Concert Alert! CAbP to feature Tony Allen on Mon, 8/27 at The Promontory in Chicago

We are very excited to announce another live collaboration with beatmaster Tony Allen on Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at The Promontory in Hyde Park. After a number of tour dates in 2013-2014 where the band featured Allen, Chicago Afrobeat Project released the critically acclaimed What Goes Up in 2017, with Allen manning the drums.

For this show, the band’s newest additions, rising emcee Legit and vocalist Rhea the Second, join the band for this one-night only performance. Expect a mix of afrobeat, hiphop, jazz, and soul… all centered around Allen’s signaure drum beats.

For What Goes Up, the group is the first and only American afrobeat band to release a full album with Tony Allen, and staying true to the band’s form, shaped each song by flipping the afrobeat foundation sideways. Chicago takes center stage, with local emcees and vocalists such as J.C. Brooks, Legit, Akenya, and Kiara Lanier being featured on each song.

World Music Central Reviews “What Goes Up”

This article by Tom Orr appeared originally on World Music Central.

As a longtime fan of Afrobeat music, I was greatly interested when I heard that Chicago Afrobeat Project would be collaborating with drummer Tony Allen. Allen, after all, was the man behind the kit for all of Fela Kuti’s groundbreaking records and was just as instrumental (pun absolutely intended) in creating the Afrobeat style. What Goes Up (Chicago Afrobeat Project, 2017) does not disappoint. Allen’s militantly polyrhythmic drumming is as spot on as ever. He also brings the experimental feel of his recent works, so the album isn’t simply formulaic Afrobeat but rather an effective blend of contemporary textures (including measured doses of rap) and traditionally-grounded grooves.

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From the Trib: “Chicago Afrobeat Project thrives alongside Fela collaborator”

This article by Greg Kot originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

In some ways, the Chicago Afrobeat Project’s decade-plus career had been building to the moment in 2013 when band members found themselves in the same recording studio with one of their heroes, Tony Allen, the drummer on many of the greatest recordings by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti in the 1970s.

Afrobeat, a rhythmically demanding, politically charged interpretation of American soul and R&B that Fela popularized in his native Nigeria and then took around the world, was defined in many ways by Allen’s drumming. Since establishing itself in West Side jam sessions, the Chicago Afrobeat Project has been using Fela’s innovations as a jumping-off point for its own multigenre compositions and dance concerts.

So when Allen, now a resident of Paris, visited the Midwest a few years ago for a workshop and concert, Chicago Afrobeat Project persuaded the legendary drummer to set aside some time to record two songs with the band at Fullerton Recording Studios in Logan Square, which is run by the band’s keyboardist Kevin Ford.

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