Pioneer Nigerian drummer and co-founder of the Afrobeat musical genre, Tony Allen died in Paris on Thursday, April 30, 2020, aged 79. His death is a big loss to the music industry but his legacy will remain forever.
Here are twenty things about the legend you should know:
1. Tony Allen was born in Lagos on August 12, 1940.
2. He was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti’s famous band, Africa 70 in the 1960s – 1970s.
3. Fela referred to him as the pioneer of Afrobeat saying, “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”. He also created afro-funk, a mix of Afrobeat, electronica, dub, R&B, and rap.
4. He taught himself to play at the age of 18 by studying the works of American jazz drummers, Art Blakey and Max Roach and Ghanaian drummer, Guy Warren.
5. Before he had a drum kit, he practised by tapping out rhythms on school chairs. Later, in 1969, after a meeting with Frank Butler, he improved his technique by drumming on pillows. He told The Guardian, ‘It adds flexibility, very effective. Effortless – that’s what I tried to catch from [Butler].’
6. He and Fela met in the early 1960s, but they started playing together in Fela’s ‘Koola Lobitos’ highlife-jazz group in 1964.
7. They created Africa 70 together in 1969 and went on to release over 40 albums together.
8. He released his first album as a bandleader, ‘Progress’, in 1975 with his band Lagos.
9. Tony Allen left Africa 70 in 1979 after had issues with Fela over royalties and recognition.
10. After leaving Africa 70, he continued to play with ‘Lagos’ until he migrated to London in 1984.
11. He left such a huge void in Africa 70 that Fela had to hire four drummers to take his place.
12. In 1985, he finally moved to France, where he played, released his second album, Never Expect Power Always (N.E.P.A), and lived until he died.
13. After his move to Paris, he struggled with a heroin addiction before getting clean.
14. He recovered from his addiction by sheer will and the need to see clearly but just like his friend, Fela, he continued to smoke weed till his death. In 2016, during an interview with The Guardian, he said, ‘The only thing is my weed and my drink, that’s all. To go play, I don’t touch any hard drugs.’
15. In 2006, Allen co-founded the British alternative rock group, the Good, the Bad & the Queen alongside Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve), and Damon Albarn (Blur).
16. At the beginning of his career, he used to drum for up to six hours with no breaks. Towards the end, he was playing only 45 minutes per show and it frustrated him. He told The Guardian, ‘I’m playing in Europe now and in Europe, it’s zero. They don’t make me play! Sometimes I travel all the way from here to a fucking country far away by flight just to play for 45 minutes! It’s frustrating, you know?’
17. He released his autobiography co-authored by Michael E. Veal, ‘Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat’ in 2013.
18. In May 2018, filmmaker Opiyo Okeyo released the documentary film, Birth of Afrobeat about Allen’s life in music. The film won the 21st Century Fox Global Inclusion Award for Emerging Voices at the BlackStar Film Festival.
19. Before his death, Tony Allen had planned to work on what he described as a ‘travel album’, playing with young musicians in Nigeria, London, Paris and the US.
20. He died of a heart attack on Thursday, April 30, 2020, in Pompidou Hospital, Paris.
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by 208headlines