GHANA SPECIAL
MODERN HIGHLIFE, AFRO-SOUNDS & GHANAIAN BLUES 1968-81 (Soundways CD016P)

In my ongoing struggle with the intangibility of downloaded music, I am enjoying the latest foray into Ghana's past from Soundways. There is a rich, 48-page full-colour booklet to show you the artists, and explain the lyrics. It's real, and a treat. You get drawn in right away by the lilting rhythms, the seemingly dissonant harmonies, mellow relaxed guitar & complex percussion. "Aaya lolo" by the oddly named Barbecues (an offshoot of King Bruce's Black Beats) is wrapped around a Santana riff on the organ. Well, Santana got their start with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac riffs, so all's fair. My taste for this music was instilled by the Ramblers, and " Nya Asem Hwe" by City Boys Band, sung in Twi by "the black Chinese" J.A. Odofo, reminds me of the Ramblers' sound. Dr K. Gyasi & His Noble Kings turn in a slow highlife called "Sei nazo" based on the "Peanut vendor" changes which always warms my cockles. He started out in the 1950s and was still scoring hits in the 70s, alongside C.K. Mann, who was on the same label. Inevitably we get to the James Brown impersonation: this time out it's The Big Beats with "Mi nsumõõ bo dõnn." (Yes, those are tildes on the "o"s.) And then there's a track that is so irritating I had to delete it: "Obi agye me dofo" by Vis-a-Vis. They featured sensational guitarist Sammy Cropper and Kung-fu Kwaku on drums, who backed Frimpong on many of his hits. This cut however has the world's worst synthesizer solo and is a pain to hear. But there's plenty good stuff: Like "Odo Mmera" a lovely track from the African Brothers in 1968 before they hit it big. Nana Ampadu is unmistakable in his singing and control of the groove. The guitar is classic African Brothers. They come back as the African Brothers International to launch disc two. As Miles Cleret explains: "Wompe Masem" is is taken from the 1976 LP Emaa Bekum Mmarima, which was recorded just after the band had returned from their first tour of the USA. By this time they were sitting undisputedly at the top of the pile of approximately 150 electric guitar bands operating in Ghana. With more than 200 45s and roughly fifty LPs under their belt by 1976, no one could accuse them of idleness. The band operated a twelve-piece system at this point with four guitars, a four-piece rhythm section and ancient Amuah on organ..." Musically this is even more wide-ranging than Giants of Danceband Highlife or Telephone Lobi that came out on Original Music in the mid-90s. Another great chunk of timeless music.

SEPREWA KASA (TUGCD1051)

This is really cool: Unplugged highlife music. I know people like the rocky rolly stuff, the Afro beats James Brown upside the head remixes, but give this a chance. The seprewa is like a stripped-down kora, it's a Ghanaian instrument but no longer played very much. Even Kari Banaman, guitarist from the 70s African band Osibisa, had heard about it but not actually heard it, until he encountered a seprewa player at a music festival in Switzerland. After jamming backstage the two met back in Ghana and recorded this sweet tribute to the roots of highlife. Osei Karankye, the seprewa virtuoso, was taught by his grandfather and now teaches at the University of Ghana in Legon. Another teacher, Baffour Kyerematen, one of the dance faculty, is also a seprewa player so the three men jammed under the palms. It is a relaxed and melodious set. The ten-stringed chordophone of course predates the guitar and was popular among the Akan people of the Ashanti from the seventeenth century onward. As the two seprewa players on the album had firmly held and divergent ideas about tuning they could not play together, so alternately played calabash, metal claves, bass drum, or other percussion while the seprewa duets with the guitar. In a song like "Towoboase" you can hear the connection to Rex Lawson, echoed not a little in the guitar. On "Agyese Wobre" you detect, perhaps, the origins of banjo music. Fascinating, and music-making of the highest calibre.

