Chicago Afrobeat Project to release album with Tony Allen

The plan, according to the band, was to record a couple of songs with the Fela collaborator and co-creator of the Afrobeat sound Tony Allen. That changed with a declaration from the drummer.

“We’re not recording two tracks,” he said. “We’re recording 10 tracks for an album.” With those words the process towards the album What Goes Up began. The collaboration has now yielded what the band calls their “most musically expansive album to date”. What Goes Up is the first album to feature Tony Allen on every track in North America.

Now on the verge of releasing its fifth album, the Chicago Afrobeat Project came together in 2002. Previously a group of artists interested in West African rhythms, the band was built upon the realisation that “mixing afrobeat with Chicago house, indie rock, hiphop, or jazz opened new avenues for experimentation.” Over the past 15 years, the band has embarked on several tours and recorded four albums.

Chicago Afrobeat Project’s work with Tony Allen started in 2013, year of release of its fourth album. The Paris-based Allen was flown to the US for the recording sessions. As a report by the band tells it, “When the dust had settled over the two years of sessions between 2013 - 2014,” the artists making up Chicago Afrobeat Project “walked away with 14 tracks, 10 of which are included on the September 2017 release, What Goes Up.”

Besides the Allen inclusion, the forthcoming album also sees the band use more vocals across the album, a departure from the more instrumental-based recordings of the band’s past work. Some of the vocalists included in the record include Oranmiyan, Ugochi, Akenya and Kiara Lanier.

In recording What Goes Up, the band has favoured the approach by Fela, employing “lyrics [that] are politically charged, except that vocalists address social and racial injustices, ecological crisis, freedom in expression, and disillusionment in the democratic process.”

True to its stated approach, the album's first single 'Race Hustle' was inspired by real life events. "It was 2014. The number of unarmed black people killed by cops didn't seem to end," the band explained on Facebook. "The Michael Brown killing in Ferguson was an immediate catalyst for the lyrics, written and performed by JC of the JC Brooks Band. But the tune isn't just about those murders. It's about people of color feeling like they have to work twice as hard for the same thing. About feeling like they have to be over-the-top respectful just to preserve their lives. And yet, they are still disproportionately exposed to violence from the police."

Listen to Race Hustle below.

[video:https://soundcloud.com/chicagoafrobeat/01-race-hustle_mastered_4-30 width:850 height:410 autoplay:0]