Secret Agent

Secret Agent, the first World Circuit/Nonesuch release for Nigerian Afrobeat legend, drummer Tony Allen, has already received ecstatic reviews from critics in Europe where it was released in early June of 2009. Tony Allen has long been acknowledged as Africa's finest kit drummer and one of the continent's most influential musicians. His playing draws on four different styles - Highlife, soul/funk, jazz and traditional Nigerian drumming - a unique and mighty sound. Together with Fela Kuti (with whom he played for fifteen years) Allen co-created Afrobeat - the hard driving, horn rich, funk-infused, politically insurrectionary style, which became a dominant force in African music and an influence worldwide. Afrobeat is currently enjoying an upsurge of interest around the world and for fans of hip-hop, funk and jazz, Tony Allen, holder of the Afrobeat flame, is today revered as its seminal living figure.

Secret Agent, produced by Allen himself, was recorded with his hard-schooled touring band, which comprises musicians from Nigeria, Cameroon, Martinique and France. The music is squarely in the Afrobeat tradition - combining rhythmic tenor guitar, funky keyboards, soulful call and response vocals, and fat, full-throated hard-riffing horns - with a few twists (including keyboard player and arranger Fixi's accordion on some tracks). At its heart, of course, is the beat itself, even more prominent now than it was in Fela Kuti's legendary band Afrika 70. Allen drives the music on, straight as an arrow, in a loose-limbed ragged shuffle, fusing the cross rhythms into one irresistible forward motion. The songs on Secret Agent stay true to Afrobeat's original, trademark embrace of protest lyrics. "Pariwo" ("Shout, Make Some Noise") and "Elewon Po" ("Too Many Prisoners") urge resistance to oppression. Others like "Nina Lowo" ("Money Is to Be Spent") and "Atuwaba" ("No Matter If Things Are Bad, They'll Get Better"), are based on traditional folk proverbs. Some are irresistible exhortations to party - "Ijo" ("Dance") and "Alutere" ("The Message the Drums Transmit") celebrate Afrobeat in general and Allen's genius in particular.