A great drummer needs a great band, and Tony Allen has spent much of his career trying to find musical partners to match his undoubted skills, and the sheer originality of the band leader - the late Fela Kuti - with whom he first made his name. The jazz and funk-influenced Afrobeat that Fela and Allen first pioneered is still popular in Nigeria, but Allen has moved on. His new album Lagos No Shaking is a brave blend of Afrobeat with both contemporary and older Nigerian styles, and the London launch party was even more fun than the album itself.

Allen is a performer best experienced live, and he had done his best to fly in a selection of Lagos musicians to ensure that this was a special night. Alas, not all of them made it (there were, it seems, some unexpected visa problems), but he was thankfully joined by two singers who feature on the album, and on whom this show depended. From the older Lagos generation there was that great, 76-year-old veteran, Fatai Rolling Dollar, taking a brave stab at the Afrobeat dance songs and then sitting down to demonstrate earlier, chanting styles for which he accompanied himself on that ancient instrument, the thumb piano, with percussive help from the rest of the band. Then, in complete contrast, there were the contemporary soul and R&B styles of the entertainingly feisty Yinka Davies.

As for Allen, he sat in semi-darkness, half-hidden underneath a striped green hat while driving on the band with his insistent, inventive, but never obtrusive drumming. He only allowed himself one solo (a trifling affair by Ginger Baker standards) but he deserved the furious applause. Even from the back of the stage, he still controlled the show.