Kimati Dinizulu

Dinizulu's father, Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu (aka Gus Dinizulu, né Augustus Edwards; 1930–1991), an American, was an internationally acclaimed African drummer.

Dinizulu's mother, Ohema Afua Owusua (née Alice Brown; 1930–2007), also an American, was a principal dancer for Asadata Dafora's Dance Company — the first dance company to put African dance and music on Broadway in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950s.

To gain a deeper knowledge of African traditions, as a young man, Dinizulu, traveled to Ghana where he lived and learned for two years and then he moved back to the United States.

Since then, he has made over 30 trips to Africa, where he resided part of the year.

While in Ghana, he studied with expert drummers, Kofi Nabenadi, C. K. Ganyo, and Sully Emmorro.

He also learned from elders of the Fanti people, master drummers whose tutelage proved invaluable in his development as a leading practitioner of African drumming.

A major influence on his musical growth and creative energy was his involvement with the Fanti’s Asafo (warrior) music, a tradition dating back many centuries.

Apart from this, Dinizulu studied extensively with Haitian master drummers, Louis Celestine, Frisner Augustin, and Alphonse Cimber.

He also studied various forms of traditional music from Brazil with the late Loramil Machado.

Additionally, Dinizulu studied African and African-American hand drumming with his father, Baba Chief Bey (James Hawthorne Bey), Baba Kwame Ishangi, and many others.

In addition, he has conducted extensive research with the Maroons of Jamaica, the Ewe of Togo, the Orisha worshipers of Trinidad and Tobago, Rada ritual musicians in Haiti and the Ring Shouters of the Georgia Sea Islands.

Dinizulu worked with several domestic and international cultural organizations, including UNESCO.

Nana Kimati Dinizulu (27 September 1956 – 7 July 2013) was an American virtuoso percussionist, widely acclaimed for his artistry with African percussion (including apentemma, apente, sankofa, kyene, djembe, and caxixi) in jazz, folk, classical, popular, ballet, and musical theater.

Dinizulu was born September 27, 1956, in New York City.

He began playing drums and other percussion instruments in his early childhood.

He drew inspiration from the musical heritage of his family.

For many generations, the Dinizulu clan had been active in music and performance.

He performed at the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Schomburg Center which included pouring libation for the grand opening of the “Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery Exhibit”.

Dinizulu also performed libation and drumming at “A Harlem Tribute to the Freedom Schooner Amistad”.

He performed the drum rituals to help bring the Amistad into port in Harlem, New York.

Dinizulu co-composed with Monti Ellison Divining, (Judith Jamison's first ballet for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), which was premiered by the company in 1984.

He was also commissioned by choreographer Judith Jamison for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to compose Riverside, which premiered in 1995 and became a smash hit.

Divining and Riverside have toured by Ailey extensively throughout the world.

Besides this, Dinizulu was a participant in the African-American delegation at the First Annual Emancipation Day Celebration in Ghana, Africa in 1998 which was sponsored by the government of Ghana.

The African-American delegation was responsible for the re-interment of one escaped slave, Samuel Carson with a full state funeral.

Emancipation Day is a remembrance of the abolition of Chattel Slavery.

Learning drumming and African culture, according to a biographical profile, was a lifetime process for Dinizulu.

The profile asserted that he developed an encyclopedic knowledge of drums, percussion, and the art of drumming from his worldwide travels and studies of the music of other cultures as well as his heartfelt love for music and learning.

Dinizulu had assembled a group of musicians from around the world, called the Kotoko Society, with whom he composed and performed with regularly.

In the year 2003, Dinizulu performed for the Blues Music Foundation at Radio City Music Hall in New York in the "Salute to the Blues" concert produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Antoine Fuqua which was filmed for television broadcast.

UNESCO declared 2004 to be the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition by the United Nations General Assembly.

Dinizulu performed and lectured on endangered African-American instruments as a part of a UNESCO conference of scholars from around the world gathered at Tulane University.

Furthermore, Dinizulu worked with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, an organization for documenting, preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the culture and history of black people worldwide.

He has performed music and conducted traditional African rituals for the Schomburg Center.

Nana Kimati Dinizulu died July 7, 2013.

Dinizulu made numerous worldwide performances over the past decades for many diverse groups of people.

Some of Dinizulu's performances include Broadway’s Death and the King's Horseman which is a play written and directed by the legendary Wole Soyinka.

Dinizulu has also undertaken many other Broadway productions.

In addition, Dinizulu worked with prominent artists such as author Toni Morrison in her production N’Orleans - A Storyville Musical in which he scored music for the Congo Square scene and Satchmo’s last international concert in Ghana scene.

He also performed as a percussionist with Odetta, Carmen De Lavallade and Antonio Fargas in this production.