Born In The Tradition

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1986

Label: Santrofi

From Allmusic.com :
"With Born in the Tradition, master drummer Obo Addy serves up a tasty stew of traditional African music. Though a long-time resident of the United States, Addy was born into a family of drummers belonging to the Ga ethnic group of southern Ghana, and his versions of traditional Ga hand-drumming pieces like "Kpanlogo" and "Oge" are riveting. Most of the pieces featured on this album are really songs with drum accompaniment, and Addy carefully arranges each track so that the closely harmonized call-and-response vocals aren't drowned out by the powerful drumming that supports them. The material ranges quite widely, and includes several pieces that appear in traditional Ga religious ceremonies (like "Tigari," whose hypnotic rhythms are used to induce trance). Addy also presents strong renditions of several pieces that are more commonly associated with other ethnic groups in Ghana, thereby making this album a good introduction to traditional Ghanaian drumming in general. Most unusual, however, is the fact that Addy (through the magic of overdubbing) plays and sings just about every part heard on this recording. While this robs the album of the spontaneous energy that a group of strong individual players can generate in the heat of the moment, it does allow him to present nearly flawless versions of several core pieces in the repertoire. That sense of perfection slips only slightly on "Oshi," where Addy farms a flute solo out to a second player -- and judging by the sound of things, he might have been better off handling that himself, too."