Singer Adane Best finds it too good to be true, just after coming away
with the Best Highlife Album trophy at the 9th MTN Ghana Music Awards
held in Accra last month, he will soon be on his way to participate in
the annual Kuumba Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee in the United States.

He will be travelling with the Bukom Ensemble and the two have been busy over the last fortnight rehearsing for the assignment in the US.

Initiated in 1989 by local Knoxville artists and community activists, the Kuumba Festival seeks to showcase African as well African-American arts and artists thereby sharing, educating and exposing the rich cultural art forms they have to the world.

This year’s festival, scheduled for June 26 through June 29, will be a multi-event celebration with more than 200 entertainers performing on three stages.

According to Adane’s management team of J. Kwabena Kansis and Baffour Owusu Fordjour, Adane has proved over the years that he can always deliver great stuff and the Kuumba Festival will be a unique platform for him to sell himself to America and the rest of the world with the help of an experienced group like the Bukom Ensemble.

Speaking to The Mirror about the upcoming trip, Adane said it would be a useful platform to propagate Ghanaian and African culture. “I hope everyone who attends the Kuumba Festival in Tennesse will have a good taste of Ghanaian music from me and the Bukom Ensemble.”

The Bukom Ensemble was started by the late percussionist and flutist Nii Adu ‘Big Boy’ Ofoliquaye in the early 1980s.
Big Boy’s son, David, is now in charge of the group which still dishes out infectious folk-driven melodies.
 
“I have loved the music of the Bukom Ensemble since it started and I’m glad of the chance to work with them to export an aspect of the great music that exists in this country.”

Apart from his own work, Adane has featured on materials of other artistes including Borax, Amandzeba, Kaseem Bebe and Tinny.