Highlife Legend Samuel Owusu’s Social Philosophy Of Music 5

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• Nii Teiko 9 years ago

  Your series will never be complete without throwing light on the scintillated lyrical classics of the 'WESTERN SHOW BOYS':the SimgwaDo man, Jedu Blay Ambulley, Jewel Ackar, Paapa Yankson, Nana Acker Yensu{Posso Hayes}, Adu Kw ...
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  Your series will never be complete without throwing light on the scintillated lyrical classics of the 'WESTERN SHOW BOYS':the SimgwaDo man, Jedu Blay Ambulley, Jewel Ackar, Paapa Yankson, Nana Acker Yensu{Posso Hayes}, Adu Kwasi a.k.a Sehwi Bob Marley, Aseibu Amanfi, F. Kenya, F. Micah, Ekow Micah...and by extension, Meiway. trust all your Dansoman-Sahara buddies come no where near these great men of old. Hey, what about the Black Chinese - the 'ankwa do bi' singer from the Kwahu Mountains, Obuoba J.A Adofo? Oh Maaaaaaan! gone are the days.

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• Francis kwarteng 9 years ago

  Hello Nii Teiko,
  
  I have already referenced Francis Kenya, Ambulley, Jewel Ackah, Papa Yankson, Pozo Hayes...
  
  Ekow Micah is a "child" in Ghanaian music...he had one reggae-influenced hit "Mesi Wo Hemaa" and 'disappeared' ...
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  Hello Nii Teiko,
  
  I have already referenced Francis Kenya, Ambulley, Jewel Ackah, Papa Yankson, Pozo Hayes...
  
  Ekow Micah is a "child" in Ghanaian music...he had one reggae-influenced hit "Mesi Wo Hemaa" and 'disappeared' from the music scene until his legal problems (alleged extortion issues) with footballer Gyan brought him out into the open again...I think he also chairs one of the musical organizations in the country today...Remember Akosua Agyapong and others who were/are part of this organization distanced themselves from him when the allegations surfaced, particularly the Marijuana one!
  
  How about highlife musician Eddie Quansah who played briefly with Osibisa, Bob Marley (check out Bob Marley's song "Reggae On Broadway," this is one Marley song most of my friends who love Bob Marley and his music have not even heard), America's Johnny Nash, the man who first sang "I Can See It Clearly Now," a classic song Jimmy Cliff will cover on the sound track of the movie "Cool Runnings."
  
  As a matter of fact Johnny Nash also sang the international hit song "Rock Me Baby." I already mentioned this son on the first part of my piece on Wiyaala.
  
  Anyway there are other names too numerous to mention. It is why I always uses ellipses (...).
  
  Anyway I used Ded Buddy, for instance, to make a case and quite necessarily to shoe how our singing repertoires lack the kind of vocal skills, weight and range we see in other cultures.
  
  When it comes to vocal range, color, skills, and so on we come nowhere near even South Africans. So it has nothing to do with Kwahus, those from the Western Region, etc.
  
  Mr. Cee from Dansoman, for instance, was one of the most influential burger-highlife pioneers to have come from the London branch of the worldwide burger-highlife mivement just like Ben Brako. George Darko and others did theirs from Germany, Amsterdam, etc.
  
  Usually one mentions burger-highlife and some people only think of George Darko and Germany. It was an international movement spanning Western Europe.
  
  Further, S.K. Oppong who had a house in Dansoman was an influential musician in his own right. The great guitar virtuoso Dr. Paa Bobo and several others, including Super O.D., we're mentees of S.K. Oppong at one point or another.
  
  Then you have Nakorex made up of Akosua Agyapong (from Dansoman), Rex Omar and Nat Brew who also contributed to Ghanaian music in many important ways.
  
  You failed to grasp the import of the article. Go back and start from the beginning of this series.
  
  Lest I forget, Ded Buddy is launching his international album ("Colors") in New York. "Colors" is a 17-track album. Check it out.
  
  Finally, if I should decide to discuss every musician I will not finish this series. Trust me, I have literally tens of names I cannot mention in this limited series.
  
  If I have to do so then I have to include highlife musicians from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, etc. (eg Prince Nico Mbarga of "SWEET MOTHER" fame made highlife. "SWEET MOTHER" is essentially highlife. In fact Koo Nimo's highlife and palm-wine music and style of guitar playing influenced Mbarga and others). I have chosen to discuss only Ghanaian highlife.
  
  Finally, the person who taught the first Ghanaian/Gold Coaster the highlife musician how to play the guitar, Jacob Sam, was a Liberian Kru. Jacob Sam recorded the first of what we call today YAA AMPONSAH guitar-defined rhythm today.
  
  Let me just stop here as this series is never intended to be exhaustive. It cannot because the list of names is endless. Besides I have already mentioned all the names you have mentioned and all those I left out in my ellipses (......).
  
  Please go back and start reading the series from the beginning. And you will be enlightened.
  
  So go figure!
  
  Thanks

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• ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago

  Francis Kwarteng, you damn ugly useless moron, don't sit in your sister room in Maryland and blow raw shit about Musicians, get up, climb the stage and let's see you ferfectly singing, you bird-brained moronic faggot.

  Francis Kwarteng, you damn ugly useless moron, don't sit in your sister room in Maryland and blow raw shit about Musicians, get up, climb the stage and let's see you ferfectly singing, you bird-brained moronic faggot.

