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| Tony Allen - Secret Agent **** |
| Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:26 | |||||||
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World Circuit Records WCD082 | Tony Allen (v, d, p), Rody Ceeyon (b), Claude Dibongue (g), Fixi (p, acc, tb, backing v), Niclaus Giraud (t), Jean Jacques Elangue (ts), Yann Jankielwicz (s), Simon Andrieux (tb), Yinka Ogunye (perc) and vocalists. Rec. 2009 Tony Allen is a man with mystique. Cloaked, invariably, in aviator sunglasses, saying little but achieving much, the diminutive Nigerian has accrued the sort of iconic status usually reserved for those who have departed this mortal coil – a legacy, in part, of his work with Afrobeat originator and thorn-in-the-side of Nigeria’s corrupt government, the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Together Allen and Kuti developed a sound that fused jazz, funk and highlife with African rhythm; a big band sound powered by Kuti’s insurrectionary stance and harddriving saxophone and Allen’s extraordinary four-limbed drum technique. Inspired by jazz drummers and local highlife rhythms alike, Allen was always more about the music than the politics. But since leaving Fela’s band in the early-1980s and going on to release the must-have No Discrimination he has carved out his own maverick identity (the template for which lay in a series of side-projects throughout the 1970s), blending riffs and choruses, rhythms and genres to enticing, rather refined effect. So after a leftfield foray as co-founder (with Damon Albarn) of The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Allen is back with a slice of hardcore Afrobeat that sees him revelling in his unmistakable groove. Recorded in Nigeria and Allen’s hometown Paris this is naija music to the core, pulsing with raw energy and propelled along by a cast of largely unknown singers and musicians from deep within the Lagos community. Songs take their cue from traditional Yoruba proverbs and Afrobeat’s trademark rabble-rousing: the single ‘Elewon Po’ (‘Too Many Prisoners’) is possibly the most upbeat protest song you’ll hear all year. Allen presides over them all, singing little but drumming it large; head down and ears wide open. Jane Cornwell
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