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TONY ALLEN JID019
With each subsequent release, Jazz Is Dead continues to exalt the legacies of iconic musicians who have shaped the fabric of Jazz across generations, genres, and continents. For their latest installment, the label connected with the late great Tony Allen, best known for his foundational work as the drummer for Fela Kuti's Africa 70, and later Egypt 80. Over the course of Allen's recording career, he defined the Afrobeat sound, meshing Funk & Jazz influences with Nigerian Highlife to create a cross-cultural dialogue that has gone global. It was no small honor to welcome Mr. Allen for a very special recording session at Linear Labs Studio, and we could not be more thrilled to share these crucial and downright funky cuts with you.
On album opener "Ebun", guitars and horns build off of Allen's instantly recognizable drum patterns, stretching and warping time signatures as they cross paths. It instantly recalls the seminal Africa 70 recordings which Allen was a driving force on. Psychedelic keyboards and percussion clash on "Steady Tremble", a heavy stomper tailor-made for dancefloors in every corner of the world. Just as funky is the kinetic and expressive "Oladipo". Built between a tense call and response between the horns, the track is filled with drama, and Allen steadily keeps each element in balance. As soon as the flute struts in alongside fiery horns and guitar on "Don't Believe the Dancers", the groove plunges further, propelled by an acerbic saxophone solo that animates Allen's percussion. "Makoko" is a moody, mid-tempo jam that evokes classic Fela Kuti recordings such as "Open & Close" and "Gentleman", slowly constructing an elaborate orchestra of polyrhythm, all keeping step with Allen's rhythm. "Lagos" points towards the spiritual and literal home of Allen and Afrobeat, the capital of Nigeria, and homes in on a yearning keyboard.
Similar to on his excellent Art Blakey tribute record, Tony Allen is a revelatory jazz drummer, as heard on "No Beginning", a mid-tempo tune that sits at the nexus of Spiritual Jazz and Afrobeat, which perfectly transitions into album closer, the aptly titled "No End", a poignant number that combines all of the passion and precision of the previous tracks, and let's Allen guide listeners yet again as only he so effortlessly could.
Despite the finite time that Allen had on this planet, as do all of us, his contributions to music are timeless and untouchable, and will continue to inform and inspire generations to come. Jazz Is Dead is honored to have played a part in the legacy of Tony Allen and invites you to discover the unparalleled genius that shifted the entire world's conception of time, a magician who alchemized the past with the future and influenced countless listeners, currently and to come.

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Following the star-studded release of Jazz Is Dead’s second series, the venerated label returns with an intimate offering of selected instrumentals from the Series 2 sessions with the legendary vocalist Jean Carne and keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith. Here, standout moments such as Carne’s “Come As You Are” and Smith’s “Love Brings Happiness” shine with a new focus on the process and craft behind them, and the intricacies of the era-accurate all-analog equipment used at Linear Labs Studio become more present. Fertile ground for putting on headphones and embarking on a hazy solo trip, the ten selections on JID019 are transporting and mesmerizing, each track reverberating reverence for the iconic Jazz-Funk sounds made famous by the likes of Carne and Smith, and represent some of the label’s finest work to date.
As soon as you hear the low-end rumble that opens “Come As You Are”, you immediately see the vision that Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have in mind when choosing to work with vintage audio equipment and instruments. Like any great classic album, the percussion comes to life and engulfs the sound stage, animating the rest of the ensemble and propelling the inner paranoia from the saxophone and synths even further than the original. On “Love Brings Happiness”, a standout from Smith’s entry, the oozing distortion that creeps in early on shifts into a more prominent role, leading our ears and bodies through one of Younge and Muhammad’s most intense and kinetic productions in the series so far. As the rest of the tracklist splits evenly between Carne and Smith numbers, the realigned focus becomes apparent; the drums on Carne’s fantastic “The Summertime” ripen and each rimshot further entrenches the groove as the keyboards drift a little bit further than before. On Smith’s elegiac “Visions”, the rhythm section and horns conduct an interstellar seance that could only be captured through tube amps and dusty keys, beautifully merging generations of Jazz, Funk and Hip-Hop in a few short minutes. Taken anew, this latest instrumental batch presents Younge, Muhammad, and their collaborators at their finest, and is a further testament to the label’s continued devotion to faithfully presenting and preserving analog sounds.

This is Jazz Is Dead, a love story.

Founded in 2017 by music producers Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest), concert producer Andrew Lojero and industry veteran Adam Block, Jazz Is Dead is a global movement experienced through community and culture. We travel the world searching for rare records and the artists that created them.

1. jazzisdead.com