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• EKS 9 years ago

  I am quite impressed with your deep and intimate knowledge of all these musicians and their work. Even more impressive is your ability to write about them as if they were your contemporaries. I don't think you were born when ...
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  I am quite impressed with your deep and intimate knowledge of all these musicians and their work. Even more impressive is your ability to write about them as if they were your contemporaries. I don't think you were born when Johnny Nash and Jimmy Cliff had their hey days. Even if born, you may have been a kid. Yet you know so much about them.
  
  Of course, their music is still available on YouTube to listen to today but it's quite a different thing "experiencing" such music in the late 60s and early 70s. Some of us were already in sec sch then and can remember the "record nights" on Saturdays, and the itinerant dance bands that went around the country especially during the "long vac" playing the kind of music that was popular as vinyl 45s. GBC 2 was our main source of listening to such music unless you were rich enough to possess a cassette player (cockroach sounds) or a turn-table. It was the time before computers...
  
  It's nice that you can bring all these to life and write so passionately about them. I've always wondered how you are able to do it. But then you have always demonstrated the capacity to write knowledgeably (and lengthily ... lol) about a wide variety of things. Nobody on ghanaweb covers so much ground as you do.
  
  I understand there's a Ghanaian whose PhD thesis is on highlife music. I think it was presented to a university in the US and is available only on microfilm (?). I don't know if you know about that. There's a German also doing academic work on Ghanaian highlife.
  
  Yes, highlife is very Ghanaian but it's really a West African thing... It's a huge field. You cannot possibly mention every Ghanaian who ever played highlife in any of its many variants - not even in a series that has come up to five...
  
  Well done, Francis.

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• Francis kwarteng 9 years ago

  Dear EKS,
  
  Yes, I have given some information on at least one important doctoral dissertation on highlife/palm-wine music in my next article, PART 6.
  
  I have already sent it to Ghanaweb and should be published tomorrow, h ...
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  Dear EKS,
  
  Yes, I have given some information on at least one important doctoral dissertation on highlife/palm-wine music in my next article, PART 6.
  
  I have already sent it to Ghanaweb and should be published tomorrow, hopefully. In any case PART 6 is already published on Modernghana.
  
  Finally, people have done graduate theses/dissertations (and scholarly books) on several aspects of Ghanaian culture including palm-wine music and highlife (even some on hiplife).
  
  I personally know some department chairs (professors) of history/culture/ethnomusicology who have supervised some of these theses/dissertations here in the United States.
  
  I did not contact them for this 8-part series, thought. I have written most of the stuff in this series from memory. As to how I came to know so much about music is another story.
  
  Perhaps I should do another article on this in the near future.
  
  Please make time to read PART 6, PART 7 and PART 8.
  
  Have a great weekend.
  
  Thanks.

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• Francis kwarteng 9 years ago

  Sikyi/YAA ASANTEWAA...Supposed to have been YAA AMPONSAH instead.
  
  Thanks.

  Sikyi/YAA ASANTEWAA...Supposed to have been YAA AMPONSAH instead.
  
  Thanks.

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• ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago

  kwartneg, for "you" to mistake Yaa Amponsah for Yaa Asantewaa is not abnormal because you only copy and paste as an article just to seek a cheap public attention and nothing else.
  
  You have jumped from your silly political ...
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  kwartneg, for "you" to mistake Yaa Amponsah for Yaa Asantewaa is not abnormal because you only copy and paste as an article just to seek a cheap public attention and nothing else.
  
  You have jumped from your silly political attacks on the NPP for a reason known to your fucken self and now promoting and attacking individual Ghanaian musicians even though you, with your modicum mind have Zero idea about what Music is.

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• EKS 9 years ago

  This article shows Kwarteng's knowledge of the technicalities of music. It is really not for everybody but for those who also know the technicalities he's talking about. You need to go to music school to understand it all, mu ...
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  This article shows Kwarteng's knowledge of the technicalities of music. It is really not for everybody but for those who also know the technicalities he's talking about. You need to go to music school to understand it all, much less be critical of the writer.
  
  I admit I also don't understand all the technicalities but, unlike you, I do not condemn the writer for it. This article does not have many comments not because it's not good but because it is above the heads of many people on this forum. But the well informed on the topic will appreciate it.
  
  I think Kwarteng is doing a good work. I've read some of the other parts and I intend to go back and read all...

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• ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago

  EKS, you have surprised me, saying you "think" I am wrong, since when did you start to think? Do you may be mean typing any nonsense to rejoin is thinking?

  EKS, you have surprised me, saying you "think" I am wrong, since when did you start to think? Do you may be mean typing any nonsense to rejoin is thinking?

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• EKS 9 years ago

  Good for you, Adjoa, that you're the only one who thinks. Or that anyone who doesn't share your view of Kwarteng cannot think.
  
  There are many of us who think it is outright bad manners and meanness to, all the time, dispa ...
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  Good for you, Adjoa, that you're the only one who thinks. Or that anyone who doesn't share your view of Kwarteng cannot think.
  
  There are many of us who think it is outright bad manners and meanness to, all the time, disparage EVERYTHING that a particular person writes just because you do not like that person. Haba!!!

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• ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago

  EKS, you can cry me a river, nonetheless, I have every right to dislike fools!

  EKS, you can cry me a river, nonetheless, I have every right to dislike fools!

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