Drummer Tony Allen is widely hailed as one of the founders of afrobeat alongside his longtime musical partner Philip boutique the seventy nine year old Allen died Wednesday evening in Paris of heart attack NPR's honest ideas he'll guess has this appreciation sitting behind his drum kit Tony Allen used his whole body to lay out intricate poly rhythms with all four limbs Ellen didn't begin playing drums until he was eighteen years old but just months later he became a professional musician Alan met Fela Kuti in the early nineteen sixties and the Lakers Nigeria and in nineteen sixty nine the forms the legendary bands the seventy no one was injured the band's drummer he was its musical director blaring horns and soaring vocals often with highly political lyrics over driving through in nineteen seventy nine and in part because he felt he wasn't being recognized and compensated for his contributions but he continued to be a musical adventurer dipping into everything from Afro funk electronica his last album was released only last month it's a collaboration with the late south African trumpeter Hugh Masekela some of Tony Allen's own music was explicitly political but he believed in rejoicing in the small things of life too as he told NPR in two thousand ten CellaVision is everybody does we would look at it is like this every day we said it's a message he delivered through his exuberant music for more than five