Ukrainian jazz musician, trumpeter, composer.
Biography.
Born on May 8, 1987 in Ghana in the small town of Saltpond. In 1989, he moved to Ukraine, to Kryvyi Rih. Dennis started learning to play the trumpet at the "Brass Band" at his boarding school at the age of 7. His first teacher, V. S. Gazarov, introduced him to the work of Louis Armstrong and jazz music.
A year later, on the advice of his teacher, Dennis entered Music School No. 10 and immediately joined the children's big band of A. R. Goebel. As a member of the orchestra, in 1998, Adu made his debut at the Jazz Horizons Festival (Kryvyi Rih); after that, he participated in such festivals as: "Jazz on the Dnipro" (Dnipro), "In Memory of L. Utesov" (Pivdennyi), "Millau en Jazz" (France), "Fel du Sher" (France), "Jazz a Vienn" (Vienna), "Jazz Carnival in Odesa", "Jazz Koktebel". Dennis was lucky enough to take a master class with trumpeter John Faddis.
In 2001, he entered the Glinka Music College in Kryvyi Rih. In 2004, he moved to Kyiv and entered the Gliere KIM, where he began close cooperation with Kyiv musicians such as: Dmitry Alexandrov, Ilya Eresko, Alexey Fantaev, Oleg Markov, Dmitry Kovalenko, Roman Kolyada and others.
In 2006, he won the Best Trumpeter award at the DoJ Junior competition. In 2009, he received the award for Best Jazz Musician of Ukraine at the DoJ Festival, as well as the Best Trumpeter and Best Jazz Standard Arrangement awards.
Since 2010, he has been teaching orchestra and trumpet at the Gliere Institute of Music. In 2012, he became the bandleader of the Kyiv Big Band, as well as the leader of such projects as the Dennis Adu Quintet, Sextet and Septet, and in 2014, the bandleader of the Dennis Adu Big Band.
Creative collaborations
Dennis' creative collaborations with such musicians as: Ku-Umba Frank Lacy, Gregory Porter, Curtis Fuller, Jim Rotondi, Roy and Ofer Assaf, Steve Slagle, Javon Jackson, Larry Willis, Quincy Davis, Dana Hall, Wayne Escoffery Jimmy Bosch, Seamus Blake.
Albums and collections
The main genres of music in which the jazz musician plays and composes are mainstream and hard-bop.
As a leader, he recorded the album "Influences" with Michael Dease (trombone), Andrew Gould (alto saxophone), Dmitry Aleksandrov (tenor and soprano saxophone), Pavlo Lytvynenko (piano), Linda May Oh (double bass), Mike Karn (double bass). Recorded and mixed by Paul Wycliffe at Skylinepro Studio in January 2016.
As a sideman
Dislocados "La Salidad" (2009)
Dislocados "Pasaporte Universal" (2011)
Dislocados "Calle Victoria" (2015)
Denis Dudko: "Sofia" (2011), "Little Flower" (2015)
Konstantin Ionenko "Deep Immersion" (2015)
Roman Kolyada "Recovery" (2010)
Alexey Bogolyubov "Cool & Crazy" (2008)
Ilya Yeresko and Organic Formation "The Beginning" (2013)
Ilya Yeresko's Latin Rythm "Sigueme" (2013), Ilya Yeresko "The Nutcracker" (2017)
2 albums as part of Budu-Band: "Katyn Ekholot" (2017) and "Vidih-Vdih" (2019)
