Kusun Ensemble

Wednesday, July 09, 2003 Kusin Ensemble takes listeners on a musical journey, blending the traditional sound of Ghana with American jazz influences. By MIKE HUDSON © THE ROANOKE TIMES

Music is struggle. It takes hard work to honor the creative impulse, the call of musical tradition and innovation in a marketplace that values sameness and superficiality.

Authenticity often gives way to the need to pay bills, feed families, keep the band on the road.

Nii Tetty Tetteh faces these questions every day. Tetteh, 39, has brought a dozen of his countrymen and women from Ghana to America.

He is the leader of the Kusun Ensemble, a group of accomplished musicians and dancers who share a big wooden house on Harrison Avenue in Northwest Roanoke. They have come across the sea, full of dreams and persistence, to share their music, a traditional, drum-driven sound of Ghana blended with American jazz influences.

They are pilgrims in a strange land. They are far from their families. The food and people are different. Well-paying concert dates are hard to come by.

Tetteh is undaunted. He embraces the struggle, the work, the uncertainty that precedes success.

"I know we're going to sweat for this," he says.

When he speaks of his band and his music and his ambitions, there is an uncompromising glint in his eye. Before he became a musician, he was a fiercely competitive soccer player.

"When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a winner," he says. "I have this in my head. I don't want to lose. Nothing is impossible.

Everything is possible." So he thinks ahead. He figures the angles.

"I always have to put two or three plans before me," he explains. He grew up on Africa's west coast, in Jamestown, Ghana, a port where Africans once began their agonizing ocean passages to slavery in the Americas.

He grew up with music. He would go to the beach to help his father push the giant fishing canoes out to sea, and hear the singing and chanting that accompanied and invigorated the work.

As a teenager, he joined a youth band and decided to become a professional musician. He gave up soccer.

The youth group appeared on "The Visitor," a 1981 world-music album by Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood. In 1988, Tetteh was a founding member of the Pan African Orchestra. He started his own band, Kakatsitsi, and journeyed to England. Eventually Kakatsitsi was pulling in 1,500 pounds to 2,000 pounds a show, good money, but Tetteh believed the band wasn't getting a fair shake. When other band members signed a management contract without consulting Tetteh, he split from the group.

Tetteh says his fellow musicians were simply happy to be getting paid for their music. The problem with most musicians is "we don't have the faith in ourselves. We can only have faith in our instruments." Once the show's over and they put down their instruments, he says, they have no interest in doing the work of managing their careers. They don't understand, Tetteh says, that the telephone, the computer, the pen are instruments, too - they are the essential tools of the business of music. "You have to take these seriously," he says. "If you don't know how to play these instruments, forget it, you're not going to get anywhere." Many talented African musicians, he says, have come to America with great hopes, only to end up working at McDonalds or KFC. In 1997, he started a new group, the Kusun Ensemble. He also founded a music school in Ghana. People from the United States, Italy, France and elsewhere pay to come for monthlong sojourns at the Ghana Drum School. Two years ago, Kris Hodges, a Floyd County music promoter, visited Africa and was impressed enough by Tetteh that he invited his band to play at the first Floydfest, a huge festival Hodges was organizing. The Kusun Ensemble came to Virginia last summer, played at Floydfest and Roanoke's Jefferson Center, and decided to return again this year, this time for a five-month sojourn that band members hope will allow them to find a niche in the American market. When the ensemble formed, it played purely traditional music. But Tetteh pushed his band toward a more U.S.-friendly sound, drawing on his admiration for American jazz/soul legends Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and James Brown. "I'm thinking about the world music market," Tetteh says. "I'm thinking about the jazz feeling. To bring it to a place like the United States, you have to be a little smart." The result is a dazzling sound that fuses bass and lead guitar with drums and other traditional Ghanaian instruments, a new brand of music that the Kusun Ensemble has dubbed "Nokoko." But Tetteh isn't complacent. He is constantly looking for new touches, new innovations. Nokoko is a work in progress. "For me, making music is like being a painter," Tetteh says. "You have to think about what you want the eye to see. Putting a little bit of yellow there. Putting a little bit of black there. Then you're thinking about the blue. Then you're thinking about the purple." As the ensemble continues to fine-tune its sound, Tetteh and the band's local promoter, Melody Cochran of Floyd's Winter Sun Productions, are working to line up dates. Besides return engagements at Jefferson Center on Saturday and the Floydfest in August, the band has dates in Maryland, North Carolina and New York City. Tetteh sees this American tour as a chance to spread African culture to Americans of all races. He worries that too many African-Americans have lost touch with their roots, with their ancestors. But he still feels a bond. "I look at some of them, and I say, 'Hey, I can take you home.'" He feels as if he could take them back to Africa and "take them right into their house." For him, the Kusun Ensemble is about the importance of cultural exchange, about sharing music and values. Americans can learn from Africans; Africans can learn from Americans. That's why, even as he tries to tap into the market, to make money for himself and his bandmates, he's determined to keep his music true to its roots. All the hard work, all the struggle, would be for nothing if the music ceased to be authentic. Most of the time, he says, when Americans hear African music, "it's people here trying to do synthetic somethings. We have brought something straight from Africa. This is organic. It's very strong food. I think people in Roanoke need it, because we all need to eat good." Nii Tetty Tetteh and the Kusun Ensemble will play at 8 p.m. Saturday at Roanoke's Jefferson Center. General admission tickets are $15.

