Tony Allen

Tony Allen, a major African musician and world-class drum-set player, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1940 and has lived in Paris since 1985. Allen is best known as Fela Kuti's supremely talented sideman. After leaving Fela's band Africa 70 in 1979, Allen went on to establish a successful career as an independent musician. During his five decades behind the drum set, he has toured the globe and collaborated with musicians from King Sunny AdÉ to Ginger Baker to Damon Albarn.Michael E. Veal is a musician and Professor of Music and African American Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon.

“This master drummer’s account is enriched by unstinting critical appraisal, whether evaluating Fela’s most loved recordings or his own subsequent solo efforts. Tony Allen, ever restless, retains the enthusiasm of an absolute beginner, tempered with a survivor’s wisdom. His life obviously a work in progress, one anticipates music yet to come and the stories that surface in its wake.” - Richard Henderson (The Wire) “Allen bring us his inspirational biography. Written together with Michael Veal, author of Fela Kuti’s biography, this is the most accessible Afrobeat book of them all. . . . Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of West-African popular music.”(AfrobeatMusic.net) “After decades of being underpaid and underappreciated for his contributions with Kuti and beyond, it’s satisfying to see Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat in print. Drummers, fans of African music, and lovers of music more generally will find a lot to love in this book.”- Zachary Stockill (Popmatters) “Tony Allen is a fascinating insider’s view of how a musician and a musical style developed over time. Allen is a compelling storyteller and sharp observer whose memories bring forth a stream of ideas, anecdotes, humor, and life lessons that add up to an insightful auto-ethnography. Well-organized and concise, the book flows as a story of one of the most important West African musicians of the past 50 years, a narrative of creativity in post-colonial African popular music, and sound advice on how to have a long and productive career in music.” - Thomas Brett (Popular Music and Society) “Anyone who knows their Afrobeat will tell you how pivotal the kit drummer Tony Allen was to the genre’s development. Indeed, as . . . Michael Veal points out in this important, deftly crafted book, the pairing of Allen and the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti could be likened to partnerships between such jazz supernovas as Coltrane and Elvin Jones; Miles and Philly Joe Jones; Ornette and Billy Higgins.” - Jane Cornwel (Jazzwise) “[D]rummers are going to love this book. With so few autobiographies of drummers in print, the publication of Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat is a cause for celebration. . . . Most importantly, the book is a hell of a lot of fun to read, although Allen's first-hand accounts of his struggles with shamanistic bandleader and Nigeria's adopted ‘black president’ Fela Anikulapo-Kuti will piss off any musician who has had to fight to get paid for playing a gig." - Chris Becker (All About Jazz) “This is not a slice of dry academia, what we get in this incredibly fruitful collaboration is 160 pages of rich revealing narrative that is so engrossing that I missed my stop on the tube. . . . Basically, I couldn’t put the book down and it had me sifting through the records to provide a soundtrack to the narrative.” - Paul Brad (Ancient to Future) "There is much to enjoy from his account of growing up and becoming part of 'swinging Lagos' pre 1978, before it was unsafe to venture out at night. The part describing his musical influences and relationship with Fela Kuti is illuminating. Tony, one of the originators of Afrobeat, still plays to sellout crowds in his seventies  . . .  demonstrating that age is just a number. Allen's autobiography is a gem." (The Voice) “This is a much needed, truly fascinating book. . . . Allen spins the tale of his life, and of the evolution of one of the great popular musical styles of the 20th century, like the great storyteller he is. It’s a narrative filled with tasty anecdotes and twinkling details, which just add to its momentum. You can almost see the wry smile on his face as he challenges you to make up his own mind . . . Allen’s totally absorbing narrative was edited and shaped by Michael E. Veal. . . . In his introduction he treats us to an unbeatably succinct, lucidly accurate contextual analysis of Allen as a ‘Yoruba modernist’. He also gets to grips with how the Allen technique works. . . . This is highly readable and highly recommended.” - Max Reinhardt (Songlines) “There’s a sentence in the introduction where Veal, a Yale professor, uses the phrase ‘indigenization of jazz drumming’, but don’t let that put you off. The academic is present primarily to transcribe and edit, while Allen reflects on 50 years at the coalface. . . One of the great sidemen, Allen here cuts mercilessly through the bullshit.” - David Hutcheon (Mojo)

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction / Michael E. Veal 11. Right in the Center of Lagos 212. Highlife Time 363. The Sky was the Limit 474. God's Own Country 685. Swinging Like Hell! 856. Everything Scatter 1087. Progress 1288. When One Road Closes . . . 1469. Paris Blues 16210. No End to Business 175Selected References 187Index 193