Tony Allen (July 20, 1940 – 30 April 2020), was a drummer, composer, and songwriter. He was a famed revolutionary drummer who co-founded the Afrobeat genre with Fela Kuti. Tony Allen recorded more than 30 albums with Fela before leaving the Africa ’70 band in 1979. Fela replaced him with 4 new drummers. Upon leaving Africa 70’ Tony Allen pursued a solo international career. He released more than 10 albums and also collaborated with several international artists crossing genres from his typical Afrobeat to electronic music, rock, jazz, reggae, R&B.
In 2004, he worked with French Electronic artiste, , on the album Politics. In 2006, he also worked with the group New Cool Collective to record the album Trippin. He joined the Good, the Bad, and the Queen as a drummer in 2006. In 2007, he appeared in the music video for Once Upon a Time by the French group, Air. In 2012, he had a joint album with Albarn and Flea to release the album. He appeared in Moritz von Oswald’s album, Sounding Lines, as a drummer. In 2020, Gorillaz featured Tony Allen and Skepta on the song How Far?
After Tony Allen left Africa 70’, he sought to discover a new type of sound, something different from the sound he had established and he found exactly what he sought out. Once again, he took his time to create a unique and distinct sound, he named it, Afrofunk. Afrofunk is a combination of several genres of music; Afrobeat with Electronic music, Rap, Dub, and R&B.
Tony Allen started a revolution of Afrobeat by creating Afrofunk, he took Afrobeat and gave it a new refreshing look, a look that appeals to the local and international audience. Afrofunk is a perfect combination of local roots with international spice, carefully blended by Tony Allen’s expertise. Tony Allen made sure to lay a proper foundation to mark the inevitable growth and evolution of Afrobeat.
Afrobeat Revolution is a timeless piece that will always remain a point of reference. Tony Allen showcased his versatility by mixing distant genres of music to produce an evergreen project. He blended Afrobeat with electronic music, dub, funk, jazz, Latino roots with features from Africa 70‘, Abayomy Afrobeat Orquestra, BNegao, Damon Albarn, TY, Jean Phi Dary, Cesar Anot amongst others to introduce the world to his new sound, the revolution of Afrobeat – Afrofunk. Tony has set the ball rolling, who will take over?
