Beating a Path From Village to City to Globe : World music: Obo Addy cites a variety of creative influences, including sounds from his native Ghana.

By age 6, Obo Addy was playing drums in public ceremonies in his rural home village in Ghana. After leaving for the capital city of Accra at 18, he joined a series of pop bands, singing such American standards as “Cheek to Cheek” and “Stardust.” His musical education in Ghana also included such African pop forms as high life and Latin styles, including salsa, merengue, tango and bolero.

All those musical influences have come into play since Addy came to the United States in 1979 and formed his own band, in which he creates a mix that defies easy description.

“Some people call it African jazz, some people call it African pop, because they hear everything in it,” Addy said this week on the phone from a tour stop in Ft. Bragg, Calif.

He brings his eight-piece group--which includes horns, drums, bass and keyboard--to the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library tonight for a pair of shows. Addy himself serves as singer, storyteller and master drummer.

His material ranges from traditional Ghanaian tunes to original compositions in which he builds the horn and keyboard melodies around his complex, traditionally inspired drum lines. Some songs are sung in English, some in Ga--his own language--and some in other tongues indigenous to Ghana in West Africa.

He said that Ghana’s cultural richness serves as a constant inspiration.

“You can travel 40 miles in Ghana, and music, language, culture, everything changes,” Addy said.

His upbringing was steeped in the traditional life of what was then a British colony, the Gold Coast.

“My father was what Americans call the medicine man,” he said. The word in his own language is wonche , meaning “father of the spirits.”

One of 55 brothers and sisters--his father had 10 wives--Addy was involved intimately in elaborate ceremonies.

“Through that I became a drummer,” he said.

When he went to Accra in 1954, he found that options were limited for an uneducated youth from the villages.

“What I knew how to do was drum,” he said. Now he thinks his lack of formal education actually served him well: “The traditional way is, watch, look and listen, and don’t ask so many questions.”

Before long, he became a featured singer and spent more than a decade moving from band to band. Eventually he returned to his traditional roots as a master drummer with a national folkloric group, touring the world.

He formed his own band in Portland, Ore., in 1981. He also teaches music classes, organizes an annual festival and tours and records with a more tradition-minded ensemble.

Addy has toured with his pop band in Ghana, where the reception for his distinctive blend of influences has been warm.

“People like it, they like it so much,” he said. “I think they are surprised.”

* Obo Addy plays tonight at 7 and 9 at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. $5; $3 for ages 12 and under. (714) 248-7469.