Jazz Articles about Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng

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Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Afrijazz

by Russ Musto
November 25, 2003

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 ...

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Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Afrijazz

by AAJ Staff
May 25, 2003

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, ...