BOKOOR BEATS:
VINTAGE AFRO-BEAT, AFRO ROCK & ELECTRIC HIGHLIFE FROM GHANA (OTRABANDA OTB08)

Bokoor Studio is now well-known as the home of Ghanaian highlife music during an important formative stage when military curfews closed the clubs and bands would hang out in Bokoor and jam all night. There were no clocks on the wall, and the engineer, John Collins, was also a musician himself. For this latest collection -- a sequel to The Guitar & the Gun (Earthworks), Electric Highlife (Naxos World), and other compilations of note -- Collins puts his own bands to the fore and gives us a really engaging picture of some lesser well-known Ghanaian sounds (from among the 200 artists he recorded). There's Fela's Afrobeat up front, but then we get into some more tribal rhythms that are, to me, equally engaging. As I have already reviewed this album in SONGLINES I thought a different approach might be welcome here, so wrote to Collins and asked him a few questions. Here's the exchange:

Bokoor Beats in Action

AJ: Your father was teaching philosophy at the University of Ghana when you were small. Did you grow up there, or in England?
John Collins: I SPENT A YEAR IN GHANA AS A CHILD IN THE 50'S THEN CAME BACK IN 1969.

AJ: Did you think Afrobeat would have such legs?
John Collins: YES I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE SEEN FELA PLAY IN THE 70'S AND I HAVE NEVER SINCE HEARD SUCH GREAT MUSIC.

AJ: There are many other styles of music on the new Bokoor Beats CD. Are these traditional styles dying out?
John Collins: YES, AS DURING THE LATE 70'S AND 80'S VARIOUS MILITARY GOVERNMENTS COUPS, CURFEWS KILLED OFF MOST OF THE LIVE POPULAR MUSIC.

AJ: Were you into the UK blues scene as a kid? I hear echoes of John Mayall in your harmonica playing on "Yeah yeah ku yeah," and even Paul Jones of Manfred Mann on "Been to" ...
John Collins: YES, I PLAYED IN A BLUES BAND, JAZZ BAND (GUITAR) AND ROCK BAND IN BRISTOL.

AJ: Anyway, they seemed quite "English" to me. How would you assess your personal impact on the sound of Ghanaian music, beyond selecting which bands to record at Bokoor?
John Collins: BEST ASK SOME GHANAIANS OR NIGERIANS THAT QUESTION.

AJ: I love the story you tell of the snake-dancer throwing her pythons out to disperse the mob when you had an equipment malfunction and seemed in peril of being beaten-up by the fans. I guess Ghanaians take their partying pretty seriously!
John Collins: IF YOU DONT SATISFY A PAYING GHANAIAN PUBLIC THEY RIOT.

AJ: Who are your favourite Ghanaian artists and which are your favourite recordings?
John Collins: I ENJOY OLD STYLE GUITAR BAND HIGHLIFE LIKE THAT OF THE AFRICAN BROTHERS, ALHAJI FREMEMPONG AND THE CITY BOYS.

AJ: What else do you listen to?
John Collins: I ALSO LOVE NAT KING COLE AND DEBUSSY.

AJ: Thanks!

CAPTAIN YABA
TINANURE (FAB Records England FMFD002 1996)

Sooner or later someone was bound to take those funky riffs of James Brown & His Famous Flames that had such a colossal impact in West Africa in the 1960s and update them. The responsible party is Captain Yaba, who comes from Northern Ghana. Culturally he is part of the Fra Fra people, with more kinship to the sub-Saharan Guineans and Malians than the city dwellers in Accra. He plays the two-string molo, but it is no mean ax he wields. On this album he is joined by a heterogeneous group of talented musicians. No pedigrees or credentials are given. TINANURE means "let us unite," and the Captain has united strains of soul and jazz with impressive control on this shimmering album. One for the ages.

CAPTAIN YABA
YABA FUNK ROOTS (Retro 19CD)

There's a sad end to the story. This 2003 release is a reissue of TINANURE, for it represents the complete works of the great Yaba who died of TB in 2001, still only in his thirties. As you'll see from my other reviews in this section, I was wondering what had become of him after this stellar debut. RetroAfric remastered the CD and included the rough pre-mix tapes of the entire session, but left off one track. The reissue has liner notes by John Collins, the authority on Highlife music, and is a fitting testimonial to this great artist.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
ELECTRIC HIGHLIFE (Naxos)

ELECTRIC HIGHLIFE is a set of classic eighties Highlife from Ghana. The name "Highlife" covers a lot of sins, from palm wine music to brass bands to today's hip-hop influenced disco hits. In this case it's all good: guitar dance-band music. If you are a fan of classic highlife -- and who isn't? -- then check this one out. After the military coup of Jerry J. Rawlings there was a curfew so bands couldn't play at night. John Collins opened Bokoor ("Cool") Studios at his farm near Accra and many bands came to play and record, including the Black Beats who rose to fame under King Bruce. Francis Kenya (who was on the GUITAR AND GUN compilation) and the Guyoyo Guitar Band are strong entries here, with their minor key plaints over busy guitarwork. The Black Beats are represented with the lively "Tsutsu Tsosemo" that has an organ solo that sounds like an accordion. This is followed by trumpet and guitar solos and an instrumental bridge with great counterpoint on trombone. The music reveals the influences of colonial brass ensembles, sea shanties, finger-picked guitar, call-and-response vocals, choppy organs and sweet melodies.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
GHANA SOUNDZ (Soundway CD distributed by Stern's)

