Lagos No Shaking

2017 repress. Honest Jon's Records reissues this 2006 classic from Afrobeat co-creator and master drummer Tony Allen. The much-lauded Lagos No Shaking pays tribute to the powerful sounds and rhythms of Allen's homeland of Lagos, Nigeria, marking a return to the classic percussive stylings which harken back to his seminal contribution to Fela Kuti's Africa 70 and Egypt 80. This is the real thing - raw and uncut, recorded in Lagos over ten nights with a 20-piece band, including the finest musicians in the city, not least deep horn-blasting from Lekan Animashaun (Baba Ani) and Show Boy from the killer Fela line-ups, and the palm-wine veteran Fatai Rolling Dollar, who adds his throaty, commanding tones and throbbing agidigbo thumb piano to four tracks. There are the R&B sensibilities of Yinka Davies and Omololu Ogunleye; and Muritala Adisa adds touches of ewe, a form of spoken praise-singing rooted in ancient Yoruba tradition. But the key element is, of course, Allen's powerful, yet magnificently relaxed drumming, which keeps everything in perpetual rocking motion, tempering the hard funk edges of classic Afrobeat with earthier Lagosian flavors. Indeed, while the album's observations on Lagos life are aptly tough and sardonic, this is a warmer, more down-home, perhaps more humane album than anything Fela ever produced. Afro-funk, stone-classic dance music in six-minute chunks.