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TONY ALLEN

Tony Allen, Adrian Younge

Tony Allen JID018

    The genius that is Tony Allen departed this mortal world in April of 2020, but not without leaving an unmatched legacy that crossed oceans and borders, bridging cultures and forging a sound that changed music. As the drummer for Fela Kuti's revolutionary Africa 70, Allen's polyrhythmic drumming defined Afrobeat. His contributions as an artist and cultural ambassador left an indelible impact on every genre of popular music, from Techno to Jan to Rock and Hip-Hop. Tony Allen's music stands as an ongoing testament to the interconnected musical relationships and dialogues across the African diaspora, and their lasting influence on how we listen. For Jazz Is Dead producer Adrian Younge, it is no small honor to share new music recorded with the drummer revolutionary Tony Allen. 

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Ebun
    2. Steady Tremble
    3. Oladipo
    4. Don't Believe The Dancers
    5. Makoko
    8. Lagos
    7. No Beginning
    8. No End

    Tony Allen

    Secret Agent - 2022 Remaster

      World Circuit Records has made its reputation by producing some of the finest albums of the past three decades. The label is best known for the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club album (and associated solo artists Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Rubén González), which is the biggest selling world music album of all time and has contributed to the phenomenal rise in popularity of Cuban, as well as Latin American, music.

      World Circuit is also home to a number of revered African artists including the late Tony Allen (whose Afrobeat-jazz collaboration with Hugh Masekela ‘Rejoice’ was released to great critical acclaim in March 2020), iconic blues pioneer Ali Farka Touré (whose classic Grammy-winning ‘Talking Timbuktu’ album, recorded with Ry Cooder, brought the label early international acclaim), Malian divas and social activists Oumou Sangaré and Fatoumata Diawara, master kora player Toumani Diabaté, the illustrious Orchestra Baobab and musical iconoclast Cheikh Lô. 


      TRACK LISTING

      A1 Secret Agent
      A2 Ijo
      A3 Switch
      B1 Celebrate
      B2 Ayenlo
      B3 Busybody
      C1 Pariwo
      C2 Nina Lowo
      C3 Atuwaba
      D1 Alutere
      D2 Elewon Po

      Joan As Police Woman & Tony Allen & Dave Okumu

      The Solution Is Restless

        Of the album Joan Wasser says :
        Damon Albarn introduced me to Afrobeat legend, Tony Allen, at the March 2019 Africa Express event “The Circus” and we hit it off. Tony and I played a version of Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" and decided to record together. I asked my old friend and fierce musician, Dave Okumu, to join from London and that November, in a Parisian studio, we improvised all night. When the world shut down, I used those recordings to write a record entitled “The Solution Is Restless”. This first single, “Take Me To Your Leader”, is the most incendiary on the new record. I wrote it watching Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand, navigate 2020. In my dreamworld, the US asks to meet her in order to learn how to better run the country. “Take me to your leader/ ‘cause I’m ready to play/ can’t hold my breath any longer/ word on the street is she’s a healer/ I’m know I’m down to obey/ and don’t we need a break in the chaos”

        Tony Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti’s band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the primary co-founders of the genre of Afrobeat. Fela once stated that, "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat” and he was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived". Besides many other musical milestones and collaborations, in recent years Tony teamed up with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong to form The Good, the Bad & the Queen.

        Dave Okumu is best known for fronting the Mercury Music Prize band The Invisible and more recently announcing the release of a solo album ‘Knopperz’ due for release in September.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. The Barbarian
        2. Get My Bearings (feat. Damon Albarn)
        3. Take Me To Your Leader
        4. Masquerader
        5. Dinner Date
        6. Enter The Dragon
        7. Geometry Of You
        8. The Love Has Got Me
        9. Perfect Shade Of Blue
        10. Reaction 

        ‘Rejoice’ is the classic collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. The record, released to great acclaim in March 2020, became the first posthumous release from Masekela, and the last release from Allen, who sadly passed away a month later.

