b. 12 August 1940, Lagos, Nigeria. While Africa is justly famed for its percussionists, the continent has produced only a limited number of outstanding kit drummers - not surprisingly, given most African band leaders' preference for traditional drum and percussion sounds. Nigeria's Tony Allen, however, along with South Africa's Louis Moholo, is deservedly ranked among the world's best.
Allen's first professional group was Victor Olaiya's Cool Cats, one of Nigeria's few convincing highlife outfits, which he joined in 1960. When the band broke up the following year, he worked as a radio technician before leaving to join Agu Norris And The Heatwaves (then known as the Nigerian Messengers), the Melody Angels (1963) and the Western Toppers Band (1964). In 1964, Allen was introduced to Fela Kuti, recently returned from the UK, and joined Kuti's highlife jazz group Koola Lobitos. The band's early gigs, very much in an experimental jazz direction, left Lagos' dance-orientated club audiences cold, so Kuti and Allen worked to simplify the beat and the arrangements, coming up with the blueprint for what emerged as Afro-Beat towards the end of the decade. The new sound, which had Allen's innovative and uniquely pile-driving bass drum patterns as its bedrock, created a sensation and led Afro-Beat - and Kuti - to dominate much of the West African music scene throughout the 70s.
Allen stayed with Kuti for 14 years, until 1979, when he left, unhappy with his financial arrangements with the band leader and the constant police attention he attracted. Staying more or less within the Afro-Beat style he had helped to create, he recorded two solo albums, including the superb No Discrimination (1980), before forming his own group, the Mighty Irokos, in 1981. Disbanding the Irokos in 1983, he began spending much of his time in London, England, where specialist label Earthworks released his mini-album, NEPA (Never Expect Power Always), in 1984 - the title was an ironic reference to the Nigerian Electrical Power Authority, a notoriously inefficient and shortage-prone organization. He then concentrated increasingly on session work, moving to Paris, France, and collaborating with King Sunny Ade, Ray Lema and others.
Allen resumed solo work in the late 90s, pursuing an eclectic hybrid of Afro-Beat dub, electronica and rap that he referred to as Afrofunk. A series of releases for the Comet Records label were well-received by a new generation of listeners, notably the 1999 album Black Voices. Cited by many younger musicians as a musical influence, Allen joined Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong to record a 2007 album as the Good, The Bad And The Queen. He also released an album in the classic Afro-Beat style for Albarn's Honest Jon's Records label. During this period Allen also worked with French artists Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Sébastien Tellier.
