Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge’s Jazz Is Dead label is releasing a Tony Allen album. Allen, who passed in 2020, was the innovative drummer who helped Fela Kuti created the Afrobeat genre. Their work together added a new vocabulary to the world of rhythm. Younge and Muhammad were lucky enough to work with Allen on new music. Younge says, 

“First of all, to be able to work with somebody that helped pioneer the sound of a new genre, a genre that is kind of sort of an international style of funk, which is Afrobeat; it’s Black American music going back to it’s birthplace, Africa. Tony Allen represents that foundation. When I got the chance to work with this legend, I wanted to create an album that harkened back to the dawn of this music. This album focuses on early to mid-’70s African funk. I wanted to pull a lot of that out of Tony.”

Allen was always musically adventurous and it went beyond the creation of Afrobeat. When his days of working with Fela ended he continued to collaborate with various musicians. He shared his musical instincts with French pop stars Sebastien Tellier and Charlotte Gainsbourg on their famous “La Ritournelle” single and 5:55 album. Damon Albarn created the bands Rocket Juice and the Moon and The Good, the Bad and the Queen with Allen. Techno pioneer Jeff Mills worked with Allen on the Tomorrow Comes The Harvest EP. Detroit rapper Danny Brown and London rapper Skepta collaborated with Allen on the posthumous album There Is No End. 

The Jazz Is Dead album is another look inside Allen’s vision of rhythm with Muhammad and Younge’s energy in the studio. Tony Allen JID018 comes out on July 7th. 

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s Jazz Is Dead series gets to edition number seven with Brazilian bossa nova, funk and jazz fusion legend João Donato. The musicians achieved another dream by working with Donato who was so flattered by their collaboration he wrote “Adrian, Ali and Gregory” to honor their work together.  Donato’s music comes back into the spotlight at the same time another Brazilian legend, Sergio Mendes, celebrates his six-decade career. Mendes recorded Donato’s two of most popular compositions “A Rã” and “Caranguejo.” Younge explained his reverence for the musician in a statement. “João is one of the most innovative Brazilian jazz composers of the last century. Creating with and learning from this maestro was one of the greatest experiences of my career.”

Their collective vision holds true to Donato’s legacy and brings the Brazilian jazz fusion sound to a new generation. 

João Donato JID007 by João Donato, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad

Azymuth JID004 by Azymuth, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge