Next Thursday I’ll be going to see Tony Allen playing in London, at the Village Underground in Shoreditch. I guess he’ll be playing a bunch of stuff from his new album, Film Of Life, which sounds great. I’m really looking…
And I suppose he’d know something about it… I highly recommend watching both of the following videos. The audio is not fantastic but there is a demonstration of some typical Highlife drumming and how he added a left foot hihat…
I just discovered that a load of Fela Kuti albums have been made available to stream on Bandcamp. This is a great opportunity to listen to an amazing collection of music. Since I have been discovering Afrobeat and Tony Allen’s…
I have been dawdling about with this and Miles Arntzen’s fab article in January’s Modern Drummer has reminded me to keep going with my learning about Afrobeat and Tony Allen’s drumming in particular. Music is The Weapon Of The Future…
I’m never far away from a bit of Lowell George, one of the greatest singers and songwriters in the universe. Here is a fantastic track from his only solo album, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here which is a mixed bag,…
What with getting into Afrobeat and, obviously, the fantastic drumming that comes with it, I have had some Fela Kuti in my earplugs this week. Tony Allen is playing some very busy stuff, variating in every bar and at the…
I have been slowly discovering Afrobeat. The grooves are mental. There seems to be a lot of improvising, weird snare patterns and generally the kind of independence I associate with playing Latin music. I started listening to some stuff by…