- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Duke University Press Books (September 27, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0822355914
- ISBN-13: 978-0822355915
Tony Allen is the autobiography of
legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, the rhythmic engine of Fela
Kuti's Afrobeat. Conversational, inviting, and packed with telling
anecdotes, Allen's memoir is based on hundreds of hours of interviews
with the musician and scholar Michael E. Veal. It spans Allen's early
years and career playing highlife music in Lagos; his fifteen years with
Fela, from 1964 until 1979; his struggles to form his own bands in
Nigeria; and his emigration to France.Allen embraced the drum
set, rather than African handheld drums, early in his career, when drum
kits were relatively rare in Africa. His story conveys a love of his
craft along with the specifics of his practice. It also provides
invaluable firsthand accounts of the explosive creativity in
postcolonial African music, and the personal and artistic dynamics in
Fela's Koola Lobitos and Africa 70, two of the greatest bands to ever
play African music.
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