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| Lagos calling: Tony Allen opens up Nigeria's music scene | Lagos calling: Tony Allen opens up Nigeria's music scene |
| (21 days later) | |
| If you want a city that’s a modern musical powerhouse, you don’t need to think of London or Los Angeles or New York. Think instead of Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria. The West African nation is arguably the fulcrum of African pop, and increasingly a world leader in culture. | If you want a city that’s a modern musical powerhouse, you don’t need to think of London or Los Angeles or New York. Think instead of Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria. The West African nation is arguably the fulcrum of African pop, and increasingly a world leader in culture. |
| So the time feels right to explore some of the many facets of Nigerian music and how it spread and mutated around the world, in a weeklong series in association with music platform Boiler Room: Gateways – Tony Allen and Nigeria. | So the time feels right to explore some of the many facets of Nigerian music and how it spread and mutated around the world, in a weeklong series in association with music platform Boiler Room: Gateways – Tony Allen and Nigeria. |
| Allen is the focus of our week, as one of the key figures in Nigerian music’s transition into an international affair. He made his name working with Fela Kuti, where his phenomenal drumming was the key ingredient in the Afrobeat style that emerged in the 1970s. His association with Kuti began in 1964, and they worked together on more than 30 albums before parting ways in 1979. Since then he has worked with scores of other groundbreaking artists – notably Damon Albarn – as well as continuing on his own prolific solo career. All of which means he’s the perfect artist to be the focus of Gateways. | Allen is the focus of our week, as one of the key figures in Nigerian music’s transition into an international affair. He made his name working with Fela Kuti, where his phenomenal drumming was the key ingredient in the Afrobeat style that emerged in the 1970s. His association with Kuti began in 1964, and they worked together on more than 30 albums before parting ways in 1979. Since then he has worked with scores of other groundbreaking artists – notably Damon Albarn – as well as continuing on his own prolific solo career. All of which means he’s the perfect artist to be the focus of Gateways. |
| Gateways explores the paths that can be opened up by music. In words and videos, we will be looking at how Nigerian sounds have morphed and changed as the music has spread into the world – how it has opened gateways, in other words. | Gateways explores the paths that can be opened up by music. In words and videos, we will be looking at how Nigerian sounds have morphed and changed as the music has spread into the world – how it has opened gateways, in other words. |
| In commercial terms, the power of the Nigerian music industry is growing: it had revenues of $56m in 2015, and they are expected to grow to $88m by 2019, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The accounting giant has named Nigeria as the fastest expanding entertainment and media market in the world. | In commercial terms, the power of the Nigerian music industry is growing: it had revenues of $56m in 2015, and they are expected to grow to $88m by 2019, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The accounting giant has named Nigeria as the fastest expanding entertainment and media market in the world. |
| In the UK, the Nigerian diaspora has become one of the driving forces in music, especially in the grime scene, where the Adenuga brothers – better known as Skepta and JME – are creating some of the most vital, exciting music of the moment. And such is the strength of Nigerian music that it’s drawing people back home – Tiwa Savage was a UK X Factor contestant on 2006, who subsequently signed to Sony and became an in-demand songwriter with US R&B stars. She has since moved back to Nigeria, where she has launched her own label and begun recording her own music. | In the UK, the Nigerian diaspora has become one of the driving forces in music, especially in the grime scene, where the Adenuga brothers – better known as Skepta and JME – are creating some of the most vital, exciting music of the moment. And such is the strength of Nigerian music that it’s drawing people back home – Tiwa Savage was a UK X Factor contestant on 2006, who subsequently signed to Sony and became an in-demand songwriter with US R&B stars. She has since moved back to Nigeria, where she has launched her own label and begun recording her own music. |
| At the same time, Nigeria is producing a new wave of global stars – such as Wizkid, who has just spent 15 weeks at No 1 in the UK accompanying Drake on One Dance. He’s not alone: D’Banj, P-Square and Davido have taken the Afrobeats style (not to be confused with Afrobeat) worldwide, helped by the growth of social media. It’s a measure of the new internationalism of Nigerian music that the term Afrobeats itself came from the UK, though the high-energy dance music has its own name in Nigeria: Naija beats. | At the same time, Nigeria is producing a new wave of global stars – such as Wizkid, who has just spent 15 weeks at No 1 in the UK accompanying Drake on One Dance. He’s not alone: D’Banj, P-Square and Davido have taken the Afrobeats style (not to be confused with Afrobeat) worldwide, helped by the growth of social media. It’s a measure of the new internationalism of Nigerian music that the term Afrobeats itself came from the UK, though the high-energy dance music has its own name in Nigeria: Naija beats. |
