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Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng
Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Afrijazz
by Russ Musto
Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng [KKO], a master drummer from Ghana, has become a well-known member of the world jazz community through performances with a wide variety of some of the music’s most celebrated figures – including Claudia Acuna, Pheeroan akLaff, Anthony Braxton, Roy Hargrove, Jay Hoggard, Cecil McBee, Max Roach, Randy Weston and Reggie Workman, among others – as well as his regular Monday percussion classes at the Jazz Gallery. On Afrijazz he presents a varied program of original compositions based ...
read moreKwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Afrijazz
by AAJ Staff
It's a sure sign when you can identify a musician's country of origin a mere twenty seconds into a recording. Especially when the opening consists of only bells and wood blocks! Well, maybe that's not such a big deal here, since interlocking drums (or what Westerners might call percussion) are the signature feature of traditional music from Ghana.
Ghanaian drummer Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng has a very expansive view of his place in the African diaspora, drawing from New Orleans, Jamaica, ...
read moreKwaku Kwaakye Obeng Celebrates Release of "Afrijazz"
Source:
All About Jazz
Considered one of the great master drummers of his generation, Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng (KKO) carries the spirit, the culture and the music of West Africa to the world. KKO is a composer, educator, dancer and master drummer who has worked internationally for the last twenty-five years.
Of his latest endeavor, Afrijazz (Innova), KKO says of the music, It is a reflection of the spirituality achieved through mixing many musical forms from Ghana with other forms from the African Diaspora and ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson