Tony Allen @ Daikanyama Unit

I'm in one of my Fela Kuti periods, so what could be more timely than the appearance yesterday of his old drummer, Tony Allen, at Unit in Daikanyama. While Tony perhaps doesn't have His Masters Voice, nor his songs, nor his political messages (but who does, these days?), he does have the groove. (And a strange purple and pink striped shirt with matching origami-style hat out of some curtain cloth!) On Fela's records, it usually sounds as if there were two drummers plus a bunch of percussionists, but oh no, it's just Tony playing all those different rhythms simultaneously as if was the easiest thing in the world, and while singing too! Amazing.

Tony Allen with band, metal rasta guitarist mostly hidden

The rest of the extremly funky band were very impressive too. Particularly striking was when the keyboard guy doubled the trumpet parts on a vocoder, something I'd never seen before. Unfortunately, they were never presented, so I have no idea who they were.

Tony Allen and bassist laying down an impeccable groove

An unexpected fringe benefit before the concert was the solitary dance performance of a neatly dressed OL on the half-empty floor to the afrobeat tracks the DJ was playing. Oddly abstract movements that nobody (including her not-so-neat boyfriend) seemed to watch except me. Cool!