Yaw Asumadu: African drum master in full flight in Whanganui at Musicians Club

Yaw Asumadu and Ozi Ozaa.

The Whanganui music scene will be exploding when Ghanaian master drummer Yaw Asumadu brings his 12-piece band down from Auckland to the Musicians Club.

The band features multi-instrumentalist Asumadu on drums and marimba, flute and vocals performing traditional music and his original compositions backed by rhythm and horn sections with some amazing musicians making up Ozi Ozza, translated as “you work hard and then you enjoy”. This is Afro-funk at its best, music designed for dancing to the rhythms that have inspired audiences forever.

Asumadu learned his art at an early age from his Ghanaian masters and enjoyed an international career playing for 12 years with the Ghanaian Pan African Orchestra. That brought him to London where he joined the Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble in 1999 as a master drummer and composer.

Some 10 years on, he formed the first version of Ozi Ozza, joined by a stellar line-up of top musicians from Ghana, Nigeria, Italy, France and the UK.

In 2018 Yaw moved with his Kiwi partner and family to New Zealand and after meeting Tauranga-based guitarist Tristan Hancock formed a new band to play his music.

That band is travelling down to play the Cuba Dupa Festival in Wellington over the weekend, and Whanganui will be their stopover en route to the capital. The band has a true international flavour, with Asumadu supported by Hiro Kobayashi (Japan) on trumpet, Fabio Camera (Brazil) playing percussion, and Tristan (Fiji) on guitar. The other eight players are a who’s who of eclectic Auckland musicians.

Featured at the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival - “Asumadu is now joined by a Kiwi collective of guitarists, brass players and percussionists, who inject his mixture of funk, jazz, highlife and traditional African beats with new local flavour. Ozi Ozaa means ‘work and happiness’ – a simple motto that promises dancing, singing and smiling for all those who come along”. Come along, you must!

■ Friday, March 22, 7.30pm at the Whanganui Musicians Club, Drews Avenue. General admission $30, Pre-book $28.92 online eventfinda.