{"id":2729,"date":"2021-04-29T00:04:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T05:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2021-06-21T20:28:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T01:28:18","slug":"tony-allen-no-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/tony-allen-no-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Tony Allen’s ‘There is No End’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An artist\u2019s final recording is often an unusual gift to the world. In large part, this derives from the fact that no one truly knows when they will leave. Even so, some can sense that their time is near, and this shows in their works. For David Bowie, his parting thoughts came through on Blackstar<\/em> (ISO\/Columbia\/Sony, 2016), often listed among his finest recordings. Far more often, a musician passes before seeing their project come to fruition. In these cases, the question arises whether the end product is truly as initially envisioned. For instance, on Doo-Bop<\/em> (Warner, 1992), Miles Davis\u2019 death transformed a planned double album featuring several rappers into a short release with only one and, in some cases, recycling music he recorded previously. It is unclear the extent to which Tony Allen knew his death was on the near horizon when he began working on There is No End<\/em> (Blue Note, 2021). While Allen produced and wrote all of its beats back in 2019, the album was not finalized until after his passing. The appropriate question remains: how much does this particular product match the drum legend\u2019s intent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncovering an answer to this question is rendered more difficult by the great diversity of output that Allen produced throughout his life. Initially influenced by 1940s J\u00f9j\u00fa, American jazz, and the growing highlife scene in his home of Lagos, Nigeria, Allen never confined himself to arbitrary lines around one style. This proved particularly helpful when he began working with Fela Kuti to develop their own approach that mixed heavy groove, improvisation, polyrhythms, and extreme funkiness in what would be known as Afrobeat. In many ways, Allen was the only artist who could make this new style possible. Or as hopefully-soon-to-be-Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fame inductee Kuti put it, \u201cwithout Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat.\u201d While these recordings with Africa \u201870 and other ensembles proved essential, Allen was not one to rest on his laurels. Although he never gave up on his love of jazz – as displayed on the excellent The Source<\/em> (Blue Note, 2017)- he always kept finding ways to incorporate new ideas into his music. As the decades progressed, these included concepts from electronica, techno, dub, R&B, and rap. It is the last of these which is particularly prominent on There is No End<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>