Afrobeat is so prevalent these days it's almost mainstream. From new groups like Antibalas to reissues and remakes like the great RED, HOT + RIOT compilation, seems everyone is digging that "James-Brown-does-Africa" era of music. Now another great compilation has come out that has more than a few surprises, and a familiar "in search of the blue note" story: A young Brit gets so taken by the music he goes to Ghana to find rare vinyl in the markets. And of course there's the magic bit of serendipity: He asks someone where he can listen to records and is directed to the home of a young deejay. They start talking about the music. The record is by K. Frimpong and guess who walks in the door -- yes, the artist! Two years of intensive research and four trips to Ghana later we have this magnificent collection. Not just the names you know, like Alex Konadu, Sweet Talks, and African Brothers, but a whole crop of obscure ace tracks, B-sides and unreleased gems. This fan, Miles Cleret, did it right: he heard a great track on a scratched album and had to find the master tapes. He has crafted a superb compilation that has nary a slack second of sound on it. (Well, there is a horrid synth solo on the African Brothers' cut.) The booklet is a labour of love, informative and packed with photos, album art, & old posters that document this vital period of Ghanaian music, the seventies.

Lyrics in English make it easy to get into the groove, like when Gyedu-Bley Ambolley shows you how to dance the "Simigwado," a move doubtless akin to "walking the dog." This track, which really gets you moving, is taken from a 45 that was a huge hit, despite being banned from radio. The English lyrics and catch-phrases also lend a familiarity to the tracks, even though I'm sure I'd never heard any of them before. "Psychedelic Woman" by Honny and the Bees conjurs up lightshows and gogo dancers in a Peter Seller's "Party" kind of way, but it segues nicely into a smooth groove by Frimpong that no sooner starts than you are deep into a soulful sax solo, suggesting a top flight working band that could show Fela a thing or two in their day. After three minutes of solos, the vocals begin and the song coasts on for 8 minutes.

The sleeper on the album is a track by the artist known as Rob, called "Make it fast, make it slow." Inexplicably funky. It just gets under your skin with its calculated insistence.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
EARLY GUITAR MUSIC FROM WEST AFRICA (Heritage HTCD33)

In January 1928 the Zonophone company began issuing 78s of popular music from the Gold Coast of West Africa that spanned Ivory Coast, Ghana and Benin. These were not field recordings of traditional music aimed at the anthropologist, but rather urban-syncretic tunes for the local market and expatriate Africans living in England. Some of the artists were in fact students living in England and therefore benefitted from the recording facilities available in London. This is the first commercially recorded West African music of any importance. It is truly amazing: slack key, Caribbean folk, Mississippi blues, are all prefigured here. Of course, we knew all along it would be there somewhere. The bright vocal and guitar of George Williams Aingo dominates the sound, as he appears solo and in duets and trios. Nicholas De Heer is another guitarist with remarkable skill. Kazoo and concertina are also featured, along with percussion on drums and castanets. There's even clarinet and piano. Most of the songs are sung in Fanti, with four in Ga (the most common dialects in Accra). Not for everyone, but fans of guitar, Highlife, or roots music in general will want it. It's not only important in that it's contemporary with Lonnie Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Louis Armstrong, it's also fun to listen to.

THE HIGHLIFE ALLSTARS
SANKOFA (Network)

