Obo Addy (January 15, 1936 – September 13, 2012) was a Ghanaian drummer and dancer who was one of the first native African musicians to bring the fusion of traditional

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

known as ''

worldbeat Worldbeat is a music genre that blends pop music or rock music with world music or traditional music. Worldbeat is similar to other cross-pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural co ...

'' to Europe and then to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

of the United States in the late 1970s. He taught music at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Biography

Addy, born into the Ga ethnic group in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, the capital city of Ghana, was one of the 55 children of Jacob Kpani Addy, a ''wonche'' or

medicine man A medicine man (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwinini'') or medicine woman (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwininiikwe'') is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name i ...

who integrated

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

ic music into healing and other

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

s. Obo Addy's earliest musical influence was the traditional music of the Ga people, but he was also influenced as an adolescent by

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

from Europe and the United States, and performed in local bands that played Westernized music and the

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

music of Ghana There are many styles of traditional and modern music of Ghana, due to Ghana's worldwide geographic position on the African continent. The best known modern genre originating in Ghana is Highlife. For many years, Highlife was the preferred mu ...

known as

highlife Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (region), history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasse ...

. The

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

commissioned a string quartet from Addy for their 1992 album '' Pieces of Africa''. Addy was employed by the Arts Council of Ghana in 1969, and played his native Ga traditional music in the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany. He moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, and began touring in Europe. In 1978, he moved to

in the United States, where he taught at Lewis & Clark College. He also led weekly drumming workshops at Portland's Lincoln High School. In 1989, he established the

Homowo Homowo is a festival celebrated by the Ga people of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region. The festival starts at the end of April into May with the planting of crops (mainly millet) before the rainy season starts. The Ga people celebrate Homowo in ...

African Arts and Cultures organization, a non-profit that sponsors the annual Homowo Festival of African Arts in Oregon. The organization was later renamed as the Obo Addy Legacy Project. Addy died on September 13, 2012, following a prolonged battle with liver cancer.

Awards and honors

He was awarded a Master's Fellowship from the

Oregon Arts Commission The Oregon Arts Commission is a governor-appointed body of nine commissioners who allocate grants for artists based in the U.S. state of Oregon. It receives the bulk of its funding through the National Endowment for the Arts, the state, and the O ...

and Regional Arts & Culture Council, along with the Oregon Governors Award for the Arts. In 1996, he became the first native African to win a

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States.

Recent albums

* ''AfieyeOkropong'' ( Alula Records) * ''Wonche Bi'' (Alula Records) * ''Let Me Play My Drums'' ( Burnside Records) * ''The Rhythm Of Which A Chief Walks Gracefully'' ( Earthbeat Records) * ''Okropong'' ( Santrofi Records)

References

External links

*
Obo Addy: Master Drummer home page
*
Addy vs. Addy
. Zach Dundas. ''Willamette Week Online''. February 26, 2003.

from Lewis & Clark College site
Obo Addy profile at World Music CentralArticle about Addy familyOregon Art Beat: Drummer Obo Addy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Addy, Obo 1936 births 2012 deaths Ghanaian drummers Ghanaian dancers National Heritage Fellowship winners Lewis & Clark College faculty Musicians from Portland, Oregon Musicians from Accra Ga-Adangbe people