- By MIKE HUDSON © THE ROANOKE TIMES

On December 10th, Mascoma Valley Regional High School Students enjoyed a performance of the Kunsun Ensemble from Ghana, West Africa.

This special assembly was sponsored by Experiencing the Arts. In addition to the high school students, it was enjoyed by some students from Indian River School. The performance was electrifying! After they played, sang and danced, they stayed behind and let some students try playing their drums. Below is some information about them and pictures of the performance.

"The Kusun Ensemble is an extraordinary group of musicians and dancers from Ghana, West Africa. Founded by Nii Tettey Tetteh, the ensemble includes past and present members of The National Ballet and The Pan African Orchestra. Although rooted in traditional music, the group has developed a new brand of music and dance they have dubbed "Nokoko." They have created innovative rhythms and dances by fusing bass and lead guitar with traditional Ghanaian instruments to produce an electrifying blend of jazz and African music. On a mission to share this new style of Ga music, the ensemble has been dazzling audiences in Ghana and around the world.

With headlines reading "Kusun Electrifies Frenzied Audience" and reviews proclaiming the Kusun Ensemble's sound as a "revival of a vital art," the band is now considered one of Ghana's most innovative and powerful music and dance ensembles. By blending the authentic sounds of traditional instruments with the exuberance of hi-life music and the complexity of African jazz, they are developing a unique Ga sound and bringing the tropical passion of West African music and dance to the world stage. The Kusun Ensemble toured the U.S.A in 2002, packing theatres and wowing festival audiences in the Eastern U.S. They have performed throughout Ghana and toured Australia in 2000. Many of the members have also been teaching drumming and dance at the Kusun Study Center in Nungua, Accra. This center was built by Nii Tettey Tetteh to promote the traditional arts of Ghana, to teach both local people and international students about Ghanaian music and culture.

Recommendations:

Australian National Institute of the Arts Nii Tettey Tetteh is a master drummer and teacher of the highest caliber and I highly recommend him. As a workshop clinician Mr. Tetteh toured Australia with his group Kusun. The 14 piece music and dance ensemble performed throughout Australia and received terrific reviews...the workshops were well coordinated and educationally sound. The various members of Kusun acted in a most professional manor and should be commended on their generosity in which they freely gave their knowledge - Gary France, Head of Percussion, National Institute of the Arts

...I would like to thank you very much for your lecture and performance given to our students by the Kusun Ensemble last week. The lecture was most informative and valuable for our music students giving them an authentic and up to date view of African music which they would find difficult to get anywhere else. The performance...was quite brilliant--exciting, exhilarating and performed with great musicianship.

Once again this was a tremendous opportunity for our students of dance and music to see 'real' live African music and they have been singing your praises all week. - Michael O'Shaughnessy, Senior Lecturer
- Director, Christopher Morse: oculuspress@valley.net

Monday, Sept. 16, African cultures will be on display full force through the start of the African Cultures Festival. The day will begin with the "African Marketplace" in the Heth Plaza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will conclude later that evening with the Kusun Ensemble of dancers and musicians from Ghana, West Africa.
The "African Marketplace" coordinated by Claude Steele, assistant vice president for student Affairs and Director of Multicultural and International Student Services, features a wide display of African culture, through vendors, music, dancing and crafts. The Kusun Ensemble will perform at noon in the Heth Plaza as part of the event.

The Kusun Ensemble, also performing at 8 p.m. in Cook 107, is here on their first tour of America. This group of 8 musicians and five dancers tries to preserve the heritage of West Africa through traditional song, drumming, and rhythmic dance. Their music is indigenous, but also features subtle jazz rythyms. Members of the Kusun Ensemble have belonged to groups such as the Pan African Orchestra and the National Ballet.