SANKOFA is the title of a collection of classic Highlife from Ghana. This compilation also comes from Germany, courtesy of the Network label. The mellow lilting grooves of Ghanaian Highlife dominated the African airwaves in the 1970s until the dominance of Congolese music. Like Sunny Ade's better-known juju music, Ghanaian highlife also has roots in popular palm-wine music: simple acoustic guitar and percussion songs celebrating the joys of life when friends gathered for a few drinks and a few laughs. As the liner notes by Jon Lusk point out, the roots of Highlife are more complex, having elements of traditional music and hybrid forms of European military brass band and church music grafted on. From the local Fanti people came the Osibisaba rhythm; guitar styling came from nearby Sierra Leone. Gombe drumming, which originated in Jamaica in the late eighteenth century, was another key element. In the fifties the first big highlife star, E.T. Mensah, was influenced by calypso and American swing music from World War ii. At the end of the sixties the big guitar bands emerged: pre-eminent among them were Alex Konadu and Nana Ampadu & His African Brothers International. During a succession of dicey military regimes and general economic collapse throughout the 70s and 80s, a lot of musicians went into exile as groups disbanded. George Darko made a success in Germany with a techno style of music known as "burgher highlife," but the older style vanished. However it was not extinct as this album shows. Alex Konadu has absorbed outside influences including reggae but stays true to his roots. He returned to Kumasi and continues to write tunes in the old style. Kwadwo Tawiah retains an authentic palm-wine sound in his music. Prince Osei Kofi, who was a member of the African Brothers Band in the 70s and 80s, keeps that percolating sound alive with a big band. The album ends with a raucous rave-up by a stripped down brass band. "Sankofa" means "go back and retrieve" which is what these Ghanaian artists have done for a golden hour of classic highlife.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
HIGHLIFE: "High Ups: La Musique du Gold Coast des Annees 60," (Night & Day, France)

It's an odd phenomenon of CDs that you sometimes end up getting albums over again. Not that they are remastered or remixed, just resequenced or repackaged in a way that makes you hear them differently. On the downside are the screw-ups of the SONO 365 CD series: duplicated material, tracks at the wrong speed, albums split up and lumped with material from different periods. On the upside is something along the lines of the compilation HIGHLIFE "High Ups: La Musique du Gold Coast des Annees 60," a 2-CD set from the French Night & Day label that licensed tracks from John Storm Roberts' Original Music label. Roberts is a Brit living in the USA who discovered African music in his youth, working, I believe, for the BBC in East Africa. His modest label, based in upstate New York, put out 40 compilations of classic African music, largely from the '60s and '70s, taken from rare 78s. Original Music seems to have gone out of business about 5 years ago, and I hear Roberts is working with the Smithsonian Institution on their music projects. He has a knack for finding great obscure stuff. Sure we knew the Ramblers did a killer "Knock on Wood," but who could have imagined their version of the rocksteady gem "Ride your donkey"? Or what about Charlotte Dada's "Don't let me down," which takes a Beatles riff and transforms it into a compelling mating ritual with insistent metal percussion?! They were two of the highlights of "Money No Be Sand" which drew parallels between Highlife and rock, calypso, James Brown's influence, etc.

The French double-CD set is labeled "Highlife Ballades" and "Highlife Speed" which arbitrarily divides up the tracks, giving us 24 on each CD. Even if you have the Original Music albums you'll need this collection for the sequencing to play at your parties. For want of a better term, I have to say it's the Essential Guide to Highlife music. I wont bother listing the artists who range from the famous to the obscure, because all of the music is consistently great.

However, the liner notes are slapdash and badly edited, which is unfortunate given the effort expended on the package. (One parenthetical note left in the text says, in French, "quote to be verified.") There are no notes on the tracks unless you resort to the old Original Music liners, which were informative if poorly designed. The appeal of Night & Day's presentation however is that those Original Music CDs are no longer in print and despite the shortcomings of the package, the music should not be missed by anyone wanting an introduction to the Golden Era on the Gold Coast.

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO NIGERIA AND GHANA
(Rough Guide RGNET 1075CD)

Even without liner notes you'd recognize the music on THE ROUGH GUIDE TO NIGERIA AND GHANA -- I.K. Dairo, King Sunny Ade, C.K. Mann, Tony Allen, Captain Yaba, Adewale Ayuba, Sir Victor Uwaifo, E.T. Mensah, Eric Agyeman, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, and Sweet Talks comprise this album. From Highlife and Afrobeat to Juju and Fuji this CD covers all the bases in Anglophone West African pop. The only artist I didn't know was the last one, Amazeba Nat Brew who has five albums out in the speedy kpaalogo style which owes something to soukous and other international styles. This may be the future of the music but the more traditionally based artists like Chief Stephen still sound great (& appeal to me more). This album also reminded me we haven't heard from Captain Yaba since his killer debut funk album, TINANURE, six years ago. I'd have liked to see Celestine Ukwu in the line-up. But then there's also the African Brothers, the Oriental Brothers, Prince Nico Mbarga, the Ramblers and Rex Lawson -- enough artists in fact to make up a sequel, or call it a prequel and emphasize the roots. Then again Adewale Ayuba's "Fuji Shuffle" is as rootsy as it gets and will delight anyone just getting into Nigerian music backwards, that is through the recent popularity of Afrobeat. Unfortunately it's only a 6 minute piece, and Fuji kind of takes over so you need to play a whole hour's worth. But then the point of any successful sampler is to get you to buy the whole album sampled. This Rough Guide does a great job of covering all current styles while paying homage to the pioneers like Dairo and Mensah. This must have been an easy and fun compilation to put together and hopefully will expose more people to the deep riches in Nigerian and Ghanaian music.