| But Nigerian music isn’t just about the now – it has a rich history, and Tony Allen is a key figure in linking the past to the present. At the same time as Fela Kuti was making a name for himself worldwide with his confrontational politics and incendiary music, his contemporaries King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey became stars at home, and made an impact abroad, playing jùjú, a music infused with a very different percussive style from Allen’s – the talking drums of the Yoruba people. | But Nigerian music isn’t just about the now – it has a rich history, and Tony Allen is a key figure in linking the past to the present. At the same time as Fela Kuti was making a name for himself worldwide with his confrontational politics and incendiary music, his contemporaries King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey became stars at home, and made an impact abroad, playing jùjú, a music infused with a very different percussive style from Allen’s – the talking drums of the Yoruba people. |
| Afrobeat and jùjú came together in the late 80s, in the form of Afro-juju, which produced a huge domestic star in Shina Peters, followed by surges in popularity for reggae and hip-hop. And that’s only the surface of Nigerian music: recent years have seen the country’s musical archives opened up, with scores of compilations bringing together little known but brilliant Afrobeats, highlife, funk, disco, psychedelia and rock artists. It feels as though forgotten heroes are being revived all the time – take the case of William Onyeabor, whose music was reissued by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label in 2013, and became a hit around the world on the live circuit when performed by the Atomic Bomb Band. | Afrobeat and jùjú came together in the late 80s, in the form of Afro-juju, which produced a huge domestic star in Shina Peters, followed by surges in popularity for reggae and hip-hop. And that’s only the surface of Nigerian music: recent years have seen the country’s musical archives opened up, with scores of compilations bringing together little known but brilliant Afrobeats, highlife, funk, disco, psychedelia and rock artists. It feels as though forgotten heroes are being revived all the time – take the case of William Onyeabor, whose music was reissued by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label in 2013, and became a hit around the world on the live circuit when performed by the Atomic Bomb Band. |
| Nigeria has such a rich musical heritage that we can’t possibly explore all of it – but Gateways will open up some of the connections between the different strands of Nigerian music, and its spread around the world. | Nigeria has such a rich musical heritage that we can’t possibly explore all of it – but Gateways will open up some of the connections between the different strands of Nigerian music, and its spread around the world. |
| We’re kicking off on Thursday night with a livestream of Tony Allen’s set from Dekmantel festival in Amsterdam, in collaboration with the British Council, and we’re following that on Friday with a brilliant interview for the Guardian’s G2 Film & Music section with Tony, by Tim Jonze, as well as a film of Tony giving a lesson in drumming. | We’re kicking off on Thursday night with a livestream of Tony Allen’s set from Dekmantel festival in Amsterdam, in collaboration with the British Council, and we’re following that on Friday with a brilliant interview for the Guardian’s G2 Film & Music section with Tony, by Tim Jonze, as well as a film of Tony giving a lesson in drumming. |
| It would be fair to say Allen is a man who believes playing music its own reward. He told the Guardian: “Sometimes I travel all the way from here to a fucking country far away by flight just to play for 45 minutes! It’s frustrating, you know? They say, ‘You are paid!’ Fuck the money! It’s not the money side. It’s like torture, doing all that journey and stress just to play for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I’m just warming up!” | It would be fair to say Allen is a man who believes playing music its own reward. He told the Guardian: “Sometimes I travel all the way from here to a fucking country far away by flight just to play for 45 minutes! It’s frustrating, you know? They say, ‘You are paid!’ Fuck the money! It’s not the money side. It’s like torture, doing all that journey and stress just to play for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I’m just warming up!” |
| And that’s the spirit we’re bringing to Gateways. Next week brings an array of features in both words and film, including an interview with Don Jazzy – the producer and artist who is a key figure in Nigerian music – a look at how Afrobeat transformed into Afrobeats, a report on how the internet is changing Nigerian music, and a guide to Nigerian disco. | And that’s the spirit we’re bringing to Gateways. Next week brings an array of features in both words and film, including an interview with Don Jazzy – the producer and artist who is a key figure in Nigerian music – a look at how Afrobeat transformed into Afrobeats, a report on how the internet is changing Nigerian music, and a guide to Nigerian disco. |
| You’ll be able to find all of that, and more, at both Guardian Music and at Boiler Room, starting on Thursday, and running through until Thursday 11 August. | You’ll be able to find all of that, and more, at both Guardian Music and at Boiler Room, starting on Thursday, and running through until Thursday 11 August. |
| Enjoy it: you’re in for a treat. | Enjoy it: you’re in for a treat. |