{"id":2457890,"date":"2020-04-30T16:48:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T22:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=992588"},"modified":"2020-04-30T16:48:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T22:48:59","slug":"tony-allen-pioneering-afrobeat-drummer-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/tony-allen-pioneering-afrobeat-drummer-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Allen, Pioneering Afrobeat Drummer, Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Tony Allen<\/a>, the pioneering drummer who helped defined Afrobeat during his tenure with Fela Kuti, died Thursday. Rolling Stone<\/em> has confirmed Allen\u2019s death, yet a cause of death was not immediately available. <\/span>Sahara Reporters first reported<\/a> that Allen died in his now-native Paris, France.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a member of Kuti\u2019s band Africa 70, Allen helped revolutionize the art of drumming, appearing on classic albums like 1973\u2019s Gentleman<\/em>, 1975\u2019s Expensive Shit<\/em> and the Afrobeat legend\u2019s most enduring work, 1976\u2019s Zombie<\/em>. Each release featured Allen\u2019s slippery, ferocious, polyrhythmic grooves. \u201cWithout Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat,\u201d Kuti once said. Damon Albarn and Brian Eno were also famously enamored with Allen\u2019s playing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Allen<\/span> was born in Lagos, Nigeria; he didn\u2019t pick up the sticks until his late teens. <\/span>He studied the work of a variety of jazz drummers, from <\/span>Art Blakey to Elvin Jones to Philly Joe Jones to Gene Krupa. Speaking with <\/span>The Wire<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Allen credited Max Roach with turning him on to the potential of the hi-hat. Allen later met the drummer <\/span>Frank Butler, who influenced him to practice drumming on pillows. \u201c<\/span>It adds flexibility,\u201d he told The Guardian<\/em><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Allen also picked up a wide-ranging musical education on the club circuit. \u201c<\/span>Latin American, African horns, jazz, highlife\u2026 you had to be able to play it all, because in the club they asked for it,\u201d Allen said<\/span>. He played in a highlife<\/span> outfit dubbed the Cool Cats and then moved on to help Victor Olaiya and Agu Norris. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kuti first met Allen in 1964. \u201c<\/span>The first thing he asked was, \u2018are you the one who said that you are the best drummer in this country?’\u201d Allen recalled<\/a>. \u201cI laughed and told him, \u2018I never said so.\u2019 He asked me if I could play jazz and I said yes. He asked me if I could take solos and I said yes again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen went on to serve as drummer in Kuti\u2019s band Koola Lobitos. Initially, listeners weren\u2019t sure what to make of the group. \u201cIt was like a revolutionary music style coming to the country,\u201d Allen explained<\/a>. \u201cThey were used to the highlife thing\u2026 It was kind of strange for the people.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to his work with Kuti, Allen was known for his collaborations with Albarn: Allen was a member of The Good, The Bad and the Queen alongside Albarn, the Clash\u2019s Paul Simonon, and the Verve\u2019s Simon Tong. That band releasing a pair of albums, a self-titled 2007 LP and 2018\u2019s Merrie Land<\/em>. Allen, Albarn and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea \u2014 under the moniker Rocket Juice & The Moon \u2014 also released a collaborative album in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, Allen reconnected with his jazz roots, recording a tribute EP for his \u201chero\u201d Art Blakey<\/a> and teaming up with Jeff Mills for 2018\u2019s Tomorrow Comes the Harvest<\/em><\/a>. Earlier this year, Allen released Rejoice<\/em>, a collaboration with late South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we\u2019ve just lost the best drummer that has ever lived,\u201d Mills said in a statement. \u201cRhythms and patterns so complex and on such a high level of communication, there are not words yet created to describe what he created. It was otherworldly. He was otherworldly! A master musician and a master thinker.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many listeners think drumming and clobbering a rhythm are synonymous, Allen never felt that way. \u201cSome drummers don\u2019t know what it means to play soft, it\u2019s not in their book,\u201d he told The Guardian<\/em><\/a> in 2016. \u201cI know I can make my drums bring the house down if I have to. But I know how to make it subtle. You listen to it flowing like a river.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a developing story<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Allen, the pioneering drummer who helped defined Afrobeat during his tenure with Fela Kuti, died Thursday. Rolling Stone has confirmed Allen\u2019s death, yet a cause of death was not immediately available. Sahara Reporters first reported that Allen died in his now-native Paris, France. As a member of Kuti\u2019s band Africa 70, Allen helped revolutionize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-22 05:27:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}