RAMBLERS DANCE BAND
THE HIT SOUND OF THE RAMBLERS DANCE BAND (Flametree UK 1995 FLTRCD 526)

From the mid-seventies comes this reissue of THE classic recording of Ghanaian highlife, the sweet percussive popular music that conjurs warm evenings in Africa where the dancers never stop except for a beer, and the stars seem palpably close. Saxophonist Jerry Hansen led this band, the first from Ghana to tour Europe. The two lead singers harmonize over snaking guitar lines and seething percussion. Tight horn arrangements allow space for flute, trumpet and sax solos. Alongside the indigenous West African rhythms such as the Akwete and the Kpanlogo, come some Latin and soul beats, peaking around a smoking cover version of "Knock on Wood." Big Steve claims to have started my passion for African music by loaning me this album in 1980. He may be right: it certainly got under my skin.

RAMBLERS DANCE BAND
THE HIT SOUND OF THE RAMBLERS DANCE BAND volume 2 (Flametree UK 1997 FLTRCD 533)

For those who can't get enough, there's an equally satisfying volume two of the Ramblers. The 15-piece band was formed during the Highlife boom of the 60s and survived for over two decades, with a regular gig at the top-flight Ambassador Hotel. Leader Jerry Hansen was elected first president of the Musicians Union of Ghana. From their many albums, Flametree has selected a dozen characteristic cuts and remastered them. Given how mellow and coherent this set is it is remarkable to note that not one of the band's top hits is included on this or the previous volume. So those of you with a taste for highlife will have to search for the vintage vinyl containing "Auntie Christie," "Scholarship," "Abonsam fireman," or "Eka wo ukoa."

SWEET TALKS
HOLLYWOOD HIGHLIFE PARTY (Popular African Music pam adc 301)

Sweet Talks toured the USA in 1978. They backed the Crusaders, and took time to record their greatest album HOLLYWOOD HIGHLIFE PARTY, but then broke up over financial disputes. Various members, like A.B. Crentsil, Tony Mensah and lead guitarist Eric Agyeman went on to stardom as band leaders. Crentsil formed Super Sweet Talks and recorded the classic "Moses," another biblical rant which got him in trouble with the church at home and banned from the radio airwaves. The sixteen-minute "Moses" is included as a bonus on the "Hollywood Highlife Party" album, reissued by Popular African Music. Some of their most popular songs are here, including "Na wa' to be husband," and "Angelina." Bound to get your party hopping is the 16-minute "Ye wo adze a oye," which has long percussion breaks, and witty commentary about regional Ghanaian food and the peculiarities of the women who cook it.

SWEET TALKS
ADAM & EVE (Ashanti Records ASHR2001)

African oldies are tops on my playlist. This reissue of A.B. Crentsil with Sweet Talks is outstanding. Crentsil was born in Ghana in 1950. As a teenager he started bands with more enthusiasm than chops (who didn't?) but soon had backing from a local factory and a regular gig. However inflation meant he never could make ends meet. In 1973 Sweet Talks evolved out of the earlier band with a new gig at the Talk of the Town bar in Tema and they recorded ADAM & EVE, now considered a classic Highlife album. Highlife itself was moribund at the time, languishing in the shade of American soul music which dominated West African taste. This album demonstrates the new laid-back style of longer tracks. Crentsil's irreverent lyrics add a new spin to the Old Testament while lead guitarist Smart Nkansah skitters about. Every now and then there's a sortie from trumpeter Arthur Kennedy or sax player Owusu. The mood simmers down to a mellow groove then starts to perc back up again. At 11 minutes, the title cut is a fine demonstrations of this style which was perfected by the time the band toured the USA in 1978.

The digitally remastered ADAM & EVE sounds great with the swampy guitar, churchical organ, trumpet interjections and rolling momentum.