The Nigerian sound that revolutionized African music in the 1970s—and the music of other continents for decades to come—was called Afrobeat. Most of the credit was given to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the singer, songwriter and showman who inspired millions with his rabble-rousing politics, macho swagger and musical charisma. But the beat in Afrobeat came from Kuti’s innovative drummer, Tony Allen, a quiet, wiry man who was as revolutionary in his own way as the more celebrated Kuti. “Without Tony Allen,” Kuti himself famously said, “there would be no Afrobeat.”