Tony Allen rides afrobeat to fame on Broadway

Some decades ago, world music fans discovered
the searing, danceable power of a sound called
Afrobeat, championed by the late charismatic
Nigerian singer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Thirteen years after his death, the superstar from
the South-West Nigeria and his music are
undergoing a revival, with a hit Broadway show,
FELA!, album re-issues and even an upcoming
film.
This makes it the perfect time to get close and
personal with drummer Tony Allen, the man who
fueled Fela ’s furious rhythmic fire and put the beat
in Afrobeat.
Allen, who played with Fela for 15 years, was on a
brief U.S. tour that stopped Tuesday at the Middle
East. He led a band that covered material from his
heated, new Secret Agent. Speaking on telephone from New York,
the 69-year-old Allen, who has lived in Paris for more than two
decades, wondered why it took so long for the mainstream to
discover Fela.
“Why not before?,” Allen asked, adding that he’s happy that the
music and his longtime compadre are finally getting their due.
“ Afrobeat is becoming more popular, but it’s still not full yet.
Musicians who are too young to know who Fela was have been
exposed to the style and are just catching up with it. I ’m hoping it
will grow.”
Allen, with his trademark double beats on the bass drum, has
long been doing his part to grow Afrobeat, starting with Fela ’s
electrifying Afrika 70 band in the late ’60s.
Fela charged much of his music with jagged political barbs, often
aimed at the Nigerian government.
His lyrics landed him in jail on many occasions. Allen, too, was
jailed, but he has focused more sharply on the music than on
righting wrongs. That ’s one reason his hard-driving, horn-
punctuated Afrobeat still sounds as James Brown-funky and
urgent as ever. Allen also mixes in African highlife and American
jazz - no surprise given that jazz drummers were an early
influence.
“I did my homework with Art Blakey and Max Roach,” Allen said.
“And I tried to discover what I could do with a trap drum kit.
When you’re from Africa, people always think that you play the
conga drums or whatever. From day one, I wanted to prove that
I could play African music on trap drums. I took my time, but I
was myself. And that ’s when Fela met me.”
It was a fateful meeting. “Some people say I created Afrobeat,”
Allen said. “No, it was in conjunction with Fela. I had to find a way
to play what Fela wanted. It was a challenge to myself. We were
meant to meet each other. ”
FELA! relays the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician Fela
Anikulapo- Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a
generation.
Inspired by his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a civil rights
champion, Fela defied a corrupt and oppressive military
government and devoted his life and music to the struggle for
freedom and human dignity. FELA! is a triumphant tale of courage,
passion and love, featuring Fela Kuti ’s captivating music and the
visionary direction and choreography of Tony-Award winner Bill
T. Jones.