Legendary drummer Tony Allen, who made his World Circuit / Nonesuch Records debut earlier this year with the release of his latest album, Secret Agent, will appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight. Tune in to NBC tonight, starting at 12:35 AM, to watch the Afrobeat pioneer perform with the Late Night house band, The Roots.

Tonight's appearance marks the start of a week-long North American tour for Allen, who will perform with his band in Toronto, Madison, Chicago, Cambridge, New York, Seattle, and Boonville, California, in the coming days. First up is a free set in Toronto's Queens Park this Saturday, which helps launch that city's famed Luminato Festival.

The Toronto Star's Greg Quill suggests "it wouldn’t be too big a stretch to say that without the propulsive, syncopated rhythms of the famed Nigerian drummer, the work of the late Fela Kuti ... might not have spread so infectiously to the West in the 1970s and ’80s, influencing everyone from Paul Simon to The Clash." Quill spoke with Allen about his career and the impact of Afrobeat on the larger musical world.

"Afrobeat is like reggae music," Allen tells the Star, "it has influenced everything. It’s not about issues or protest. If I have something to say in my songs, I will say it. Otherwise, I’m happy to make people dance."

You'll find the complete article at thestar.com.

Two additional outdoor free shows follow, first at the Yahara Place Park in Madison, Wisconsin, for the Marquette Waterfront Festival, then a Monday night show in Chicago's Millennium Park, both with the Great Lake Swimmers performing as well. The Onion's A.V. Club, in a preview of the Madison show, says Secret Agent "expertly blends jazz, funk, and rock into earthbound extraterrestrial jams."

Time Out New York, in recommending Allen's three shows in the city next week—at Stuyvesant Town and (Le) Poisson Rouge in Manhattan and at BAM Metrotech in Brooklyn—calls it "an undisputed fact of science that Allen, who turns 70 this summer, ranks among the globe’s funkiest residents." Even with the various vocalists featured on Allen's new album, Time Out's Jay Ruttenberg insists, "the prevailing voice here, as on so many Allen sides, remains the percussion: improbably busy but never showy, arty and cerebral but always devoted to vital concerns of the booty." Read more at newyork.timeout.com.

The Boston Globe spoke with Allen in advance of this Tuesday's concert at Boston's Middle East nightclub. The two discuss Allen's role in the creation of Afrobeat and the evolution and resurgence of the genre. "And as the Afrobeat renaissance continues to pick up steam, the time seems ideal for the American reemergence of drummer Tony Allen, the rhythmic innovator behind Fela’s seminal and dauntingly prolific band Africa ’70," writes Globe correspondent Andrew Gilbert. "Allen is delving headlong back into Afrobeat with his horn-driven new album, Secret Agent." Read the article at boston.com.

For more information on Allen's North American tour, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To pick up a copy of the Secret Agent CD with high-quality MP3s of the album included at no additional cost, plus a special discount offer on tickets to the Broadway phenomenon Fela!, head to the Nonesuch Store. One recent customer, Jimmy Saal, comments in the Nonesuch Journal that the "CD sounds great, plus I used the discount code to save about $100 on 3 tix to see Fela! on Broadway. Great deal all around for everyone."