{"title":"Tony Allen","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"here-comes-the-nite-owl","title":"Here Comes The Nite Owl","description":"\u003cp\u003ea long overdue and very welcome salute to one of the more colourful characters and most prolific west coast r\u0026amp;b acts of the 1950s and early 60s. it features allen's complete kent and specialty recordings - including the all time doo wop classic 'nite owl' - as well as the best of his dig and ebb sides, some of which are previously unissued. there is no duplication whatsoever with any existing tony allen cds, legal or otherwise! generously illustrated with label shots of every released 45 and many previously unseen pix from the crown album photo shoot. from tear-throated rockers to cool doo woppers, this is yet another piece in the hollywood r\u0026amp;b jigsaw that ace is pleased to finally be able to fill in.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438084002123,"sku":"320295","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"black-voices-revisited","title":"Black Voices Revisited","description":"\u003cp\u003ea wonderful tribute to tony allen's landmark black voices album re-presented here with the full original record, plus a host of bonus cuts too. the core record is amazing - a set that really re-introduced allen to the world, after falling into a bit of obscurity in the 80's after he broke with fela kuti. the album still holds up wonderfully as allen's still swinging hard, in a heavy afro funk groove that sounds a lot like his 70's work with great electric keyboards, tight guitars, and some very nice flanged-out vocals. the drumming is nice and tight - but with an edge that mixes elements from the older work with a dubby spacey approach that recalls rhythms of groups like can or cymande.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50440392311115,"sku":"334720","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/83e7af0f-a97b-4079-9f5f-f4158ee011f5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726961284"},{"product_id":"the-source-1","title":"The Source","description":"\u003cp\u003eTony Allen has just seen a childhood dream come true. He even says that when he made \u003ci\u003eThe Source\u003c\/i\u003e (his opus number twelve in the discography), it was the best recording in his whole life. The saxophonist Yann Jankielewicz, who has been playing alongside him for some ten years, observes: \"Tony has never played drums as well as this. He's never had as much freedom, never had as much power as he does today.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Source\u003c\/i\u003e is the Nigerian drummer's first album for Blue Note, one of the most prestigious names in jazz and a label that has opened its sphere of activity considerably wider since its renaissance in the Eighties. Perhaps more than any other title in the catalogue, \u003ci\u003eThe Source\u003c\/i\u003e represents the label's classic era at the same time as it symbolizes Blue Note's innovative present. The album achieves this by means of a sound-aesthetic that has total integrity, the result of a scrupulous transcribing of the music using a technology that is exclusively analogue, and doing so according to the precepts of the virtuous philosophy inherited from the label's founders, Alfred Lion and Marx Margulis. But \u003ci\u003eThe Source\u003c\/i\u003e also reflects Blue Note by its hybrid nature, because the jazz here is a mode of navigation that allows us to return upriver to the source in Africa, a journey made with the kind of modern-era exigency that makes this record stand apart from others: as an object, it is totally captivating.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - Digipack.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD+ - Jewel Case.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note","offers":[{"title":"LP | x2","offer_id":50457590726987,"sku":"1015157","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50457589416267,"sku":"1017854","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d64fd1b6-103c-422f-a74e-80f36e9fde71_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727206678"},{"product_id":"there-is-no-end-1","title":"There Is No End","description":"\u003cp\u003e“I play yours, you play mine. The music never ends.” The wisdom of the late, great Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen's words was as deep as his grooves, and his words truly capture the spirit of There is No End. For a man “born into rhythms,” the thousands of grooves he recorded, the innumerable more he performed on stages the world over, all make it clear that while this album marks the coda of a legendary career, it will inspire generations more of\u003cbr\u003emusicians, artists and fans who hear it. 2 LP\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note","offers":[{"title":"2LP - (Collector pack)","offer_id":50462609637707,"sku":"1140634","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP - Alternative Cover","offer_id":50462610686283,"sku":"1116774","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP - Black (US)","offer_id":56990055465291,"sku":"R1927-3949","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/cc25a2f4-358f-4e1e-8dc7-251cf0a34da2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727258585"},{"product_id":"tony-allen-jid018-2","title":"Tony Allen JID018","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe genius that is Tony Allen departed this mortal world in April of 2020, but not without leaving an unmatched legacy that crossed oceans and borders, bridging cultures and forging a sound that changed music. As the drummer for Fela Kuti's revolutionary Africa 70, Allen's polyrhythmic drumming defined Afrobeat. His contributions as an artist and cultural ambassador left an indelible impact on every genre of popular music, from techno to rock and hip-hop. Tony Allen's music stands as an ongoing testament to the interconnected musical relationships and dialogues across the African diaspora, and their lasting influence on how we listen. For Jazz Is Dead producer Adrian Younge, it is no small honour to share new music recorded with the drummer revolutionary Tony Allen. