Pioneering drummer Tony Allen dies

The legendary drummer Tony Allen has suddenly passed away at the age of 79. Allen is regarded as one of the pioneers and co-founders of afrobeat as was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band between 1968 and 1979.

Fela Kuti famously claimed that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat".

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1940, Tony Allen began drumming at the age of 18 after growing up listening to the Yoruban music Jùjú as well as American jazz, drawing on both musical styles to develop his own unique sound. Allen credited Blue Note drummers like Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones as well as Kofi Ghanaba as his early influences.

Having had a stint with trumpeter Victor Olaiya's highlife band, Allen began drumming with Fela Kuti after meeting him in the 1960s as he was enticed by the way in which Allen was able to merge both jazz and highlife into his sound.

With Fela Kuti's Africa '70 band, Allen would go onto help write and record more than 30 albums in the 1970s.

After leaving the group, Allen would move to Europe and work as a session player working with musicians like Manu Dibango, Kid Creole, King Sunny Adé and Ray Lema.

Allen's taste for merging and experimenting with musical styles would lead him to fuse Afrobeat with elements of electronica, R&B and rap. This propensity to innovate would lead him to work in recent years with The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Damon Albarn and Jeff Mills.

Tony Allen had recently released Rejoice, an album recorded with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela.

Brian Eno has described Allen as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived".