The Tufts University Department of Music presents a roundtable discussion with Ghanaian percussionist Okyerema Asante featuring guests Michael Veal (Yale University), Ingrid Monson (Harvard University), Maya Cunningham (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and Stephan Pennington (Tufts). This event is part of “Jazz Transnationalism and Intercultural Intersections Between Africans and African Americans,” a two-week residency at Tufts for Asante.

In the early 1970s, Asante toured the U.S. with the legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, as a founding member of the Ghanaian group Hedzoleh Soundz. He continued to perform with Masekela until the latter’s passing in 2018, and has performed and recorded with jazz luminaries including James Moody, Roy Ayers, Pharoah Sanders, Oliver Lake, Lonnie Linston Smith, Jacky McLean, René Mclean, Jack DeJonette, Benito Gonzalez and David Murray, and jazz groups such as the Crusaders and the World Saxophone Quartet. Asante completed three world tours with Paul Simon and the Graceland project, and four world tours with the rock group Fleetwood Mac.

Asanta transformed and expanded his Akan Atumpan and Fontomfrom drums to include Cuban congas, Asian cymbals, and other percussion instruments from South America, and by doing so made it possible to combine his battery of drums and percussion instruments with diverse musical styles on the international stage. He continues to use his performance skills to cross national, geographic, and genre boundaries to perform with jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and reggae artists beyond racialized categories.

Free and open to the public; no tickets required.