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May , 2023. Discovery House, Adabraka ACCRA: The Department of Creative Arts (DoCA) at the African University College of Communications (AUCC) calls on all Ghanaians to observe the birth centenary on Thursday May 4 of Ghanaba, the legendary jazz drummer that continues to inspire and touch lives every day.
His incredible body of work include such classics as Ballad for Giraffes, Waltzing Drums, Blood Brothers,
Love, the Mystery Of , Talking Drum Looks Ahead, Lady Marie Drums Suite I, Lady Marie Drums Suite II and My Story.
Friends, colleagues, jazz enthusiasts, culture activists and pan-Africanists everywhere must celebrate this renowned musician’s 100th birthday by marking the day as World Ghanaba Day.
His Life
Born Kpakpo Akwei in Accra on May 4, 1923, the legend started drumming at 14, joining Yebuah Mensah’s Accra Rhythmic Orchestra at 17. Ghanaba, aka Guy Warren aka Warren Gamaliel Harding, dropped out of Achimota College at 20 and got recruited by American military intelligence, travelling to Chicago where he encountered a thriving jazz scene.
Later, he joined Yebuah’s younger brother E.T. Mensah’s Tempos Band, moving on to become a major part of the American jazz milieu that included Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Max Roach, Billy Strayhorn and Thelonious Monk.
He was a key inspiration for the Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti.
He also worked as a BBC DJ, journalist and newspaper editor, and lived in both the UK and the US, pioneering Afro-jazz.
His Music
In 1956, Ghanaba released his debut album (with Gene Esposito and Red Saunders), Africa Speaks, America Answers which sold over a million copies worldwide and spawned his best-known hit, That Happy Feeling. Before returning to Ghana, he released a number of highly influential percussion-based recordings which had a profound effect on American jazz musicians hungry for authentic African sounds. Randy Weston and Art Blakey both recorded cover versions of Ghanaba’s Love, the Mystery Of, his musical rendering of Romeo and Juliet that was featured on the 1958 recording Themes for African Drums.
When he returned to Ghana, he published his autobiography I Have a Story to Tell.
On Republic Day 1971, he changed his stage name to Kofi Ghanaba and began playing a kit constructed from enormous fontomfrom and atumpan drums. He reunited with Max Roach for a 1986 performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and also appeared in Haile Gerima’s 1993 film, Sankofa.
In 2001, he made his last UK appearance in the musical Yaa Asantewaa: Warrior Queen with the Pan African Orchestra and UK-based dance company Adzido.
In his last years, Ghanaba was increasingly reclusive and was sometimes described as “eccentric”. He however maintained his African Heritage Library and continued to perform until he joined the ancestors on December 22, 2008 ages four score and five.
His Legacy
Ghanaba is credited with the infusion of traditional African drumming in jazz music. By rights, he should have been at least as (or more) renowned before the public as Ginger Baker who was an Englishman who got to a somewhat similar place in music by following jazz back to Africa. Alas, Ghanaba never had the press or the association with an English power-trio to carry his name to the world’s public.
Drummer Max Roach said this of him:
“He was so far ahead of what we were all doing that none of us understood what he was saying…He knew that in order for Afro-American music to be stronger, it must cross-fertilize with its African origins.”
His centenary birthday therefore marks a legacy of 100 years of AfroJazz.
Tributes
Amarteorkor Amarteifio: “During the heydays of the National theater of Ghana, one of our flagship programs was the Living legends series. In July 2003, the two honorees were the Divine Drummer Odomankuma Kyeremah Kofi Ghanaba and Prof Emeritus J.H. Kwabena Nketia. It was showtime. We all held our breadth because the Divine Drummer was totally unpredictable. His preference was to walk in from the front door of the auditorium through the audience and onto the stage, his body covered in bentonite clay, wearing his white cloth, followed by his musicians and those holding his burning incense. Sometimes he will fire up a firecracker making people jump or he would tap members of the audience over the shoulders with his staff claiming that he was ordered by his muse to do so.
“This time Kofi Ghanaba had promised the audience that he would shake up the theater with the Hallelujah chorus. And he did. He stole the show with his African version of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus presented with three choirs, the Winneba Youth Choir, the Madina Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Choir and the Catholic Archdiocesan choir. He went at it as never before: hands, feet all over his set of drums, shouting incantations when it moved him. And the audience loved it. Two standing ovations later, his pranks preceding the show forgotten and forgiven, everybody went home happy to have been in the presence of such a great drummer.”
