Tony Allen goes back to jazz with The Source

13 Nov 2017 - 17:53

When an artist embarks on a journey to document their music by recording it, there is a chance they will be heard hundreds or even thousands of years later. Sometimes, and usually very rarely, an artist obliviously walks into the music industry as a pioneer and is immortalised, reaching legendary status. One such pioneer is Fela Kuti’s former drummer Tony Allen, who has been credited as the originator of the Afrobeat drum patterns that are today used by thousands of drummers the world over.

Tony Allen skilfully mixes Afrobeat and jazz on The Source. Photo Bernard Benant.
The Source album cover.

The title of Allen’s 2017 album The Source should be interpreted as a reference to jazz and the root of his influence that came in the form of late bepop jazz drummer Art Blakey, with whom Allen shares a few things in common: they both started their careers as sidemen in various bands and lived long enough to be revered by musicians and fans around the world. The Source is a further reference of African music’s influence on 1920s American jazz.

In as much as Blakey was an influence on the Nigerian drummer, Allen himself has become a compendium, taking jazz a chapter further by incorporating it in his own style and thereby completing the transatlantic loop back to Africa.

The Source, which follows Allen’s May 2017 A Tribute to Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers album, is the perfect fusion of Afrobeat and jazz. The drum patterns on songs such as ‘Tony’s Blues’ and ‘Bad Roads’ compel one to dance. If you are not a dancer you can imagine a Fela Kuti performance where girls manifest on stage and interpret the music physically; almost as if the drums are a puppet master and the body moves to the will of the rhythm.

Although the album splices the two genres, it has an overall jazz atmosphere which is propelled by trumpeter Nicolas Giraud, trombonist Daniel Zimmermann as well as saxophonists Yan Jankielewicz Rémi Sciuto and Jean-Jacques Elangue. The two genres blend into each other seamlessly, leaving little room for one to question which is which. The sonic ambiguity is precise and formulated.

The occasional appearance of Jamaican skanking from the guitar (Indy Dibongue) adds a reggae element, making the album a cross-genre masterpiece that doesn’t shy away from planned experimentation. The song ‘Moody Boy’ is one such experiment that begins as a cacophony, but an organised one at that.

The Source doesn't make for a sombre listening; all the songs have an eclectic energy about them and an overarching jovial mood with a warm texture to the ear that is manifested through Zimmermann’s playing in such songs as ‘Wolf Eats Wolf’.

The 77-year-old Allen has dedicated his life to the drums, which have served him well as he continues to enthral fans across the jazz-Afrobeat spectrum. As the album title suggest, it stays true to the origin of both genres. Fans won’t be disappointed – the jazz fades into the Afrobeat while the Afrobeat lives through jazz.