The great drummer Tony Allen left our planet all too soon – but not before cutting this fantastic album as part of the
Jazz Is Dead series – a killer record that may be one of the best he's given us in the past decade or so! The format here
is different than some of Tony's other records, but also different than the other
Jazz Is Dead records – as the instrumentation
is fuller than those, with a brace of horns that really fills things up – while Tony delivers these amazing rhythm patterns on the bottom, supported with basslines from Adrian Younge, who also adds in all sorts of very cool keyboards! There's more noise and darkness at times than we've heard on some of Allen's bigger label sets – and we mean that in a really great way – and the drummer
is maybe most up in the mix of all the instruments, so you can really hear Tony going to town at his funky best. Titles include "Don't Believe The Dancers", "Steady Tremble", "Ebun", "Oladipo", "No Beginning", "Lagos", and "Makoko".
(Deep Funk, Global Grooves) (Very cool pressing – in a slipcover jacket!)