Guy Warren

Guy Warren (Kofi Ghanaba) - who started his career with E.T. Mensah - lived and worked in the USA in the 1950s and early ‘60s , where he issued several well-received albums (there is a website devoted to these - see the links section of this site) but so far as I can establish, these all seem to have disappeared from catalogue a long time ago. The story goes that one of them sold over a million copies, but I wonder if this is an exaggeration - if they were that popular there would surely be more copies around today, but they all seem pretty rare in my experience. So, it’s good to have something by him available on CD, even if it consists entirely of tracks that have never been released before.

Maybe it isn’t too surprising that they haven’t. In the late 1960s, when these recordings were made, much of it must have seemed like pretty esoteric stuff. Only one track comes anywhere near the kind of thing buyers of previous Retroafric releases might expect - “Freedom Dance”, a light take on danceband highlife with acoustic guitar, percussion and flute. At the opposite pole, Warren is clearly bent on exploring rather strange, experimental territory, with tracks like “Indigo Turning Black Blues”, a nebulous solo improvisation for wooden xylophone, whistling and harmonica. Tracks like “Floating Rhythms” and “Space Music for Piano” have a touch of the ambient about them, and there is a clear sense of pushing the envelope. To call this music demanding might be to stretch a point, but nor is it anybody’s idea of easy listening.

Best of all, though, are the tracks - which do account for most of the disc - where he gives full rein to his percussion skills, like “African Jazz Dances”, both versions of which feature powerful yet beautifully subtle drumming, the second enhanced by marvellous, wild flute playing, or the mighty drum feature “Self Portrait 1969”. On the first track, with the Gourd Drummers of Benin, he pays tribute to the music of his native West Africa, while on others he seems deliberately to be casting his net widely across the continent and the diaspora, from the meditative “Ugandan Flute and Drums” to “One Step African Ragtime”, which recalls the blues-influenced fife and drum bands from the northern Mississippi hill country. He even shades into bebop improvisation with “Keep Cool”.

By no means as immediately accessible as most of their other albums, this is a brave release for Retroafric, but it is one that deserves the attention of anybody interested in the myriad ways in which African traditions can be extended and developed.

R.T.
(06/02)


Guy Warren: The Divine Drummer - Retroafric RETRO16CD Guy Warren (Kofi Ghanaba) - who started his career with E.T. Mensah - lived and worked in the USA in the 1950s and early ‘60s , where he issued several well-received albums (there is a website devoted to these - see the links section of this site) but so far as I can establish, these all seem to have disappeared from catalogue a long time ago. The story goes that one of them sold over a million copies, but I wonder if this is an exaggeration - if they were that popular there would surely be more copies around today, but they all seem pretty rare in my experience. So, it’s good to have something by him available on CD, even if it consists entirely of tracks that have never been released before. Maybe it isn’t too surprising that they haven’t. In the late 1960s, when these recordings were made, much of it must have seemed like pretty esoteric stuff. Only one track comes anywhere near the kind of thing buyers of previous Retroafric releases might expect - “Freedom Dance”, a light take on danceband highlife with acoustic guitar, percussion and flute. At the opposite pole, Warren is clearly bent on exploring rather strange, experimental territory, with tracks like “Indigo Turning Black Blues”, a nebulous solo improvisation for wooden xylophone, whistling and harmonica. Tracks like “Floating Rhythms” and “Space Music for Piano” have a touch of the ambient about them, and there is a clear sense of pushing the envelope. To call this music demanding might be to stretch a point, but nor is it anybody’s idea of easy listening. Best of all, though, are the tracks - which do account for most of the disc - where he gives full rein to his percussion skills, like “African Jazz Dances”, both versions of which feature powerful yet beautifully subtle drumming, the second enhanced by marvellous, wild flute playing, or the mighty drum feature “Self Portrait 1969”. On the first track, with the Gourd Drummers of Benin, he pays tribute to the music of his native West Africa, while on others he seems deliberately to be casting his net widely across the continent and the diaspora, from the meditative “Ugandan Flute and Drums” to “One Step African Ragtime”, which recalls the blues-influenced fife and drum bands from the northern Mississippi hill country. He even shades into bebop improvisation with “Keep Cool”. By no means as immediately accessible as most of their other albums, this is a brave release for Retroafric, but it is one that deserves the attention of anybody interested in the myriad ways in which African traditions can be extended and developed. R.T. (06/02)

	Guy Warren The Divine Drummer Odumankuma Retroafric RETRO16CD


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