Yannis Philippakis was one of the last musicians to record with the late drummer and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen. Their collaboration was released as the five-song EP Lagos Paris London under Yannis & ...

A look into the music of Fela Kuti and the genre Afrobeat. Fela Kuti has inspired musicians from all over the world from Burna Boy and Beyoncé, to Miles Davis. Sound Field dives into the musical ...

Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, listening to jazz drummers like Gene Krupa and Art Blakey. He started playing the drums at 18, but several months later, he announced to his ...

Tiwa Savage, the queen of afrobeats and Nigeria’s very own, recently dropped Celia—her first body of work to come out on Motown Records. The 13-track project, which she titled in tribute to her mother ...

But Fela Kuti and his music were a revelation to the seasoned veteran. "It was like lightning," he says. "I thought, 'Why haven’t I heard this before? How did this escape me?!'" Afrobeat has elements ...

In the late 1960s, Fela decided that he had no use for love songs or party tunes; he wanted to challenge unjust authority. By Jon Pareles Resistance is etched into Afrobeat, the music forged by the ...

Afrobeat traces its origin to 1920s Ghana, when traditional West African styles came together with jazz and other genres to create a new form of rhythmic and vocal expression. Identifiable for its ...

"Sometimes it’s better to not know each other as people first and just play," says Yannis Philippakis, one of the last musicians to get on the tools with the late Afrobeat pioneer, Tony Allen. (Photo ...