Listening to Tony Allen play Afrobeat, the music he helped Fela Kuti to invent, is like plugging into an international grid of groove current, fully earthed. He settles down behind his kit and before you know it, the whole 14-piece band is throbbing and bobbing along on a steady four-four pulse that might go on for 10 minutes or half an hour. What holds your attention is Allen's playing, effortlessly commanding over a supple bass riff and a simple vamp from keyboards and guitar.
As with many drummer-led outfits, Tony Allen's Afrobeat Big Band feels like an extension of the man and his traps. Two vocalists - one a dancing queen, the other a female rapper - follow the loose, hooky tunes that Allen croons while playing. Three percussionists maintain the pulse, rarely playing against or across the leader. Even the horn charts sound more like written-out drum fills. The five-piece horn section sounds under-rehearsed, but arrangements are hardly what this band is about. After the short brassy blast that kicks off each number, what you get is a loose, constant sound that dances along with sekere and woodblock adding punctuation. Conga player Lekan Babalola is particularly good, solid and unflashy with only one solo to show how much more he can do.
Allen is a little disappointed by the seated audience in the half-full hall. "Next time I'll catch you in a place without chairs," he says. If this were a dance hall, the joint would be jumping, and before the gig ends many couples have started to shake a tailfeather. But even the most dedicated dancers need melodies to dance to as well as beats, and this live set lacks the invention and variety of Allen's forthcoming album Home Cooking. The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a concert venue, with a listening ambience that puts overlong chants, ragged ensembles and half-baked solos into unflattering focus. Not that they need to sound like Earth Wind and Fire, but it would have been nice had the horn section played with the energy and flair of the rhythm players. At least trombonist Abdul Raheem sounded at home, while the tireless Femi Elias (bass) and Kunle Olasoju (guitar) were right on the money, holding down every one of Allen's priceless beats.
