MASTER DRUMMER OF AFROBEAT - Duke University Press

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where. He would just drive me there with the equipment and everything, and pick me up afterwards. So I had something to do every weekend because I worked on Saturdays and Sundays. I was mainly playing Ghanaian highlifes, like E. T. Mensah, the Ramblers, and the Stargazers. Those were deep, deep records—wicked records—and they were very popular. And I was playing Nigerian highlifes like Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, and Cardinal Rex Lawson. I’m telling you—it was fantastic, man! Complete enjoyment! They would booze me up completely at these parties. I would be drunk even before finishing the party! You cannot compare those parties with what they call “parties” here in Europe. Because in Lagos we used to have outdoor parties, and they could go from one night to the next morning. We were playing music out there with all the neighbors around, but nobody was going to complain because they too were enjoying what’s going on. Even if they were asleep, they were enjoying the music in their sleep! They would never have said that it was noisy. But you could not do that here in Paris. Try to set up a band or a deejay out here in front of this apartment building, and everybody would be in jail—you wouldn’t even get through one tune! So you can see the enjoyment of what we had there in Nigeria. It was really like a paradise! My prayer is to see Lagos back like it was then. Even if we can get back just one- quarter of what we had in those times, I think I will go back. Through going around to all the clubs and playing those records at parties, I was just checking out the music thing. And when I started taking up an instrument, the first one was the guitar. The second one was the fiddle bass, the upright. And the third one was tenor sax. But I got discouraged. My fingers were swelling up with blisters. And with the sax, my lips got cut up by the reed. It wasn’t comfortable at all. Actually, the drum set was my aim. I wasn’t playing yet, but I was already checking out all the highlife drummers. At that time, I really admired those guys like James Meneh, Oje Neke, John Bull, and Femi Bankole. It was their dexterity that I admired. There was also a drummer that used to play with Bill Friday who was called Anex, who had very good technique. He was a real tight drummer who could make you dance, and you could even dance to his solos. I used to love to watch Anex play with Bill on Sundays at the Teatime Dance, which was at the Ambassador Hotel. So I wanted to play the drums, but it wasn’t easy to just sit down at anybody’s drum set. No way, man. You had to have some kind of connec- 32 Chapter 1
tion to be able to reach those drums! So I decided to use the radio as my connection, since I was known as a radio technician. One day I met a guy named Akanni Pereira, who bought a radio at the place I was working. He asked me if I would come and fix the antenna for him in his home. He gave me the address and I walked to his house after work. I was just trying to make some extra money in my spare time. When I got to his compound, I found out that he was a musician. In fact, he was one of the best guitarists in town. He was playing with Victor Olaiya and the Cool Cats, and the band was residing in Olaiya’s compound, which was like a hostel for the musicians—not all of them, but the important ones, the giants of the band, like Akanni; Tex Oluwa, who was the bassist; and Sivor Lawson, who played the saxophone. All the instruments were there as well. At night, they were playing at the Cool Cats Inn on Abule- Nla Road off Apapa Road, in Ebute- Metta. It was run by a guy named Mr. Biney, who was a lawyer and who also owned the only zoo in Lagos. So Olaiya comes in, and by the time I finished my work, the entire band had arrived for rehearsal and the music started. Boom—I became a spectator right away! I had finished up my work, but I was obliged to stay all the way to the end of the rehearsal. I was watching the entire band, but I was really looking at the drummer. He was a guy called Osho, and he was one of the best drummers at that time. So at the end of the rehearsal I asked Akanni to introduce me to this drummer because I would like to learn how to play the drums. And he did. I asked Osho if he would teach me how to play the drums and if we could discuss a tuition fee. He told me that I had to pay him ten pounds for the studies. So the bread I was taking from Akanni for the job I came to do, I asked him to give that money to Osho for me. We arranged for the lessons to start, and Osho told me to buy my own drumsticks. So when I was coming back from work the next day I went to Kingsway department store on Broad Street on Lagos Island and bought my first drumsticks. Then I went back to Akanni’s compound and waited for them to finish their rehearsal. And when they finished the rehearsal I took my first lesson. Osho’s setup was kick, snare, toms, and ride cymbals. I had to train my muscles because it was painful at first—my leg muscles got kind of stiff. The first thing Osho taught me was how to play the highlife, which is mainly played on the snare, with accents and rolls, and sometimes the kick or the tom- toms. Then the second lesson was a rumba, and the third was the waltz, in slow time. But suddenly Osho stopped showing up for Right in the Center of Lagos 33
Page 1 and 2: tony allen An Autobiography of the
Page 3: “Tony Allen is best known as the
Page 6 and 7: © 2013 Duke University Press All r
Page 8 and 9: contents ix acknowledgments 1 intro
Page 10 and 11: My father’s father, Adolphus Alle
Page 12 and 13: In the old days, I always preferred
Page 14 and 15: cell because I was too young, so th
Page 16 and 17: playing with his friends was like a
Page 18 and 19: gressing, drawing nicely. Then one
Page 22 and 23: my lessons. What could I do? One da

MASTER DRUMMER OF AFROBEAT - Duke University Press

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