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Tony Allen, one of the founders and legends of the Afrobeat movement, who died in Paris at the age of 79, writes The Guardian. Her manager said her death happened suddenly, the exact cause is not yet known, but there is no indication that it had anything to do with the coronavirus. Allen was in great health even days ago, he suddenly became ill and, despite being taken to the hospital, he could no longer be rescued.
Tony Allen in 2017Photo: Edouard Brane / Hans Lucas via AFP
Allen was the drummer and music director for Africa ’70, led by Fela Kuti in the 1960s and 1970s, and the two formed the foundation of an entire genre: Afrobeat, which combines African musical styles with the foundations of jazz and funk. Americans, it is now very popular worldwide. The orchestra’s work, drawn from a wide variety of African musical traditions, was accompanied by a strong pan-African political message. Allen and Kuti have recorded almost 40 albums in their 26 years of collaboration.
Born in 1940 in Lagos, Nigeria, Tony Allen learned to play the drums self-taught at the age of 18, listening to the best American jazz, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, as well as contemporary African music. As he recounted in his memoirs, in order to act as a musician in the Lagos clubs in the early 1960s, he had to move home in a wide variety of genres.
After Allen and Kuti separated, the drummer moved to London in 1984 and then to Paris in 2000. By then he had already recorded solo productions, sometimes mixing dubbing and electronic elements. It was at this time that he began working with younger artists, including Jarvis Cocker and Charlotte Gainsbourg, among others.
Briano Eno said Allen could have been the best drummer ever. The news of his unexpected death was sadly shared by Gilles Peterson and Flea. Allen has also played in Hungary multiple times.
