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!
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