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jazz is Dead","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":50507258888523,"sku":"2024565","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Gold LP","offer_id":50507259314507,"sku":"2024567","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50507258560843,"sku":"2024564","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ff42b2f8-3a63-7b43-c506-705567d27e0b_75c34e17_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727844687"},{"product_id":"lagos-shake-a-tony-allen-chop-up","title":"Lagos Shake: A Tony Allen Chop Up","description":"\u003cp\u003ein 2006 honest jon's travelled to lagos with the great drummer tony allen, to make his first recordings there since his time with fela kuti. the result was 'lagos no shaking', a classic of contemporary afro-beat. since then, the label has commissioned numerous responses to those new sides. from legends of dance music culture like basic channel in berlin, for example, and detroit techno originator carl craig; and young tigers like dizzee rascal's newham generals, mia producer diplo in baltimore, and carioca sensations bonde do role from rio de janeiro. along with these reworks came totally new recordings from cairo, saturn, bogota and kingston, jamaica. fresh interpretations or complete reworkings by the space jazz pioneer salah ragab, a street brass band descended from sun ra's arkestra, highlife-inspired afro-colombian drummers from the maroon village of san palenque de basilio, and a veteran of count ossie's mystic revelation of rastafari. afro-beat, dub, jazz, chalupa, electro, bmore, highlife, techno, grime, carioca, champeta and funk from all corners of the globe, fizzing away together.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Honest Jons","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP | x2","offer_id":50530248884555,"sku":"312460","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3ada8696-3640-422c-b06a-49c695151049_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728074987"},{"product_id":"secret-agent","title":"Secret Agent","description":"\u003cp\u003eHis 2009 World Circuit debut, the raw and uncut \u003ci\u003eSecret Agent\u003c\/i\u003e, has all the ingredients that combine to make Afrobeat so special - fat, full-throated, hard riffing horns; nagging tenor guitars; jazz- and funk-informed saxophone and trumpet work outs; effervescent chicken-shack keyboards; lyrics rich in folk metaphors and proverbs, some of which confront state corruption and oppression (Kuti’s most frequent targets); deep-soul call and response vocals; and, of course, energising everything around it, Allen’s majestic drumming.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTony Allen (1940 – 2020) has long been acknowledged as Africa's finest drummer and one of the continent's most influential musicians. Together with Fela Kuti (with whom he played for 15 years) Allen co-created Afrobeat - the hard-driving, horns-rich, funk-infused, politically insurrectionary style which became such a dominant force in African music and such an influence worldwide. His iconic drumming has since underpinned an extensive catalogue of solo works as well as collaborations with the likes of Damon Albarn (as part of The Good, The Bad and The Queen), Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sebastien Tellier, Grace Jones, Malian superstar Oumou Sangaré, Jeff Mills and Hugh Masekela.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Circuit","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP | x2","offer_id":50531036922187,"sku":"1153527","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/fd501bfd-c1eb-4ec8-a554-a84754af35a8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728090749"},{"product_id":"lagos-paris-london","title":"Lagos Paris London","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2016, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis was offered the opportunity of a lifetime: a two-day session working with the great drummer Tony Allen, who he admired intensely for his influential, multi-genre work with the likes of Fela Kuti, Sébastien Tellier and Jeff Mills. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeading into a smoke-filled, ‘70s throwback studio in Paris, Yannis had expected them to make a nostalgic Afrobeat record. Yet something very different emerged. As the pair quickly established an intuitive telepathy, the music germinated from jams and loops, its varied touchpoints - rock, funk, jazz, dub and more - were complemented by a unique atmosphere of two cultures and creatives colliding, their expression liberated by making music in and for the moment itself. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoined by Tony’s regular collaborators Vincent Taeger (percussion, marimba), Vincent Taurelle (keys) and Ludovic Bruni (bass, guitar) that first meeting resulted in a handful of near complete songs, which were further developed during a couple of subsequent sessions. But between scheduling issues and Covid restrictions, the recordings were never completed before Tony passed away in April 2020 at the age of 79. