Tony Allen Quartet – live at Sons d’Hiver Festival 2016 – Recorded February 19, 2016 – Radio France Musique –
Tony Allen Quartet, featuring Jowee Omicil, Sax and Flute – Jean-Phillipe Dary, Keyboards and Mathias Allemane, bass, recorded at the Sons d’Hiver festival on February 19, 2016.
Described as a “Tribute to Art Blakey” – it’s one drummer whose indelibly influential style and point of view paying tribute to another drummer whose influential style and point of view charted a new course in Jazz.
Only seems natural. Tony Allen has been rightfully acknowledged as The Man Who Brought AfroBeat To The World and considered one of the Greatest drummers in Jazz. Blakey was a primary influence in Allen’s growth as a drummer as was Max Roach. Infusing what he got from Blakey and Roach with his own growth as a drummer in his native Nigeria – and adding that to the mix added a dimension and a new perspective which has slowly been tapped ever since Machito and his Afro-Cuban Rhythm laid the initial groundwork in the 1940s. In the ensuing years Africa has proven to be a veritable wellspring of ideas and approaches and the list of musicians who have made the pilgrimage has grown. But it’s also been said, and widely felt that if there was no Tony Allen in the first place, there would be no Afrobeat.
And sadly, there is no Tony Allen now – having left us in 2020 just shy of his 80th birthday of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. His influence was widely felt over a vast number of genres and his recorded output is equally vast.
For a sample of Tony Allen, check out this performance at the Sons d’Hiver Festival in France from February, 2016.
Music that’s good for the soul.
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