with BILL SMITH

Paa Kow is an internationally renowned drum set player, bandleader, composer, and producer. Growing up in the small village of Enyan Denkyira near Cape Coast in Ghana, West Africa, Paa Kow began to play music and tour with his family’s concert band at a very early age.  He has since grown to be widely recognized as one of the most remarkable drum set players to tour in Africa, Europe, and America. Paa Kow’s deep groove and prodigious talent reveal a unique ability to speak to listeners with his drums, inspiring a profound spiritual conversation. His songs are captivating and danceable and incorporate lyrics in his native language, Fante, as well as English.  Paa Kow’s vision is to spread the music and culture of his homeland by touring the world with his Afro-Fusion orchestra. 

Notable musicians he has shared the stage with include African greats: Amakye Dede, George Darko, Kojo Antwi, Nat Brew, Hugh Masekela, and Vusi Mahlasela, as well as American greats Victor Wooten, Brad Goode, John Gunther, Michael Kang, and many more.

POLYRHYTHMICS

Original hard-driving, modern afro-beat and syncopated, horn-driven funk. That is the recipe that Polyrhythmics have crafted and delivered to packed clubs, and festival crowds throughout the west coast in the past 3 years.  The 8 members of this dynamic world-beat orchestra, weave a clever web of deep, hypnotic grooves, creative, yet melodic interplay, clever horn-hooks, and searing solos that ignite every dance-floor that has laid before them.

Despite their proven reputation as performers, delivering a non-stop a Live show experience unmatched in today’s instrumental musical landscape, the heart and inspiration for this band’s existence is the art of recording, documenting the art, and laying it down to tape.

Founded in late 2010, Polyrhythmics was formed by Ben Bloom and Grant Schroff, who quickly gathered some of the most talented and highly sought-after performers in the North West to record an EP. Ben and Grant were coming from different musical communities, from within the NW.  Previous to this point, Ben had been on a musical journey, performing and making 45’s with recording artist, arranger and composer Joel Ricci, aka Lucky Brown and his “West Sound Union”, and playing in various soul, funk, rock and R&B collectives in the NW.  Grant , a graduate from Cornish School of Music, had been performing various esteemed , Jazz, funk, hip-hop and reggae groups throughout Seattle.   The two met through mutual friends and had performed on a few bills together on several occasions, but until now had not collaborated.

Using primitive gear, the expertise of the band’s Bass player / recording engineer,  Jason Gray ,and a “live, all in one -room”, low-budget recording technique, the band captured magic, the very 1st time the record button was pushed.  The resulting 6 song EP became a cult classic and quickly sold out at shows.   Highlights such as “Pink Wasabi”, and “Klompton” have since been re-released on 7 inch 45 by Electric Cowbell Records and Kept Records and are also sold-out.

In June of 2011, using crowd-sourced funds, the band released their first full length “Labrador”, and enjoyed immediate attention by such domestic tastemakers as DJ Prestige, Dusty Groove America and Fat Beats Records, and Internationally by Juno Records in the UK, Paris DJ’s in France and Jet Set Records in Japan.  The 1st run of Cd’s quickly sold-out at shows, and the 1st single “The Imposter” was picked up and released by Kept Records on 7 inch in November of 2011 and enjoyed immediate success on radio stations far and wide, including KEXP in Seattle.  Shortly after the release, Polyrhythmics was named best band in Seattle, by Seattle Magazine in late Nov of 2011.

In Dec of 2011, Polyrhythmics signed on with  In The Pocket Artists Inc. and began touring the West Coast in early 2012 with a fever and a vigor not usually seen with a band this size.  From the very 1st tour, the buzz about the band started to spread, and funk fans looking to get down showed up in droves throughout the winter and early spring.  Their non-stop, “leave it all on the stage”, 3+ hrs shows, slamming arrangements, top-notch musicianship and absolute command of their ethos, earned the band coveted spots at String Cheese Incident “Horning’s” Festival, the 2012 Summer Meltdown, The Eugene Celebration, NW Folk life Festival, The Black Sheep Family’s, “Furthermore” party, and the Hangtown Halloween Ball.

With an ever growing West Coast fan-base, the band extended their touring range in 2013 with very successful tours throughout the rocky mountain west, and fantastic new musical collaborations with Lucky Brown via a new group called the “Lucky Mystery Now Orchestra”  With a heavy touring schedule and unrelenting demands by DJ’s, diggers and fans worldwide to release more recordings, the band teamed up again with label KEPT records for a 45 and full length album deal to release 9 songs recorded earlier in the year with Mel Dettmer at Aleph Studios in West Seattle.

The single, “Moon Cabbage” was suspiciously released on April 20th 2013 , and was spinning all over the globe within days.  The big surprise was that when folks got the records, “Moon Cabbage” was the B side, with the A side featuring the song “Bobo” an all out dance floor banger that had been a staple of Polyrhythmics live shows for the past year.  Excitement over the 45 was immediate and reviews from all over the world came pouring in in different languages.

Today Polyrhythmics are an unstoppable force in both on stage and in the studio .  With live repertoire of over 60 original compositions, a full length album called “Libra Stripes on Kept Records,” the band is firing on all cylinders. Taking the experiences of a nearly 4-year brotherhood, Polyrhythmics are just hitting their stride, writing and arranging some of the best material yet and setting their sites on the world stage.

Members of Polyrhythmics have performed with: Allen Stone, Blackalicious, String Cheese Incident, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, The Motet, Sam Bush, Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons, Railroad Earth, Monophonics, Orgone, Choklate, Pickwick, and Fishbone.