Afrobeat’s Tony Allen joins Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn’s new music project

The Good, The Bad and The Queen is the name of the new supergroup which legendary Nigerian drummer/Afrobeat icon Tony Allen is currently in. Most known as the beat behind Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat sound, Allen has been busy making a name for himself in both the world music and popular music worlds. As a child growing up in Ghana/Liberia Fela Kuti’s music was a staple of any party I went to and Tony Allen’s excellent drumming helped bridge Fela’s sound between traditional African and 70’s soul music (James Brown, Marvin Gaye etc.). Now showing his range and ability to update his African sound, Tony Allen has joined with Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillazz), Paul Simonon (bassist for The Clash), Simon Tong (guitarist for The Verve), and Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton ( producer for Gorillaz, Danger Doom, Gnarls Barkley, etc ) for the new supergroup.

The project was born in 2004 when Albarn and Tong travelled to Lagos, Nigeria to record with Tony Allen, recording an album’s worth of material with local musicians in the process. The band’s website features some video clips of the group rehearsing, as well as the an initial single from the CD (“Herculean”), which is available for free download. The self-titled album is due out January 2007.