Biography
Ghanaian musical heritage found fresh avenues of exploration and expansion through the work of drummer, composer, and bandleader Obo Addy, who was born in Ghana and later based in Seattle. Serving as a leading ambassador for his country’s sounds, Addy brought both his world-beat ensemble Kukrudu and his traditional quartet Okropong to audiences across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia while holding the National Endowment for the Arts’ distinguished Heritage Fellowship Award.
Raised as the son of a Wonche priest and healer, he absorbed the ceremonies and customs of Ghana’s Ga people from childhood, absorbing the drumming, dancing, and vocal elements that supported his father’s rituals. Music had surrounded him from his earliest recollections; after first striking bells during village ceremonies he quickly moved to the drum. At eighteen he entered Joe Kelly’s Band, where he mastered Western popular repertoire for stages, lodges, and clubs throughout Accra, then moved the following year into the Builder’s Brigade Band.
In 1961 Addy joined the Farmers Council of Ghana, an ensemble that educated rural communities through drama, music, and film, and that same year he launched his own traditional-music concerts, opening the production Edzo at Accra Stadium. By 1962 he had risen to assistant leader of the Farmers Band while also serving as master drummer and director of its traditional wing, remaining until 1966 when he assembled another group to present international popular music at the Continental Hotel. Two years afterward he accepted a post with the Ghana Broadcasting Band.
In 1969 he assembled Anasi Krumian Soundz, an ensemble limited to indigenous instruments such as the giri, the Atentenben bamboo flute, the Whi whistle, and calabash rattles; the group appeared in clubs, theaters, and embassies while also supporting the Peace Corps and the Canadian Voluntary Service. Simultaneously he studied, instructed, and performed the traditions of the Ewe, Ashanti, Fanti, Dagomba, Nafana, Konkomba, and Ga communities at the Arts Council of Ghana, an immersion that prompted his initial experiments blending ancestral and modern African idioms.
Following a June 1972 tour of Israel with fellow Arts Council members, Addy formed the group Oboade (“Ancient”) alongside his brothers. After a triumphant appearance at the Munich Olympic Games the ensemble embarked on worldwide travels, making its United States debut in 1973 under the auspices of Washington’s Cultural Enrichment Program by performing in state schools and universities. In 1977 Addy and his brother Yacub Addy relocated to the United States and created the band Ablade with American players; two years later he commenced private teaching and completed a six-week engagement in the Black Repertory Theater’s staging of For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.
Kukrudu was founded in 1981, yielding the albums Obo in 1983 and Obo Addy/Kukrudu in 1984. The year 1986 brought both the traditional solo release Born in the Tradition and the contemporary album African-American. In 1987 Kukrudu appeared at the Saskatoon, Calgary, and Edmonton jazz festivals while Addy simultaneously convened the four-piece Okropong to concentrate on traditional music and dance. A 1989 music-and-dance production tracing the history, culture, and significance of Ghanaian highlife, underwritten by the NEA, toured California.
Addy’s composition “Wawshisijay (Our Beginning)” was recorded by the Kronos Quartet for its 1992 chart-topping album Pieces of Africa, the same year his own Let Me Play My Drums spent one month on the Billboard World Music chart. The 1994 solo album The Rhythm of Which a Chief Walks Gracefully appeared, and Addy performed with the Charlestown Symphony String Quartet; the following year he presented three new works with the Kronos String Quartet in Seattle. He also conducted classes in African song, dance, and drumming at institutions including the Cornish Institute and Lewis and Clark College and held residencies at African-American Centers in North Carolina, the Sweetwater Art Center in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Washington State University in Pullman, and Washington and Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Raised as the son of a Wonche priest and healer, he absorbed the ceremonies and customs of Ghana’s Ga people from childhood, absorbing the drumming, dancing, and vocal elements that supported his father’s rituals. Music had surrounded him from his earliest recollections; after first striking bells during village ceremonies he quickly moved to the drum. At eighteen he entered Joe Kelly’s Band, where he mastered Western popular repertoire for stages, lodges, and clubs throughout Accra, then moved the following year into the Builder’s Brigade Band.
In 1961 Addy joined the Farmers Council of Ghana, an ensemble that educated rural communities through drama, music, and film, and that same year he launched his own traditional-music concerts, opening the production Edzo at Accra Stadium. By 1962 he had risen to assistant leader of the Farmers Band while also serving as master drummer and director of its traditional wing, remaining until 1966 when he assembled another group to present international popular music at the Continental Hotel. Two years afterward he accepted a post with the Ghana Broadcasting Band.
In 1969 he assembled Anasi Krumian Soundz, an ensemble limited to indigenous instruments such as the giri, the Atentenben bamboo flute, the Whi whistle, and calabash rattles; the group appeared in clubs, theaters, and embassies while also supporting the Peace Corps and the Canadian Voluntary Service. Simultaneously he studied, instructed, and performed the traditions of the Ewe, Ashanti, Fanti, Dagomba, Nafana, Konkomba, and Ga communities at the Arts Council of Ghana, an immersion that prompted his initial experiments blending ancestral and modern African idioms.
Following a June 1972 tour of Israel with fellow Arts Council members, Addy formed the group Oboade (“Ancient”) alongside his brothers. After a triumphant appearance at the Munich Olympic Games the ensemble embarked on worldwide travels, making its United States debut in 1973 under the auspices of Washington’s Cultural Enrichment Program by performing in state schools and universities. In 1977 Addy and his brother Yacub Addy relocated to the United States and created the band Ablade with American players; two years later he commenced private teaching and completed a six-week engagement in the Black Repertory Theater’s staging of For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.
Kukrudu was founded in 1981, yielding the albums Obo in 1983 and Obo Addy/Kukrudu in 1984. The year 1986 brought both the traditional solo release Born in the Tradition and the contemporary album African-American. In 1987 Kukrudu appeared at the Saskatoon, Calgary, and Edmonton jazz festivals while Addy simultaneously convened the four-piece Okropong to concentrate on traditional music and dance. A 1989 music-and-dance production tracing the history, culture, and significance of Ghanaian highlife, underwritten by the NEA, toured California.
Addy’s composition “Wawshisijay (Our Beginning)” was recorded by the Kronos Quartet for its 1992 chart-topping album Pieces of Africa, the same year his own Let Me Play My Drums spent one month on the Billboard World Music chart. The 1994 solo album The Rhythm of Which a Chief Walks Gracefully appeared, and Addy performed with the Charlestown Symphony String Quartet; the following year he presented three new works with the Kronos String Quartet in Seattle. He also conducted classes in African song, dance, and drumming at institutions including the Cornish Institute and Lewis and Clark College and held residencies at African-American Centers in North Carolina, the Sweetwater Art Center in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Washington State University in Pullman, and Washington and Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Albums