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYannis felt a deep duty to complete the project, not only as a bittersweet way to honour and celebrate his friend, but also because Tony had been so eager to share these songs with the world. The result is the upcoming five-track EP, ‘Lagos Paris London’, under the Yannis and The Yaw umbrella - a project that he plans to return to in the future for further collaborations with inspiring musicians from across the globe. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Lagos Paris London’ is high-spirited, loose-grooved exuberance completed by the complex rhythms and unhurried style of the man who inspired it. It’s a communion with the past that provides an escape in the present day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Transgressive","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50531217178955,"sku":"2195438","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Red LP","offer_id":50531217310027,"sku":"2195441","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50531217047883,"sku":"2195437","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Lagos_Paris_London_Artwork_5400863157203_443f7de2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728099357"},{"product_id":"africanism","title":"Africanism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"This is the time that we, who have benefitted from the Last Poets should\nbe able to say, 'it's the Last Poets. It's them we should be honouring,\nbecause we did not honour them for so many years_\"\nKRS One wasn't just addressing the hip hop fraternity when he uttered\nthose words by way of introducing the video for Invocation - a poem\nwritten thirty years ago, around the time of the Last Poets' last significant\ncomeback. He was speaking to everyone who's been affected by the\nword, sound and power issuing from the most revolutionary poetry ever\nwitnessed, and that the Last Poets had introduced to the world outside of\nHarlem at the dawn of the seventies.\nIn 2018 the two remaining Last Poets, Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin\nHassan, embarked on another memorable return with an album -\nUnderstand What Black Is - that earned favourable comparison with their\nseminal works of the past, whilst showcasing their undimmed passion and\nlyrical brilliance in an entirely new setting - that of reggae music. Tracks\nlike Rain Of Terror (\"America is a terrorist\") and How Many Bullets\ndemonstrated that they'd lost none of their fire or anger, and their\nessential raison d'etre remained the same.\n\"The Last Poets' mission was to pull the people out of the rubble o f their\nlives,\" wrote their biographer Kim Green. \"They knew, deep down that\npoetry could save the people - that if black people could see and hear\nthemselves and their struggles through the spoken word, they would be\nmoved to change.\"\nSeveral years later and the follow-up is now with us. The project started\nwhen Tony Allen, the Nigerian master drummer whose unique\npolyrhythms had driven much of Fela Kuti's best work, dropped by Prince\nFatty's Brighton studio and laid down a selection of drum patterns to die\nfor. That was back in 2019, but then the pandemic struck. Once it had\npassed, the label booked a studio in Brooklyn, where the two Poets voiced\nfour tracks apiece and breathed fresh energy, fire and outrage into some\nof the most enduring landmarks of their career. Abiodun, who was one of\nthe original Last Poets who'd gathered in East Harlem's Mount Morris Park\nto celebrate Malcolm X's birthday in May 1968, chose four poems that\nfirst appeared on the group's 1970 debut album, called simply The Last\nPoets. He'd written When The Revolution Comes aged twenty, whilst living\nin Jamaica, Queens. \"We were getting ready for a revolution,\" he told\nGreen. \"There wasn't any question about whether there was going to be\none or not. The truth was many of us still saw ourselves as \"niggers\" and\n\nslaves. This was a mindset that had to change if there was ever to be\nBlack Power.\"\nHe and writer Amiri Baraka were deep in conversation one day when\nBaraka became distracted by a pretty girl walking by. \"You're a gash\nman,\" Abiodun told him. The poem inspired by that incident, Gash Man, is\nrevisited on the new album, and exposes the heartless nature of sexual\nacts shorn of intimacy or affection. \"Instead of the vagina being the\nentrance to heaven,\" he says, \"it too often becomes a gash, an injury, a\nwound_\"\nTwo Little Boys meanwhile, was inspired after seeing two young boys\naged around 11 or 12 \"stuffing chicken and cornbread down their\ntasteless mouths, trying to revive shrinking lungs and a wasted mind.\"\nThey'd walked into Sylvia's soul food restaurant in Harlem, ordered big\nmeals, then bolted them down and run out the door. No one chased after\nthem, knowing that they probably hadn't eaten in days. Fifty years later\nand children are still going hungry in major cities across America and\nelsewhere. Abiodun's poem hasn't lost any relevance at all, and neither\nhas New York, New York, The Big Apple. \"Although this was written in\n1968, New York hasn't changed a bit,\" he admits, except \"today, people\njust mistake her sickness for fashion.\"\nUmar is originally from Akron, Ohio, but had arrived in Harlem in early\n1969 after seeing Abiodun and the other Last Poets at a Black Arts\nFestival in Cleveland. That's where he first witnessed what Amiri Baraka\nonce called \"the rhythmic animation of word, poem, image as word-\nmusic\" - a creative force that redefined the concept of performance\npoetry and stripped it bare until it became a howl of rage, hurt and anger,\nsaved from destruction by mockery and love for humanity. When Umar's\nfather, who was a musician, was jailed for armed robbery he took to the\nstreets from an early age where he shined shoes and raised whatever\nmoney he could to help feed his eight brothers and sisters. By the time he\nsaw the Last Poets he'd joined the Black United Front and was ready to\njoin the struggle.\nOnce in Harlem, Abiodun asked him what he'd learnt in the few weeks\nsince he'd got there. \"Niggers are scared of revolution,\" Umar replied.\n\"Write it down\" urged Abiodun. That poem still gives off searing heat\nmore than fifty years later. In Umar's own words, \"it became a prayer, a\ncall to arms, a spiritual pond to bathe and cleanse in because niggers are\nnot just vile and disgusting and shiftless. Niggers are human beings lost\nin someone else's system of values and morals.\"\nAnd there you have it. It's not just race or religion that hold us back, but\nan economic system that keeps millions in poverty and living in fear - a\nsystem born from political choice and that's now become so entrenched,\nso bloated on its own success that it's put mankind in mortal danger. It\nwas many black people's acceptance of the status quo that inspired Just\nBecause, which like Niggers Are Scared Of Revolution, was included on\n\nthat seminal first album. Along with their revolutionary rhetoric, it was the\nLast Poets' use of the \"n word\" that proved so shocking, but it would be\nwrong to suggest that they reclaimed it, since it never belonged to black\npeople in the first place. There's never any hiding place when it comes to\nthe Last Poets. They use words like weapons, and that force all who listen\nto decide who they are and where they stand.\nUmar's two remaining tracks find him revisiting poems first unleashed on\nthe Poets' second album This Is Madness! Abiodun had left for North\nCarolina by then where he became more deeply enmeshed in\nrevolutionary activities and spent almost four years in jail for armed\nrobbery after attempting to seize funds related to the Klu Klux Klan.\nMeanwhile, the 21 year old Umar was squatting in Brooklyn and had\ndeveloped close ties with the Dar-ul Islam Movement. A longing for purity\nand time-honoured spiritual values underpins Related to What, whilst This\nIs Madness is a call for freedom \"by any means necessary,\" and that\npaints a feverish landscape peopled by prominent black leaders but that\nquickly descends into chaos. \"All my dreams have been turned into\npsychedelic nightmares,\" he wails, over a groove now powered by Tony\nAllen's ferocious drumming.\nThose sessions lasted just two days, and we can only imagine the\natmosphere in that room as the hip hop godfathers exchanged the conga\ndrums of Harlem for the explosive sounds of authentic Afrobeat. Once\nthey'd finished, the recordings and momentum returned to Prince Fatty's\nstudio, since relocated from Brighton to SE London. This was stage three\nof the project, and who better to fill out the rhythm tracks than two key\nmusicians from Seun Anikulapo Kuti's band Egypt 80? Enter guitarist\nAkinola Adio Oyebola and bassist Kunle Justice, who upon hearing Allen's\ntrademark grooves exclaimed, \"oh, the Father_ we are home!\" Such joy\nand enthusiasm resulted in the perfect fusion of Nigerian Afrobeat and\nrevolutionary poetry, but the vision for the album wasn't yet complete. He\nwanted to create a new kind of soundscape - one that reunited the Poets\nwith the progressive jazz movement they'd once shared with musicians\nlike Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders. It was at that point they recruited\nexciting jazz talents based in the UK like Joe Armon Jones from Mercury\nPrize winners Ezra Collective, also widely acclaimed producer\/remixer and\nkeyboard player Kaidi Tatham, who's been likened to Herbie Hancock, and\nBritish jazz legend Courtney Pine, whose genius on the saxophone and\ninfluence on the UK's now vibrant jazz scene is beyond question.\nThe instrumental tracks on Africanism are in many ways as revelatory and\nexciting as the Last Poets' own. It's important to remember that the\nkaleidoscope of styles and influences we're presented with here aren't the\nresult of sampling but were played \"live\" by musicians responding to\nsounds made by other musicians. That's where the magic comes from,\naided by Prince Fatty's peerless mixing which allows us to hear everything\nwith such clarity. Music fans today have grown accustomed to listening to\nall kinds of different genres. Their tastes have never been so broad or all-\n\nencompassing, and so the music on this new Last Poets' album is as\ngroundbreaking as their lyrics, and perfectly suited to the era that we're\nnow living in.\n\nJohn Masouri\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Africa Seven","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50906012516683,"sku":"2230259","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50923774640459,"sku":"2235040","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_13d2bd32_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732862991"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/tony-allen.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}