So last Thursday I got to see Tony Allen at a venue in London called the Village Underground. I was very excited to see him play since I have a bit of a drum infatuation with his incredibly funky and unique drumming. The set comprised the songs on his new album Film Of Life and I felt very glad to go and see the great musician’s left foot in action in real life, so to speak. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really… Read More »I Saw Tony Allen Play In London
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 forward to seeing him play since I’ve spent a chunk of the last year or so trying to do what he does. I love his loose and energetic playing and his amazing touch. Something I am finding particularly challenging is… Read More »I’m Looking Forward To Seeing Tony Allen Next Week
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 on the 2 & 4 and then he shows us the first groove of Afrobeat. When I first tried playing Afrobeat, I found that playing 16ths on the kick on 1 and 1e and 3 and 3e is particularly challenging… Read More »This Is The First Afrobeat Drum Groove According To Tony Allen
Important Addendum: The drummer on this album is not Tony Allen, I shoud have checked the credits. It was made after Tony Allen left Fela Kuti’s band. In a recent post I linked to the Fela Kuti Bandcamp Account. I was immediately drawn to the album called Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense and was delighted to hear the album’s title track open with the same groove that my first Afrobeat related post about Ariya Astrobeat’s African Kings has in its… Read More »More Tony Allen – Fela’s Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense
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 drumming in particular, I will be trying to hear as much of this stuff as I can. When I first found the Bandcamp page I clicked on the first item that caught my eye, an album called Teacher Don’t Teach… Read More »Free Streaming of Fela Kuti Albums
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 is an album I’ve been listening to quite a bit. On the track Go Show Allen’s juxtaposition of lightness and fearsome groove is almost too much to bear. I have been trying to get the feel of this track right… Read More »More Afrobeat – Tony Allen’s Groove on Fela’s Go Slow
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 same time driving the groove without any bumps. Once I’ve soaked this stuff up some more, I am going to write down my thoughts on learning to play in this style. There doesn’t seem to be too much material in… Read More »What I’m Listening To This Week