ナイジェリア出身のアフロ・ビート・ドラマーの巨匠、トニー・アレンのブルーノート・デビュー・アルバム。本作が、常にジャズの第一線を築いてきたBlue Noteからリリースされるというのは非常に意義深い。というのは本作は、レーベルのクラシックな時代を描いているのと同時に現在ならではのイノヴェーティヴな面を持っている作品だから。このアルバムは、アルフレッド・ライオンとマルクス・マルギュスというレーベルの創始者から受け継いだ徳の哲学の教えに従って完璧な完全性を持つ聴覚的な美しさ、独占的なアナログ技術を使った音楽の忠実な再現を実現。そして、Blue Noteのハイブリッド性も反映。本作品のジャズは、アフリカにある源に私たちをいざない、元気にしてくれる魅惑的な作品。トニー・アレン本人もベスト・アルバムと自負する本作、もちろんその背景のストーリーも豊富。本作はトニー・アレンのミュージシャンとしてもアートの源を紹介してくれる、20世紀後半のナイジェリアに。なんと、デーモン・アルバーンがキーボードで1曲"Cool Cats"で参加!

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2017/07/21）

Pitchfork - "Allen's drums don't typically swing so much as jitter and jiggle, with boundless syncopated rhythms that sound like a giant squid menacing a drum kit."

Rovi

Best known as the drummer for Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, Tony Allen is an icon in his own right, an innovator, and a vital architect of Kuti's percussively funky, jazz- and R&B-soaked sound. On his full-length Blue Note debut, 2017's The Source, Allen expands upon those contributions with new compositions inspired by the jazz that shaped his early years. 77 years old at the time of this recording, Allen grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where he soaked up Juju and other traditional West African music styles. Initially, however, it was American jazz that caught his imagination, specifically bop artists like Max Roach and Art Blakey -- the latter of whom he paid homage to on his 2017 EP, Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. On The Source, he balances both his jazz and Afrobeat sides, delivering buoyant songs that are equal parts funky jams, harmonic engagements, and modal workouts. Helping him achieve this synergistic combination is Paris-based saxophonist Yann Jankielewicz, who previously appeared on Allen's 2009 effort, Secret Agent. Here, Allen and Jankielewicz have crafted songs that showcase the drummer's muscular, kinetic style and ability to lead a robust ensemble. Making up that ensemble are an adventurous cadre of Jankielewicz's fellow Parisians including bassist Mathias Allamane, guitarist Indy Dibongue, pianist Jean Phi Dary, trumpeter Nicolas Giraud, trombonist and tuba player Daniel Zimmermann, saxophonists Jean Jacques Elangue and Remi Sciuto, and organist Vincent Taurelle. Also making an appearance is Allen's the Good, the Bad & the Queen bandmate Damon Albarn, who slips in for some piano hijinks. The opening "Moody Boy" starts dramatically with a bluesy rubato tuba statement from Zimmermann, played with a soulful urgency that improbably brings to mind John Coltrane, and then leaps headlong into a crisp, funky groove marked by Vincent Taurelle's juicy organ. Also engaging are cuts like the celebratory "Push and Pull," which impossibly marries Preservation Hall-style group improvisation with a bouncy highlife-jazz energy. Yet other cuts, like "Tony's Blues" and "Ewajo," sound like something Charles Mingus might have written for Fela Kuti. One of the most satisfying aspects of The Source is just how nuanced and harmonically varied these arrangements are. There's a real chamber jazz aspect to many of the songs as the band swells and vibrates against Allen's intense drum tumult until the entire ensemble erupts into a cacophony of soulful, winding skronk. If Allen felt the impulse to celebrate his idol Art Blakey on his previous EP, with The Source, he offers an open-ended coda to that influence; an earthy, majestic, endlessly inventive album that caps both his own storied career and points the way toward the future. ~ Matt Collar|

Rovi