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May
May
Part of what makes highlife a unique musical genre is its method of melding traditional and contemporary sounds from all corners of Africa and the world.
When highlife began to gain momentum in the early 1900s, it was known for incorporating foreign guitar techniques, creating layers of sound and cultural fusion on top of existing brass-band and percussion traditions.
Highlife (to be associated with this type of music was to be living “a high standard of life where you pay for quality entertainment from bandsmen) is an African popular music and dance that originated in Ghana in the late 19th century, later spread to western Nigeria, and flourished in both countries in the 1950s.
As far back as the 1930s Highlife has taken off in Ghana.
When Highlife first emerged in the colonial west African coast, it was distinctly associated with Ghana’s aristocracy, because it was performed primarily at exclusive clubs along Ghana’s coast.
Most Ghanaians did not have the wealth or social status to enter these concert venues, so the music earned it the name “highlife.”
Highlife gained mainstream popularity in Ghana after World War II, splitting into two major styles and scenes: Guitar Band and Dance band.
Guitar band highlife music was most widespread in rural parts of the country.
Because traditional music in these regions had a longer-standing history of incorporating stringed instruments, musicians readily accepted and incorporated the guitar into their composition.
E.K. Nyame and the Akan Trio became the figureheads of the guitar band highlife style, and Nyame would ultimately release over 400 records.
In contrast to Guitar Band Highlife, Dance Band Highlife took Ghana’s urban areas by storm.
As foreign troops left Ghana in the post-war period, large orchestras were quickly replaced by professional dance bands, and highlife began catering directly to its Ghanaian audience.
These dance bands are best represented by E.T. Mensah and the Tempos – after performing in Accra with Louis Armstrong in 1956, Mensah was known as the “King of Highlife.”
Mensah’s version of dance band highlife was known and loved for including influences from swing, calypso, and Afro-Cuban music.
Following Ghana’s independence in 1956, and the fall of President Kwame Nkrumah 10 years later, Ghanaian highlife music took a backseat to electric guitar bands and pop music, which filtered into the country from Europe and America.
This lull in the highlife tradition came to an end with the 1971 Soul to Soul music festival in Accra, in which both popular African and American musicians of color (including Wilson Pickett, Ike, Tina Turner, and Carlos Santana) performed together.
This event brought energy back the musical scene in Ghana, leading to the creation of new guitar bands which were pioneered by some leading Highlife legends like Nana Ampadu and the African Brothers, Senior Eddie Donkoh, Agyemang Opambour, A. B. Crentsil, Alex Konadu, C.K. Mann, Ebo Taylor Alhaji K. Frimpong, King Bruce and Jerry Hansen.
During this time, Ghanaian youths led a renewed effort to support more traditional forms of music and stage a cultural revival. One of the leading trailblazers of traditional music is Daniel Amponsah known in professional music circles as Koo Nimo.
Going back to the 1930s the popularity of highlife stretched inland and eastward along the coast, garnering an especially large following in Nigeria.
And in Nigeria highlife experienced an important transformation: asymmetrical drum rhythms derived from traditional drumming practices of the Yoruba people were combined with syncopated (displaced-accent) guitar melodies to accompany songs sung in either Yoruba or English.
Nigeria Highlife movement was hyped by the popularity of Nigerian artist Fela Kuti, whose performances were laced with high energy dance moves thereby creating a musical cult for himself.
He enjoyed international success between Nigeria, Britain, and the United States for close to 3 decades amidst controversies.
Fela Kuti is known for deriving the Afrobeat genre from the influences of highlife, Juju music, funk, and jazz, and was respected for both his musical talent and his political activism.
By the mid-1960s, however, highlife had lost much of its audience to guitar-centred popular styles.
One of these styles, a predominantly Yoruba-based outgrowth of highlife called “juju music” which was pioneered by Baaba Sala and King Sonnie Ade, gained widespread international recognition in the 1980s and remained popular in Nigerian “hotels,” or nightclubs, into the 21st Century.
When British immigration laws changed in the 1970s, the bulk of Ghanaian emigration redirected towards Germany.
Ghanaian immigrants brought highlife music with them, leading to a new form of the genre that included both African and German styles.
Burger-highlife, as it became known, gained a huge following back in Ghana as well, especially once it added computer-generated beats.
George Darko is considered one of the founding musicians of early burger-highlife trends.
To be Continued….
Sources : https://www.britannica.com/art/highlife-African-music. and https://blackpublicmedia.org/9-important-things-know-ghana-highlife-music/
