Guy Warren

Guy Warren ( born May 4, 1923 in Accra as Warren Gamaliel Akwei, † 22 December 2008) was a Ghanaian musician and one of the earliest representatives of the Afro - jazz. He went to the USA as Guy Warren ( of Ghana ), since 1970 he called himself Kofi Ghanaba.

Life and work

Warren was born in 1923 in the then British colony of the Gold coast. He learned as a child, the traditional Ghanaian drumming. At the age of fourteen he was drummer of the Accra Rhythmic Orchestra, with which he first came to the U.S. in 1939. In 1947 he became a member of tempo band of ET Mensah, in 1948 he joined with Kenny Graham's Afro - Cubists in England.

After working as a radio disc jockey in Nigeria and Liberia, he moved in 1953 to the USA, where he recorded a number of albums in Chicago and worked with musicians like Thelonious Monk and Max Roach. A concert with Charlie Parker in 1955 was no longer about. In 1962 he published an autobiography.

1965 Warren returned as acclaimed celebrity - he received the honorary title Odomankoma Kyrema (the " divine drummer " ), which is always given just one person - back to Ghana. There, he turned to Buddhism and was called since 1970 Kofi Ghanaba (son of Ghana). He entered only occasionally - such as the Soul To Soul concerts - and worked as a teacher. In 2001, he returned as a stage musician back in a musical about the life of Yaa Asantewaa in the international public.

The documentary film The Divine Drummer ( 2001) by Klaus Voswinckel depicts an encounter of Warren with Robyn Schulkowsky in Ghana.

Discography

Writings

• I Have a Story To Tell. Accra: . New Guinea Press, 1962 ( autobiography)

Lexical entries

• Ian Carr: Article Ghanaba. In: Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. Jazz Rough Guide. Metzler, Stuttgart 1999