Papa Appiah, I didn't know you're a musician. I used to play the bass but that's all I'm ready to tell you now. Congratulations and good luck for your new project.
Blues is a music genre. It's also jazz or popular music usi ... read full comment
Papa Appiah, I didn't know you're a musician. I used to play the bass but that's all I'm ready to tell you now. Congratulations and good luck for your new project.
Blues is a music genre. It's also jazz or popular music using harmonic and phrase structures of blues. Why don't you just call your music blues if it's blues and just allow the music to identify your african heritage.
KBK 9 years ago
Papa Appiah, it isn't true that we don't sing about the good things of Africa. Indeed, many of our musicians sing about out good things and the universal subjects of love, bliss, happiness, memories, the homeland, etc. Perhap ... read full comment
Papa Appiah, it isn't true that we don't sing about the good things of Africa. Indeed, many of our musicians sing about out good things and the universal subjects of love, bliss, happiness, memories, the homeland, etc. Perhaps when they sing about the negative, it rings more than the positive even if you're claiming they haven't changed anything. But that doesn't mean they should stop singing about such things.
Nana Ampadu I has sung about almost everything in Ghana except taking a direct confrontational stance against governments the way Fela has done.
And oh, Fela, Fela, oh Fela. I thought your piece was going to be exclusively about him. Yes, that was not only a great fighter but a great musician. And, yes, many of us will remember him more for his music than his protests.
And it is true, as you wrote, that this guy controlled every aspect of his music which he generated himself. He may be indisciplined outside and in what he inhales but his music was very disciplined. When I saw him perform in Apollo Theatre (Ringroad) in his long stay in Ghana in the early 80s, the band was playing that long instrumental that preceded his coming on stage, he had come on stage, listened to what was playing and immediately heard that the bass guitar was out of tune and he went straight to adjust the appropriate string all this time while the music was still playing. Ok, I am not a musician, but I thought that was wonderful. He wouldn't allow a single wrong note!
This man played protest music all his life but for me, the best track he ever did was not one of political protest. It was protest of another sort - the behaviour of our modern women. Lady is my best Fela tract among the many wonderful things he made from the Koola Lobitos days.
And, yes, Papa Appiah, you are right when you say that there is only ONE afrobeat and it is the one played by Feka Anikulapo Kuti - the man who caught death and put in his pocket. Nobody has played it like him. I can't listen to Femi. Poor boy, his father's shoes are toooooo big to be filled in by anybody - even his own son!
May his music live forever.
Too bad the youngsters who inhabit this forum will not remember him much. But many of us the oldies do, and will never forget.
Call am for dance
She go dance lady dance
Africa woman go dance
She go dance the fire dance...
...
Baby na master
Baby na master...
Papa Appiah, I didn't know you're a musician. I used to play the bass but that's all I'm ready to tell you now. Congratulations and good luck for your new project.
Blues is a music genre. It's also jazz or popular music usi ...
read full comment
Papa Appiah, it isn't true that we don't sing about the good things of Africa. Indeed, many of our musicians sing about out good things and the universal subjects of love, bliss, happiness, memories, the homeland, etc. Perhap ...
read full comment