Tony Allen & The Africa 70: Progress

Sunday is jazz day. Yesterday’s selection of Yannis & The Yaw, featuring Tony Allen, sent me off to listen to the 1977 Tony Allen & The Africa 70 album Progress. Allen was the drummer for Fela Kuti’s band Africa 70 from 1968 to 1979. The work of Kuti, Allen, and Africa 70 define Afrobeat music. This fusion of African rhythms, dance, and percussion with Western jazz is a distinctive sound that has influenced multiple styles of music for the last 50 years. “Progress” is the title track to Allen’s second solo album, which is basically a Fela Kuti album without Kuti. Allen has been called “possibly the greatest drummer who ever lived” by Brian Eno, and Fela Kuti, the Father of Afrobeat, believed that “without Allen there would be no Afrobeat.” What more can be said?

To learn more about Tony Allen, check out his Wikipedia article.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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