Prof. John Collins: “This is a letter I wrote to the American jazz musicologist Robin Kelly in 2004 about a musical row Kofi Ghanaba …once had with Thelonius Monk: and which Ghanaba told me about in 1990 when we were transferring his jazz tapes onto cassette in my Bokoor Recording Studio. The letter goes as follows:
‘Ghanaba told me that Thelonius Monk, his wife Nelly, Monk’s brother and his manager Harry visited Ghanaba at his house in New York where Ghanaba had a beaten-up piano. First of all, Ghanaba wanted to know why Monk always emphasised the second and fourth beat of the bar whereas he, as an African, put his emphasis on number one and three, and made one the first beat. They were not able to resolve this. Then Monk played a song called something like Well, it doesn’t matter. It had an AABA structure. Ghanaba noticed that between the B and final A segment there was a ‘hole’. On quizzing Ghanaba, I got that he meant a rhythmic hole or ambiguity that could produce a different rhythm from the one Monk intended (not sure whether this was an extra beat to the bar or what). Monk got annoyed with Ghanaba saying ‘as if you could know’. So Ghanaba got Nellie (whom Ghanaba called ‘Nelly-o’) to sing along with Monk (whom Ghanaba called ‘His Grace’) and pointed out the ‘hole’ again. Monk got very cross and then disappeared into the kitchen. His wife followed and came back cussing Ghanaba for having got Monk upset and excited. Monk was pacing up and down the room and Nelly had to cool him down with wet towels. The four then left Ghanaba as Monk was going to L.A. the next day. Two days later Ghanaba got a phone call from the Manager, Harry, that Monk was still sometimes pacing up and down thinking on the matter.'”
Nana S. Achampong, Department of Creative Arts, AUCC: “One of the most underrated makers of 20th century civilization. He lived a full life as a Ga, a Ghanaian, an African, and a pan-African who has shaped popular culture in incredible ways.”
Nii Kwate Owoo, Efiri Tete Communications: “To our beloved legendary Afrikan Drummer, Kofi Ghanaba: you were a personal friend, and a mentor. You inspired us to reach new heights with your innovative and rhythmic mastery as the originator of Afro-Jazz. Your DYNAMIC presence and Legacy will live on forever in our hearts and minds as we commemorate the centenary of your birth. Tsooo Booiiiii La Ko Edze!!!” –
Paa Kwasi Holbrook-Smith, Afro Jazz Festival: “’The river and the path/ Which is older/ Did the path cross the river/ Or the river the path…’ Kofi Ghanaba remained an enigma to many just as the riddle of the Ancient drums. A creative genius he not only created the beautiful music we have all come to appreciate but also carved out an image of an artiste who had found his muse. Supremely confident, he left us spellbound with his solo performances. Audiences transcended into the meditative realms of his music. Kofi Ghanaba lives on in every parchment of skin that is struck by a hand or stick. He’s in the boom of the Fontonfrom, the speech of the Dondo, the message of the Atumpani. Ghanaba is an echo of the cosmic boom that will forever resound. Happy birthday, Nuumo!”
Panji Anoff, Pidgin Music: “Dada aka the Divine Drummer aka Guy Warren aka Kofi Ghanaba. Like many great innovators, Ghanaba’s contribution to popular culture may never be fully understood or appreciated. Jazz credits Art Blakey, Max Roach & Elvin Jones with the innovation that symbolized the development of jazz in the 50s. Ghanaba gets credit for being the first African to record his own album in the US. I have never forgotten the day I first saw the black & white photo of Charlie Parker draped in Ghanaba’s kente. The saxophonist didn’t look too well, and it was a young Guy Warren smile that lights up the photo. It was one of the last photos ever taken of ‘Bird’.
“Ghanaba was a great teacher. He taught me to think very differently about playing ‘the music that is even greater than that which we can think about or imagine…’”
Ahuma Bosco Ocansey, MUSIGA: “Kofi Ghanaba, the man with the incense and more. He was a trail blazer we were all inspired by. As a former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), we definitely miss his wisdom and wit and will forever cherish our memories of him. From his unique world view to his spirituality, his outspoken nature and firm believe in African culture, Ghanaba was like the North Star, a constant in the midst of a swarm of influences that sought to derail the African Personality. Although gone, you still live on in your music and film appearances. Indeed we can join you and our ancestors as we intone, Eyi Wala Don, Nii Kofi Ghanaba, yaa wor dzogban!”
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