Brian Eno called him "perhaps the greatest drummer who ever lived."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/arts/music/tony-allen-dead.html
I've been trying to find something out of the dozens and dozens of albums he appeared on that might have had a surround release. No luck. (All those old Fela arrangements are so incredibly densely layered. I can't imagine the multis were ever kept, though.)
Whether you're a longtime admirer or never heard of him, you should check out the tracks in this feature:
https://blog.discogs.com/en/remembering-tony-allen/
P.S. for Talking Heads fans: In this piece in the Guardian, Angelique Kidjo says:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/arts/music/tony-allen-dead.html
I've been trying to find something out of the dozens and dozens of albums he appeared on that might have had a surround release. No luck. (All those old Fela arrangements are so incredibly densely layered. I can't imagine the multis were ever kept, though.)
Whether you're a longtime admirer or never heard of him, you should check out the tracks in this feature:
https://blog.discogs.com/en/remembering-tony-allen/
P.S. for Talking Heads fans: In this piece in the Guardian, Angelique Kidjo says:
Remain in Light by Talking Heads was influenced by Fela’s album Afrodisiac, so when I covered it, the whole thing was about bringing rock’n’roll back to Africa. I wanted to pay tribute to the courage of Talking Heads by not copying Afrodisiac but understanding the trance induced by the drums from west Africa. So I said to Tony: “Let’s bring it back home.”
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