Decoding Highlife - The Yaa Amponsah Style

Anybody familiar with Ghanaian highlife music, especially the guitar highlife is probably familiar with the "Yaa Amponsah" style of play by now. If not, its the subject of discussion today anyway.
A lot of our favorite highlife artistes started with the guitar highlife before they moved on to what the collectors now call Afro Funk / Afro pop and all such names and categories given today. Artistes like K. Frimpong, Akwaboa, Dr. K Gyasi, African Brothers, F. kenya etc all started with guitar band styles as can be heard on many 75 RPM's on various blogs, before they evolved into the afro funk and other forms of music that crate diggers adore.
A lot of those highlife artistes like K. frimpong were just doing their highlife music and didnt categorize them as we do today, there were just being creative at what they do best whilst others specifically tried to start their own categories such as amongst others:

•  Nana Ampadu - Afrohili
• Tony Sarfo - Afrosibi
• Dr. K. Gyasi - Sikyi highlife 
• City Boys band - Adenkum 
• Anonymous - Odo Nson 
•  Anonymous Fante Coastal Fishermen - Osibi
• Ghanaian Highlife Artistes in Europe around 80's like George Darko, Rex Gyamfi, Charles Amoah, Lee Duodu etc - Burger Highlife
• Kwaw Mensah - Kwaw

“The basic characteristics of traditional music that are present in Yaa Amponsah appear in almost all the guitar-band music which followed it. Yaa Amponsah was first recorded in 1928 by Jacob Sam (a.k.a. Kwame Asare), a guitarist whose “Kumasi Trio” represents one of the early highlife guitar-bands. The group also represents one of the first Ghanaian bands ever to record palm wine highlife music. Asare is credited as the composer of Asare is credited as the composer of the tune, yet it is possible that the Yaa Amponsah riff may have existed long before. The short song tells the story of a woman, Yaa Amponsah, who was likely employed by Asare as a highlife dancer in the town of Apedwa (Collins, “African Guitarism” 178). The narrator professes his love for Yaa Amponsah, declaring that he wishes them to remain lovers even though their marriage is ending. Numerous bands have recorded their own versions of Yaa Amponsah, yet even more remarkable are the ways in which highlife musicians have creatively used the Yaa Amponsah riff. Hundreds of songs feature this basic chord progression, while vocal songs/melodies may in fact be completely different from those of the original Yaa Amponsah.” ~ William Matczynski [Highlife and its Roots: Negotiating the social, cultural, and musical continuities between popular and traditional music in Ghana]
 

 The Yaa Amponsah style that has formed the basis for many popular songs such as:

• Ogyatanaa - Yaa Amponsah 

 

 
• Ebo Taylor - Yaa Amponsah

 

 
•  Kwamena Ray Ellis - Yaa Amponsah

  Today's post features one of the finest guitarist in Ghana, George "Spratz" Ankoma Mensah, as he shows the Yaa Amponsah style... Enjoy!

The Youth and Highlife Music Today

Highlife music in Ghana, has become an "endangered" genre of music in the very country it originated from. Anybody that would go to Ghana today, hoping to hear any recent highlife, as it is on the vinyl records of yesterday would be disappointed.
Its sad that just a few of the youth are interested in pursuing this art which has been passed on from generations by Kwame Asare (Jacob sam). This is as a result of an acquired taste for foreign music, with the perception that those into the early forms of highlife like the guitar highlife are not abreast with time and partly due to technology which has made it easier to make music today than back then so real talent is not as it used to be. The other music forms like hiplife, seem to be more lucrative and that is also another reason. There are yearly awards in Ghana for all other forms of music including foreign genres like hiphop, reggae and dancehall with international artistes invited from other nations and awarded whilst highlife sadly gets a category or two out of the occasion. Music advocacy groups havent also been proactive in reviving highlife. Perhaps the renewed interest for live bands may be able to get people back into this endangered genre of music.
The current crop of highlife artistes in Ghana still actively performing are made up of the senior artistes from the band era like Ebo Taylor, Nana Ampadu, Obuoba J.A. Adofo, Agya Koo Nimo, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, C. K. Mann, Pat Thomas, A. B. Crentsil, Paapa Yankson, Amakye Dede etc as well as those from the burger highlife era like George Darko, Nana Acheampong, Charles Amoah  etc and hybrid afro pop artistes like Kojo Antwi etc.
The few relatively younger ones that sing highlife songs like Ofori Amponsah, Daasebre Dwamena, Dada KD are into digitally recorded studio songs. A few of them are able to perform those songs well with a live band on stage, whilst the veterans like Amakye Dede are very energetic and original with their live band performances since thats where they originated from.
Today's post involves Nana Tirimude and The Akurasu Band. This is the closest to the highlife of yesterday by any young artiste so far that I have come across. And guess what, there is Collins Marfo in the band on lead guitar, he was the composer and unsung hero of the K. Frimpong & Cubano Fiesta album (Black) 1977, he is a legend and will be the subject of another post later. Another legend in this band is the evergreen vocalist Kyei Baffuor of the Great Africans fame who also recorded a few albums as lead vocalist for Kyeremanteng Atwede and also, lead vocalist for BB Collins and the Powerful Believers. Ralph Kakari the veteran highlife bass guitarist is also in the video. It will be good to see the youth collaborate with the veterans in the highlife industry to make original highlife music as it used to be and this is a step in the right direction ... Enjoy!

The Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana (GRMRC) - A Place Worth Visiting in Ghana

The GRMRC was officially established in Cape Coast by Mr. Kwame Sarpong in 1994, inside the premises of the Regional Centre for National Culture. Mr. Sarpong’s uncles and an elder brother, who hailed from Mampong in the Ashanti Region, but domiciled in Tamale in the 1940’s, were avid collectors of both the Ghanaian Highlife music and traditional music, and when the uncles passed away, their records collections were kept in the family. Mr. Sarpong himself began collecting in the early 1960’s. He had always wanted these collections to be available to others to hear, and in 1994 he started setting up the museum. The GRMRC houses a unique collection of several thousands of 78rpm shellac discs, 45rpm vinyl records and some reel to reel tapes, all of which were collected in Ghana (formerly known as Gold Coast until 1957). Ghanaian popular music makes up the majority of the museum’s holdings, with additional materials from other African countries, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. The core of the Ghanaian Highlife music collection, numbering around 18,000 shellac discs as well as 2,500 vinyl discs, represents the works of over 700 Ghanaian recording artists, starting with the seminal "Yaa Amponsah" recorded in 1928 by Jacob Sam. In 2002 the museum was turned into an NGO (Non-governmental organization) with these collections of sound recordings and a few musical instruments. It has a six-member advisory board including Prof. Carmelle Begin, curator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History) in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana is the only institution of its kind in tropical Africa. The oldest African items date as far back as the turn of the century, the early 1900’s. There are also various models of gramophones as well as other locally made ones. The museum has embarked on an intensive collection of all the different musical instruments from the entire ethnic groups in Ghana. In 1997, during the celebrations of Ghana’s 40th independence anniversary, the museum published a compact disc and an audio-cassette from these collections. These releases were the speeches of Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and some vintage Ghanaian highlife music of the 1960’s. Among the earliest recordings in Ghana on the 78rpm shellacs held at the museum are chorals using voice, organ and castanets. Recordings of such notable artists like Ben Simmons, George Williams Aingo, J.S.H. Ahumah, John Kwesi Biney, and Daniel H. Acquaah, recorded on the Zonophone Label. Also in the collection are discs by Ben Simmons and his Native Chorus recorded on the Broadcast label in the early 1900’s. The collection features an historical narrative by the group titled "Kromantse and Abandze" that narrates the conflict between two nearby coastal towns in the Central Region. Also in the collection, a well known recording by Harry Quashie, "Hyia Mangoase and Hwe Akropong" (Zonophone EZ25), tells the story of the towns in the eastern region (Mangoase, Akropong and other nearby villages). There are also a few rare recordings of Ghanaian traditional, historical and folk music, highlighting on events such as the influenza epidemic in the Gold Coast, social events, and famous personalities. A typical example of historical recording, "Kumasi Ohene" by Ben Simmons, narrates pleadings by the local opinion leaders of the Gold Coast to the British colonials for the release of The Asantehene, King Prempeh I, who was being held captive at the Elmina Castle in 1900, prior to his deportation to Sierra Leone, and finally to the Seychelles Islands. Another historical recording at the museum is "Elmina Blues", a musical narrative by the Gold Coast Police Band about the 1945 Elmina ritual murder of an 8 year old girl named Ama Kakraba (HMV’s JZ Series No. JZ286, recorded in 1946). Kwame Sarpong © 2006 rev. 2014 FDL