These two events start off a two-semester long African Cultures Festival with lectures, African films, art exhibitions, a "Night in Africa," an African Dance and Drumming Festival, and more. For more information about the African Cultures Festival, please contact the International Education Center at 831-6200 or visit www.radford.edu/~intlprog..

* You can reach Lucinda Swanson at LSwanson@Radford.edu
- The Tartan Online,By Lucinda Swanson

Ghana's Nii Tettey Tetteh brings the compelling music of the Ga people to an international audience. An accomplished musician, teacher and composer, from southern Ghana, he plays a range of indigenous instruments (including the aslatua (snuff bottle), the atente-ben (bamboo flute), the gome (West African drum), and the kpanlogo (ceremonial drums)), and has a wide knowledge of many African musical and cultural traditions. Nii Tettey Tetteh has worked with many musicians from other ethnic groups collecting songs and instruments from Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Togo.

From the age of sixteen Nii Tetteh played flute and percussion with Ebahni Sounds, a traditional cultural group. They recorded three albums between 1978 and 1985. In 1981 he performed as a musician and actor alongside Fleetwood Mac in the film The Visitor.

Nii Tetteh was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Pan African Orchestra, an innovative ensemble of traditional musicians reinterpreting traditional African songs, recorded by Peter Gabriel's Real World Label. His group Kakatsitsi International has toured in Africa and Europe, performed at WOMAD and released a debut recording.

Nii Tettey Tetteh spent 1997 performing, teaching and recording in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia he performed and recorded with a number of groups including Adzohu led by Chris Lesser and Ray Periera's Bongo Fury.

A dedicated teacher Nii Tettey Tetteh gives workshops to all ages and levels. His workshops vary from simple chants to complex percussion and all are enriched by his explanations of the social context of these musical traditions.

A mesmerising solo performer, Nii Tettey Tetteh brings to life the music of the West African work gangs during Colonial Times, Ghanaian songs of fetish worship and even children's games. He takes the audience on an unforgettable journey to Ghana and beyond and the experience is enriched by Tettey's explanations of the powerful and sometimes humorous history of these songs. With his exquisite flute playing and eclectic mix of percussion instruments he presents an incredible musical feast. When his magical aslatua appears audiences are in for an unforgettable experience as Tettey turns this rare and deceptively simple toy into an exciting and hypnotic instrument.
- floydfest.com

RADFORD -- The Kusun Ensemble from Ghana, West Africa, will perform at Radford University on Monday, Sept. 15, 2003. A free dance class will be conducted at 4 p.m. and the free performance will begin at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium.

The Kusun Ensemble fuses music and dancing together through use of innovative rhythms and traditional instruments that produces an electrifying show. Their appearance is sponsored by The Multicultural and International Student Services.

For more information call (540) 831-5765. - RU Office of Public Relations

The Kusun Ensemble, a group of musicians and dancers from Ghana, West Africa, will be performing on Saturday, March 6 at 7 p.m. in Wheelwright Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University. The performance is free and open to the public.
This ensemble includes past and present members of the National Ballet and the Pan African Orchestra. Although rooted in traditional African music, the group has developed a new style of music and dance they call “Nokoko” that fuses bass and lead guitar with traditional Ghanaian instruments to produce an electrifying blend of jazz and African music.

The program continues the 2004 African-American Celebration, a campuswide celebration of unity and diversity.

The series of events, continuing through early April, promotes the art, history, music and theater of the African-American culture, and is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Services.
- Coastal News Archive

On Friday, September 12, students in the Basic Life Skills classes at Jordan-Matthews and Northwood High Schools traveled to the Arts Center in Carrboro to attend a performance by the Kusun Ensemble. Their teachers, Diane Campbell of Jordan-Matthews and Carol Bartholf of Northwood, organized the trip as one of several activities the two classes combine to have during the school year. Their teacher assistants accompanied the groups.

The Kusun Ensemble was in the area performing for students and for the general public. The group was comprised of dancers and musicians based in Ghana, West Africa. Several members are past and present members of the National Ballet and Pan African Orchestra. Their selections focused on West African culture. Using brightly colored costumes and traditional African dress, the group shared folk music and dance of Ghana with the audiences and used the opportunity to discuss meanings and cultural aspects of selections. They introduced the use of drums by talking about how drums were traditionally used in African culture for communication from village to village. The students recognized some instruments including a cowbell and guitar while being introduced to other African rhythm instruments.

Students from North Chatham School and SAGE Academy were also able to attend the performance. - Chatham County Schools