Name: The Source
Brand: Tony Allen

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

5781091

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Jewel Case

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Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2017-09-15

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Universal

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: Yes / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Tony Allen

Genre GB

African

Label GB

Blue Note

Blue Note is a record label that has made a significant impact in the jazz genre. Founded in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, Blue Note focused on traditional jazz and swing recordings, producing timeless classics. In the 1950s, it became one of the first labels to feature bop musicians. After being acquired by *Universal Music Group* in 1965, Blue Note expanded its repertoire to include more commercially-oriented music like jazz-fusion. Throughout the years, Blue Note underwent various changes in ownership and reissue programs but continued to release new recordings and previously unreleased material.

In 1982, Blue Note catalog reissues began appearing on *United Artists Records*, which was owned by Michael Cuscuna who oversaw the UA-era reissue program. The label was later relaunched as part of *Capitol-EMI's* subsidiary *Manhattan Records* in 1985. It was during this time that Blue Note released key albums from its history and introduced previously unissued material.

In 1989, Blue Note became the division under which all of Capitol-EMI's jazz activities were organized. However, two years later, *Manhattan Records* was revived for smooth jazz and pop-jazz releases while Blue Note continued to thrive as a prominent label within Capitol-EMI's roster.

Tony Allen was a Nigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who lived and worked in Courbevoie, France. He was born on 20 July 1940 in Lagos, Nigeria and sadly passed away on 30 April 2020 in Paris, France at the age of 79.

Allen began his career as a studio engineer before becoming known for his drumming skills. He played drums for Fela Kuti's Africa 70 and Egypt 80 organizations, where he helped pioneer the unique beat and vibe of Afrobeat music. This genre combines the polyrhythmic influences of Africa with the breakbeats and extended jams of American funk and R&B that reached Nigeria during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In addition to his work with Fela Kuti, Allen released solo albums showcasing afrobeat and psychedelic funk. He also made notable contributions to supergroups such as The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen. With his distinct style and musical talent, Tony Allen has left an indelible mark on the world of music.

Tony Allen has just seen a childhood dream come true. He even says that when he made The Source (his opus number twelve in the discography), it was the best recording in his whole life. The saxophonist Yann Jankielewicz, who has been playing alongside him for some ten years, observes: "Tony has never played drums as well as this. He's never had as much freedom, never had as much power as he does today." The Source is the Nigerian drummer's first album for Blue Note, one of the most prestigious names in jazz and a label that has opened its sphere of activity considerably wider since its renaissance in the Eighties. Perhaps more than any other title in the catalogue, The Source represents the label's classic era at the same time as it symbolizes Blue Note's innovative present. The album achieves this by means of a sound-aesthetic that has total integrity, the result of a scrupulous transcribing of the music using a technology that is exclusively analogue, and doing so according to the precepts of the virtuous philosophy inherited from the label's founders, Alfred Lion and Marx Margulis. But The Source also reflects Blue Note by its hybrid nature, because the jazz here is a mode of navigation that allows us to return upriver to the source in Africa, a journey made with the kind of modern-era exigency that makes this record stand apart from others: as an object, it is totally captivating.

The Source

Music GB

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