Langlois Foundation Webpage

Opambuo International Band of Ghana - Seme ye wo bone'a

Opambuo International Band of Ghana..."The man with the golden voice" as he chooses to call himself, is one of the many bands that left Ghana for Nigeria in search of greener pastures. He is a native of the historical town of Feyiase, located in Kumasi, lake-road towards the largest man-made lake in the country.
In many of his songs, he mentions Festac hotel in Onitsha, probably his home base since most of the bands at that time had a hotel of affiliation where they entertain guests. He returned from Nigeria and passed on after an illness. His music is popular mostly at funerals in Ghana, with the "Ama Ghana" song being a must-play at such events.
What makes this one of my favorite bands is how versatile this band is. They hardly repeat the same pattern of play for different songs, each new song has its own rhythm. They also have the ability to infuse whichever highlife pattern at their location into their version of highlife. Most of their songs recorded in Nigeria has some Nigerian rhythm styles blended into their Ghanaian style. Other bands like Okukuseku and Canadoes all from Ghana also infused Nigerian styles when they relocated so I guess its more of a survival mode to please your audience according to wherever you find yourself. These mixed styles were a success in their home country of Ghana as well, not just in Nigeria.
Leo Nana Agyemang Opambuo, the leader was a very gifted guitarist and it always makes a difference when the leader/composer is an instrumentalist as compared to just being a singer or fronting for the band.
His trademark style is usually allowing a break in between his songs, where they just let the instruments play without singing, showing off his rhythm.
This album, Odo Yewu Special, is different from his other album by a similar name Odo Yewu and was recorded in Ivory Coast, a french country which borders to the west of Ghana. The french are excellent on guitar and have their unique rhythms similar to F. kenya's style and if you listen carefully to the distinct rhythm guitar in the background of the song, you will feel the Francophone in it. Enjoy!

Old versus New Series - Featuring City Boys Band

Old Version

New version

Occassionally I come across some old music which rings a bell in my thoughts... perhaps a familiar song... yes, a familiar song indeed. But then the old song always seems better than the new song... the old songs are recorded with live instruments whereas the new ones are done mostly by computer, sometimes infused with one or two instruments being played live alongside in the studio...
In one of many more series to come, I feature "Maye Yie Ne Sumina"  which is a song about how people can be ungrateful, by the City Boys Band led by Obuoba J.A. Adofo. He is very much alive as at the time of this posting and still performs at private events, some of these performances in video will also be featured later.
I am usually in favor of the old versions but with this particular song, I somehow seem to like the new one better, maybe its because I have a soft spot for the bass guitar and didnt really get much of it in the old version, the rhythm guitar playing in the background of the new version also makes it a better piece in my opinion... You Decide!

Andy Vans - Dofo Nni Ekyir

Andy Vans released "Dofo Nni Ekyir" on Polydor in 1975 ...This song is one of my favorites for how the bass guitar strums on in the background with the interlacing horns and the hypnotic organ in the background, gives some type of laid back feel to it...   

De Roy Ebo Taylor, also has a different version on :

•  Ebo Taylor & The Sweet Beans "Odofo nni Ekyir", which was later re-issued on the Afrobeat Airways Vol 1 compilation. 
• This same version by Ebo Taylor was also featured by Gapophone on his "My Love and Music" LP from the 1970s but the date is not exact.... Similar lyrics and the same theme which means "A lover cant be replaced" but different rhythms.... 

• Ebo Taylor, this time with The Apagya Showband, has a different version of the same song, with a different tittle and sang a bit differently, "Tamfo nni Ekyir" from the Essiebons label in 1973... 

The same song, in the same Fante language, sang differently by two people, Ebo Taylor with different bands in different versions, either of them still guaranteed to blow your mind somehow.
Its likely the song is originally an Ebo Taylor composition, from comparing release dates... its also possible that writers give out their songs in what is known today as ghost-writing... either ways, we are all here to learn and different opinions are welcome...enjoy