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DVDfever.co.uk – Tony Allen: Secret Agent CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
World Circuit Records
- Released: June 2009
- Rating: 8/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
To understand the music on Tony Oladipo Allens CD Secret Agent we have to go back, briefly, to early 1960s Nigeria.
Its main creator was multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti who experimented with different forms of music of the time.
By the 70s it had included Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funky rhythms incorporating percussion and vocal styles. Kuti used it to revolutionise musical structures as well as the political context of his native Nigeria.Allens place in Afrobeats history comes from him playing for 15 years with Kuti as a percussionist a kit drummer. Kuti once said, Without Tony Allen there would be no Afrobeat.
Unlike many Afrobeat contemporaries hes written his music through the rhythmic ears of a drummer, drawing on four styles highlife, soul / funk, jazz and Nigerian trad drumming, As a sideshow, Allen, now 68, has more recently become a member of The Good The Bad And The Queen with Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn.Secret Agent, his debut for World Circuit Records sees him continue the Afrobeat tradition, at least lyrically protesting and all that but the music has significantly become more cross-over orientated without losing its original spark and ethos. He uses five guest singers with Allen singing on only two tracks the title track and Elewon Po.
Theres a whopping jazz-funk groove propelled by huge brass blast on the opener Secret Agent. Going on too, is a deep 70s soul thing (or is it thang?). It could be that Isaac Hayes is smiling down on this.Ijo is a massive call to dance. The edgy brass has elements of sound-tracking Blaxploitation films, a real throw-back to the early 70s.
Its not all dance grooves, as the delicious and cool vibe of Switch will testify. The guitar solo is sublime, and the girlie vocals give it a distinct contemporary urban R&B feel.The funk radar hits overload on the lush groove of Ayenlo which has a dazzling brass section and trumpet solo right out of the modern jazz scene. Driven again by an urgent but understated beat, his international band hits a real swing on Busybody and theres a delicate French flavour ghosting the entire song.
Traditional folk proverbs pop-up on the uplifting Nina Lowo (money is to be spent) and the more indigenous sounding a capella Atuwaba (no matter if things are bad, theyll get better).Finishing as it started, Elewon Po comes with a heavy funk groove and wiry 70s guitar riff and those brass interludes that trademark Afrobeat to perfection.
The verdict Sumptuous.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Secret Agent
2. Ijo
3. Switch
4. Celebrate
5. Ayenlo
6. Busybody
7. Pariwo
8. Nina Lowo
9. Atuwaba
10. Alutere
11. ElweonView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.