Kotoko Brass Band

• Trad
• World

Ben Paulding is an American percussionist who extensively lived in Kumasi, Ghana, drumming on national television for the Ghanaian President and the country’s top traditional chiefs and queen-mothers. In West Africa, Ben had over 200 performances with internationally acclaimed drum and dance ensembles including the Centre for National Culture, the Ashanti King’s Fontomfrom Ensemble, and the Nsuase Kete Group. Also immersed in study, he spent two years apprenticing in Ashanti drumming under royal musician Emmanuel Attah Poku. Ben has pioneered the adaptation of Kete rhythms onto the drumset, and worked Attah Poku to create an original arrangement of Kete for drumset and traditional percussion.

In the US, Ben is the Drum Leader of David Locke and Attah Poku’s Agbekor Drum and Dance Society, Boston’s oldest Ghanaian drum and dance group. Ben has played drumset and percussion with Jerry Leake’s Cubist world/rock/fusion band, Marcus Santos’ Bloco AfroBrazil, Mohammad Alidu’s Bizung Family Band, and with contemporary jazz pianist Kelly Sciandra (CandyRat Records).