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Divine Drummer

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Dazzling percussion music from one of the most accomplished and interesting drummers ever to emerge in Africa! Already a percussionist, Ghana's Guy Warren made a brief visit to Chicago during World War II where he became enamored of the latest development in American jazz. The ideas he picked up became ingredients in the Tempos, the pioneering highlife band he led with ET Mensah. He spent only three years with the group and moved to Liberia where he worked as a journalist and the first African presenter on the BBC World Service. He returned to the US in 1955 and performed with a number of jazz greats including Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker. He made one of the first African-jazz fusion albums with Red Saunders and Gene Esposito in 1958, leading the way for a series of like-minded albums cut in the US. By the late 60s he was back in Ghana. The music here was made in London in 1969-70, a cornucopia of dense African polyrhythms teeming with all sorts of idiomatic sensibilities and some fascinating jazz-African improvisations that sound remarkably fresh. Tracks include "Freedom Dance", "One Step African Ragtime", "Self Portrait 1969", "Keep Cool You Fool (Don't Lose Your Cool)", and "Gye Nyame (Unless God)".  © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.