JID018

Recorded in 2018 in Los Angeles some 18 months before his death, this is Allen with his jazz head on, channelling his early drumming influences Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones and adding his own unique twist of African heritage. On many of his recordings you have to listen intently to pick out his inventiveness, rooted at the bottom of the soundbed. Here the American producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Younge and his fellow Jazz Is Dead founder Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest encourage him to take the lead, his drumming foregrounded so his technique and virtuosity are immediately apparent. The opener ‘Ebun’ is typical of the approach, flute and horns building upon Allen's drum patterns rather than the rhythm simply underpinning them. ‘Steady Tremble’ and ‘Oladipo’ are jazz-funk dance floor stompers before the flute and horns return once more to strut together on ‘Don't Believe the Dancers’ over Allen's dramatic groove. Diaspora roots are more evident on the moody ‘Makok’, the sort of tune that could have graced 2020's collaborative album Rejoice with Hugh Masekela, while ‘Lagos’, as its title suggests, is the most Afrobeat-sounding track here.