Public Servant Lifestyle

The latest in a string of Nigeria-related albums from Honest Jon’s showcases the talents of the mild-mannered co-creator of the afro beat sound: Mr Tony Allen.

Lagos No Shaking by Tony Allen

Mild-mannered, but iron-willed, Tony Allen is the co-creator of afro beat, and one of the most distinctive and in-demand drummers on the planet. No one swings like this Nigerian rhythm man – with that amazing, loose-limbed, poly-rhythmic technique that has powered some of the funkiest and most challenging dance music ever created.

Best known for his involvement with the late, great Fela Kuti, Tony Allen is very much more than Fela’s – or anyone else’s – drummer. Bandleader, composer and husky rapping vocalist, Tony Allen has recorded a string of groundbreaking solo albums since parting company with Fela in 1978 – sides that draw together African rhythm, funk, jazz, soul and hip hop. His inimitably propulsive skin work has enhanced the work of an amazing range of artists, from afro-giants Manu Dibango, Ray Lema and Sunny Ade to British-Sri Lankan songstress Susheela Raman and Californian rock-rappers Spearhead. But now after two decades of fusion adventures, Tony has come home, returning to his roots in one of the world’s most steaming capitals of rhythm, for his most powerful and personal album to date, Lagos No Shaking.

Afro Beats

The recent upsurge of interest in afro beat has seen this music drawn into every conceivable kind of crossover encounter, from endless dance remixes to hip hop and reggae collaborations. But the music to be found on Lagos No Shaking is a return to core values: a testament to the fact that afro beat is best served straight – hot, hard and percussion-heavy.

Tony Allen grew up surrounded by rhythm: the local palm-wine and juju sounds loved by his motor mechanic father, and the pan-African, big-band highlife then sweeping the clubs of Africa – exemplified by the great Ghanaian bandleader E. T. Mensah. The young Tony developed an obsession with drums. But opportunities to get near a kit were few and far between in 1950s Lagos.

He made his professional debut at the age of 18, while working as a radio technician, playing claves with Sir Victor Olaiya – self-styled Evil Genius of Highlife – and his Cool Cats. When the regular drummer left, Tony was handed the sticks. He went on honing his technique with Negu Morris & the Heatwaves, the Nigerian Messengers and the Western Toppers Highlife Band; his role models Art Blakey and the brilliant Ghanaian drummer Guy Warren aka Koffi Ghanaba.

Then, in 1964, Tony was invited to audition for a band called Koola Lobitos, led by a young Nigerian just returned from music studies in London, named Fela Kuti. Fela’s influence on the young drummer was incalculable. But then so was Tony’s on Fela. Here was exactly the musician Fela had been looking for: capable of fusing jazz and highlife sensibilities and sounding, as Kuti put it, ‘like five drummers at once’. If Fela was afro beat’s mind and mouth, Tony Allen was its arms and legs, his webs of cascading off-beats endlessly powering the music forward.

Allen split with Fela in 1978 – citing the bandleader’s lack of care for his musicians. He relocated to Paris in 1980, involving himself in an amazing diversity of collaborative projects over the succeeding decades, as well as solo albums such as Black Voices and Home Cooking, on which he has characteristically reached across boundaries to kindred musical spirits, be they Blur’s Damon Albarn or rapper Ty.

Personal Statement

But now, finally, Tony has returned to what’s central, with an album that is both a definitive personal statement and a landmark in the development of afro beat. Recorded over 10 all-night sessions in the edgily groovy Ikeja district, Lagos No Shaking is the first Lagos-recorded album on which Tony has had complete artistic freedom. But it is also a truly collaborative work, which draws on the city’s diverse musical traditions and brings together several generations of Lagosian musical talent.

Key among the veterans is the extraordinary 76 year-old palm-wine crooner Fatai Rolling Dollar, who adds his throatily commanding tones and throbbing agidigbo thumb piano to four tracks. From Fela’s classic Afrika 70 and Egypt 80 line-ups, saxmen Baba Ani and Show Boy add that essential deep-blasting horn undertow. Another standout guest talent is the amazing Yoruba soul woman Yinka Davies. Earthily lilting on the heart-stopping Morose, she lashes out with Fela-like venom on Losun.

Then, just as you’re wondering where Davies and Rolling Dollar have been hiding, Tony unleashes a brace of upcoming talents who demonstrate the musical vibrancy of Lagos today. Omololu Ogunleye brings a more modern, R&B flavour to Ogogoro and Moyege, the sweetness of his singing offset by the fabulous rough grain of the horns. Muritala Adisa adds touches of ewe, a form of spoken praise-singing, rooted in ancient Yoruba tradition.

But the key element is, of course, Tony Allen’s powerful, yet magnificently relaxed drumming, which keeps everything in perpetual rocking motion, while tempering the hard funk edges of classic afro beat with earthier Lagosian flavours. Indeed, while the album’s observations on Lagos life can be tough and sardonic – as this challenging city absolutely demands – this is a warmer, more down-home, perhaps a more humane album than anything Fela ever produced.

Lagos No Shaking – Lagos is on form, Lagos is solid – says the title, and on Awa Na Re, Fatai Rolling Dollar sings the praises of a city that has been much reviled – not least by its own inhabitants. ‘Lagos is a fantastic place,’ he sings over rolling traditional percussion. ‘In Lagos you can get whatever you want.’ Ilsa Nla maintains the upbeat feel with its talk of a ‘dream ticket, a fantastic job’, while Lolu’s Moyege thanks his parents for a good upbringing and the freedom he feels when he stays with them. Ole – Lazy – and Ogogoro – an ode to the local gin, complete with drunken discussion between wife and husband – warn of the dangers of hanging around in bars. Yinka Davies strikes a more contentious note on Morose, bemoaning the grim expressions of the people of Lagos, while Losun lambasts the ‘inexpressiveness’ of African men with a frankness that will undoubtedly inspire controversy in Nigeria. But, hell, this wouldn’t be afro beat without a degree of provocation!

Lagos No Shaking is a spectacular homecoming for Tony Allen, an acerbic, warts-and-all love letter to the city that gave him life in rhythm.

Honest Jon’s

Lagos No Shaking is the latest in a string of Nigeria-related albums from Honest Jon’s. Lagos Chop-Up and Lagos All-Routes were acclaimed collections of classic Nigerian pop, while Ginger Johnson & Friends - London Is The Place For Me volume 4 looked at the contribution of West African musicians to the sounds of post-war Black Britain. The third volume in the same series concentrated on the role of the influential Nigerian bandleader Ambrose Adekoya Campbell.

Lagos No Shaking is out now, from Honest Jons.

All photographs by Bernard Benaut. Copyright: Virgin Records Ltd.

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