        For this Special Edition, World Circuit have gone back to the original 2010 mixes and added previously unheard parts from the 2019 sessions to create 8 reimagined bonus mixes. The CD and LP releases also feature a booklet with sleeve notes and photos.

        Having first met in the 70s thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018. With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

        ‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with its roots firmly in Afrobeat. Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland / The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.


        TRACK LISTING

        Disc 1:
        1. Robbers, Thugs And Muggers (O’Galajani)
        2. Agbada Bougou
        3. Coconut Jam
        4. Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same)
        5. Slow Bones
        6. Jabulani (Rejoice, Here Comes Tony)
        7. Obama Shuffle Strut Blues
        8. We’ve Landed

        Disc 2
        1. Robbers, Thugs And Muggers (O’Galajani) (Cool Cats Mix)
        2. Agbada Bougou (Cool Cats Mix)
        3. Coconut Jam (Cool Cats Mix)
        4. Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same) (Cool Cats Mix)
        5. Slow Bones (Cool Cats Mix)
        6. Jabulani (Rejoice, Here Comes Tony) (Cool Cats Mix)
        7. Obama Shuffle Strut Blues (Cool Cats Mix)
        8. We’ve Landed (Cool Cats Mix)

        When did Tony Allen’s There Is No End become my album of the year? July 24th, Night & Day cafe, DJing. I had just put needle to groove on “Rich Black”, naively unprepared for the bass to meet the bar’s booming soundsystem - and then it HIT! The dancefloor was probably fearing for its life, but I was in love.

        A collaborative hip hop masterpiece, There Is No End has a real exploratory feel to it, which (as Allen’s spoken word introduction points out) is the whole purpose of the album - to push, to innovate, and to move, through music. With various up-and-coming singers, rappers, and poets lending their talents to each song, the tracklist reads like a supergroup of Next Big Things: there’s Lava La Rue’s no-nonsense flow and controlled beauty, The Koreatown Oddity’s comic images and hard-hitting home truths, Ben Okri’s inspired mess of creationist myths, fairytale tropes, and apocalyptic visions, and Sampa the Great’s unnerving, vocoded whisper loops - and that's just a fraction of the mavericks on mic duty here.

        All this is to say nothing of the drumming. “Brilliant” would be a gross understatement of just how diverse and original Allen’s beats are - by turns claustrophobic, metronomic, wild, and stuttering, the drums make each song as distinct and… well, brilliant, as the vocals do. Throw swampy bass synths, thickly affected backing vox, and a smorgasbord of tuned percussion into the mix, and what you get is There Is No End: a dizzying swan-song by one of music’s great innovators, and a glimpse into hip-hop’s bright, bright future.

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: There are very few drummers (no shade on drummers here) that would be well known of their own accord like Tony Allen is. Having been consistently inventive and undeniably brilliant throughout his life all the way up to his 2020 masterpiece with Hugh Massakela, 'Rejoice', it's really no surprise that this Posthumous release is chock-full of wonderful rhythmic surprises, and has a lineup of perfectly chosen guests. A fittingly wonderful album from one of the greatest (and original) Afrobeat drummers of all time.

        TRACK LISTING

        CD (14 Tracks)
        Tony’s Praeludium
        Tony Allen

        Stumbling Down
        Tony Allen Featuring Sampa The Great

        Crushed Grapes
        Tony Allen Featuring Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon

        Très Magnifique
        Tony Allen Featuring Tsunami

        Mau Mau
        Tony Allen Featuring Nah Eeto

        Coonta Kinte
        Tony Allen Featuring Zelooperz

        Rich Black
        Tony Allen Featuring Koreatown Oddity

        One Inna Million
        Tony Allen Featuring Lava La Rue

        Gang On Holiday (Em I Go We?)
        Tony Allen Featuring Jeremiah Jae

        Deer In Headlights
        Tony Allen Featuring Danny Brown

        Hurt Your Soul
        Tony Allen Featuring Nate Bone

        My Own
        Tony Allen Featuring Marlowe

        Cosmosis
        Tony Allen Featuring Ben Okri + Skepta

        There’s No End
        Tony Allen

        2LP (12 Tracks)
        There Is No End
        Tony Allen

        Rich Black
        Tony Allen Featuring Koreatown Oddity

        Coonta Kinte
        Tony Allen Featuring Zelooperz

        One Inna Million
        Tony Allen Featuring Lava La Rue

        Stumbling Down
        Tony Allen Featuring Sampa The Great

        Crushed Grapes
        Tony Allen Featuring Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon

        Gang On Holiday (Em I Go We?)
        Tony Allen Featuring Jeremiah Jae

        Mau Mau
        Tony Allen Featuring Nah Eeto

        Très Magnifique
        Tony Allen Featuring Tsunami

        Hurt Your Soul
        Tony Allen Featuring Nate Bone

        Cosmosis
        Tony Allen Featuring Ben Okri + Skepta

        My Own
        Tony Allen Featuring Marlowe

        Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela

        Rejoice

          ‘Rejoice’ is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. Having first met in the 70s thanks to their respective close associations with FelaKuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018. With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

          ‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with its roots firmly in Afrobeat. Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland / The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Matt says: Relishing in the top ring of the pyramid we find emperors Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela in primo form; whipping up a dazzling eight tracks of afro-beat mayhem that few can rival. Especially poignant and arresting following Masekela's death a couple of years ago; it's a delight to see the musician on top of his game till his dying breadth. They don't make em like they used to!

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Robbers, Thugs And Muggers (O’Galajani)
          2. Agbada Bougou
          3. Coconut Jam
          4. Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same)
          5 Slow Bones
          6 Jabulani (Rejoice, Here Comes Tony)
          7 Obama Shuffle Strut Blues
          8 We’ve Landed

          Tony Allen & Jeff Mills

          Tomorrow Comes The Harvest EP

            Lock yourself into the beat, but don’t become prisoner to it. The techno pioneer Jeff Mills understands that only too well. In his quest to liberate himself from the tyranny of the sequencer, Mills couldn’t wish for a better partner than the father of Afrobeat.

            Many consider Tony Allen to be one of the greatest drummers alive. In the last thirty years, his signature mix of Nigerian roots, polyglot jazz and no-fuss funkiness has spread like a virus, infecting the work of artists as diverse as Damon Albarn, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Moritz Oswald. Jeff Mills is a titan of the electronic dance scene and a tireless innovator, who helped to give birth to the 1980s Detroit techno scene before going on to compose electro symphonies, soundtracks and sonic odysseys inspired by futurism and space travel, working with visual artists, choreographers, classical orchestras, even astronauts.

            His collaboration with Tony Allen is another rhythmic conversation in a long and well-established discourse, but a special one too: “It really is a pure collaboration, not just through music, but in our minds and spirit as well.” The same goes for Tony Allen. He has already collaborated with quite a few electro artists during his long career but this is something else. “The difference is that Jeff can play with me, whereas the others cannot play with me. I can only play with them, but they cannot play with me…yunastan?”

            The pair first shared a stage in December 2016, at the New Morning in Paris. Their live shows have become a rhythm summit without equal, a chance to witness two of the world’s most innovative beat-makers, supplemented by the Moogs and synths of Jean-Philippe Dary, fusing past and future into an intense, seamless present where digital and analogue, jazz and electro, Africa and America, the source and the delta, become one.

            In some ways Allen and Mills have already fashioned their own sovereign self-designed state, one where improvisation, creativity and instinct reign. It’s rooted in Africa, yes, but like the music of Art Blakey, it goes beyond Africa, beyond America, beyond the force-fields of history and the structures of technology. That’s all the excitement - to get on board with two of the world greatest living masters of rhythm, set the controls for the heart of their spinning world, and boldly go into the unknown.

            TRACK LISTING

            A1. Locked & Loaded
            A2. Altitudes
            B1. On The Run
            B2. The Seed


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