen generously offers a fair amount of fresh Afrobeat, not building on the strong or loud drums, but providing the “groove” – a discreet and soft rhythm offered precisely and sensitively, which according to Allen', like a trance overwhelms a man and gets under their skin. Musicians from around the world admire and respect him immensely, while the members of his band refer to him as “the Doctor”, which is a name that can't be disputed by the most demanding audience.