The buzz has it that Tony Allen is the world's best drummer because he can play a different rhythm with each limb. So when the BBC's 'The Culture Show' interviewed him last night, the first thing Lauren Laverne asked him was to demonstrate. Instantly he started a grooving Afrobeat with each hand and foot playing a different time. The best part was that it sounded smooth and easy.
Allen was one of the founding members of Fela Kuti's band in Lagos, Nigeria in the early 70s. When he left Kuti had to replace him with four drummers. He is considered the founder of Afrobeat, that loping jazzy groove whose influence has spread far beyond West Africa. In the 80s he made a number of solo records, of which the most famous (and possibly the best) is 'Never Expect Power Always'. More recently he played for The Good, The Bad And The Queen.
A Tony Allen gig lasts about four hours, so when I saw him a few months ago, his hour long show was almost a warm-up. He even mentioned it as an excuse not to talk to the audience as it reduced the amount of playing time. On 'The Culture Show' he said he hates doing drum solos because it stops the groove. It's hard not to like a man with this attitude. In an interesting contradiction, he plays softly but uses sticks the size of baseball bats.
The BBC don't believe in embeding videos, so follow the link for a Culture Show jam.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2008/07/s5_e8_afrobeat_extra/index.shtml
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I need just one of his limbs
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When one clicks on the video, a message appears saying "This doesn't seem to be working. Please try again later." The good manners are appreciated, but the message is not. He is everything you say, at the very least...
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Very,very high in my pantheon! I didn't see the vid here but I tracked it down. Outstanding
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Cody, speaking of Fela, did you make it to the Seun Kuti freebie at Central Park>
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Hi there
The reason why some of you won't be able to watch the Tony Allen item on the BBC website is that video is only available within the UK (sorry if that's annoying, it's a licence fee thing). If you are in the UK I've now put up the full item.
The BBC has actually just enabled the embedding of video through the EMP (embeddable media player) but it is subject to editorial approval because of quite complex rights situations. More here.
I work on the Culture Show website.
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Sweet intro to Mr. Allen. Consider my interest peaked!
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I missed it Ivy..bummer.
More Tony Allen Info here..
Some recent Tony Allen Music here...
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wow, simply incredible.....found some clips after some digging
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Yeah, Cody turned me on to Allen several months ago. Thanks for the background info, I would love to catch him live. Maybe Jazzfest some year.
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It took 2 seconds to find him on Youtube (the ultimate music resource)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjOOJL2sqiQ
I dunno - sounds like your basic garden-variety "jazz" drummer.
He's no Neal Peart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuOTkrEVeb4
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Both are amazing - excellent drummers.
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Hard to compare two different styles, but Tony Allen is no garden variety drummer..and you are right, he's no Neal Peart! Except in my book that's a plus..
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I think we all know a great drummer when we hear one, whether he's a metronome or a dynamo of action. In Tony Allen's case, there are very few who can say they started a whole music movement.
Ellen, thanks for all that info and updating about the rights issues. However, it's ironic that a show called The Culture Show is hindered in spreading culture through the very medium that encourages a global audience for niche art forms like African music. (And I'm using 'niche' in the sense of it's popularity outside Africa.)
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I loved Allen's song "Afro Disco Beat on the Last King Of Scotland soundtrack. I posted about it last year.
http://mog.com/FluxCapacitor/blog/78609
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Good call, Colin. I haven't seen the film and missed your post, but it's a right funky soundtrack. Even though it's a Nigerian sound, it wouldn't surprise me to know it flows through the pearl of africa as well (as old Winston caled Uganda). This groove infuses Manu Dibango's music too - drawing from a common source?
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"drawing from a common source?"
Is that a polite way of saying they're nicking stuff off one another? ;)
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Lol! I'd never be that polite. No, I was just wondering if if the groove was in the air, so to speak. Manu is from Cameroon but he worked with Fela. "Soul Makosa" dates from 1972. He could have heard Afrobeat and decided to do his own take on it. But then, as Picasso and many others have said, "A poor artist copies. A good artist steals." I'm assuming the "many others' have been nicking it off Pablo. :-)
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Africans are very aware of what musicians in other African countries are doing. Manu Dibango, for one, has made a point - or so a Senegalese friend tells me - of hiring band members from all over Africa. (But he doesn't have a reputation for paying or treating them especially well, this friend also suggests.) There has also been, over the last four decades or so, a history of bands from particular African countries seeking either economic opportunity or political refuge in another country, which also leads to different sounds intermingling.
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That would be similar to Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orhcestra, which consciously had musicians from all 15 countries of the old Mandinga empire. Musically, they took traditional songs from all over and updated them or wrote new ones and played them with th etraditonal instrumnts. Hence the symmetry of the band's name.
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And when james brown showed up in Africa 68-69 folks were aware of him,too..
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Jonh, I gotta hear me some Toumani Diabate....
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I'll post as soon as I can (a busy weekend coming up) because he should be heard. He's probably the master kora player right now and I take it as a sign of his skill that the 12 year old is besotted with him. Interestingly, he was discovered by Joe Boyd about 20 years ago.