With Rody Cereyon, Claude Dibongue, Nicolas Giraud, Simon Andrieux. Tony Allen is arguably Africa's greatest kit drummer. As co-creator with Fela Kuti of the hugely popular and influential Afrobeat style, Allen is one of the continent's most important artists. He has inspired generations of musicians worldwide and is a legendary figure amongst fans of funk, jazz, hip hop and African music. 'Secret Agent' is his debut album for World Circuit, and his first release since he became a cofounder with Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon of 'The Good, The Bad and The Queen'. Self-produced, this majestic slice of hardcore funky Afrobeat was recorded in Lagos, Paris and London, using his regular hard-drilled touring band with full horn section. The vocals are handled by Tony himself alongside his specially selected group of singers from his native Lagos, Nigeria.
Many people have attempted to reinvent Afrobeat - chief among them Fela's sons Femi and Seun - but Allen's take on the genre is streets ahead of either of them. Recorded in the Nigerian city over 10 hot, heavy nights, Lagos No Shaking presents a calmer, less manic Afrobeat, delicately balanced between laid-back insouciance and urgency, loose-limbed polyrhythms and ferocious grooves.
"Music is a miniature of the harmony of the whole universe, for the harmony of the universe is life itself, and humans, being a miniature of the universe, show harmonious and inharmonious chords in their pulsations, in the beat of their hearts, in their vibration, rhythm and tone. Their health or illness, their joy or discomfort, all show the music or lack of music in their life.
And what does music teach us? Music helps us to train ourselves in harmony, and it is this which is the magic or the secret behind music. When you hear music that you enjoy, it tunes you and puts you in harmony with life. Therefore we need music; we long for music. Many say that they do not care for music, but these have not heard music. If they really heard music; it would touch their souls, and then certainly they could not help loving it. If not, it would only mean that they had not heard music sufficiently, and had not made their heart calm and quiet in order to listen to it, and to enjoy and appreciate it. Besides music develops that faculty by which one learns to appreciate all that is good and beautiful in the form of art and science, and in the form of music and poetry one can then appreciate every aspect of beauty.
What is wonderful about music is that it helps us to concentrate or meditate independently of thought - and therefore music seems to be the bridge over the gulf between form and the formless. If there is anything intelligent, effective and at the same time formless, it is music. Poetry suggests form, line and colour suggest form, but music suggests no form. It creates also that resonance which vibrates through the whole being, lifting the thought above the denseness of matter; it almost turns matter into spirit, into its original condition, through the harmony of vibrations touching every atom of one's whole being.
Beauty of line and colour can go so far and no further; the joy of fragrance can go a little further; but music touches our innermost being and in that way produces new life, a life that gives exaltation to the whole being, raising it to that perfection in which lies the fulfillment of our life."
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Very Nice Post..thanks
ReplyDeletePeace
Blak