Many see the 1960s and 1970s as the Golden Age of Ghanaian music. The scene thrived with Highlife, melding African rhythms, guitars, and jazz-infused horns. Lyrics based around folk culture and social commentary were the key style, with music and musicians brandishing a powerful influence. Indeed, such was this potency that, in the early 1980s, the incoming military regime cracked down, levying high import taxes on musical instruments and equipment and imposing curfews. Alongside a declining economy and increased poverty, live music began to be replaced by DJs. Musicians left the country in their droves to West Africa, Europe and North America, particularly Canada. An article in The Guardian suggests that “the Musicians Union of Ghana had estimated that 25% of musicians had emigrated in search of better opportunities.”
In German cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt, the emerging Ghanaian diaspora developed a new style of Highlife, termed burger highlife, which took its name from the German word for citizen. Burger Highlife saw the slinky guitar lines and horns fused with the introduction of more modern, electronic sounds produced by the readily available drum machines and synthesisers, alongside benefits accrued from hi-tech recording facilities. Traditional highlife boundaries were extended, incorporating disco, house, funk, boogie, R&B, reggae, European new wave, Caribbean zouk, and soca into the music. Experimentation was the order of the day, and musical envelopes were pushed, introducing and connecting this form of Highlife to new audiences. As leading burger highlife artist Charles Amoah notes, “The whole idea was to cut through, not make music solely for Ghanaians, but it was designed to cross borders, for people in Europe to relate to it too.”
These innovations continued throughout the 1980s, and the 18 burger highlife, electronic afrobeat, and reggae tracks on this new Soundway Records collection, from many of the legends of Ghanaian music, open an illuminating window on the importance of music, as Sarah Osei describes it: “The guiding spirit of discovery and curiosity that anchored this experimental phase of highlife music revolutionised Ghanaian identity and sensibilities.”
From the very first bars of the opening track, Ebe Ye Yie Ni from The Godfathers’ eponymous debut album, released exclusively in Nigeria in 1980, the template of what, in the main, is to follow on this release, is clearly laid out. The band recorded the album in London in 1979, comprising Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean musicians. There is no requirement to understand the Twi and Hausa languages to appreciate the music with its swirling keys, American funk and soul, African rhythms, classy brass, wah-wah effects, dynamic bass runs and catchy refrains which permeate Delips Apo’s composition.
Following the breakup of The Godfathers, Kumasi-born Delips moved to Sweden and released a solo album, Dadadi, drawing on music from the Caribbean, which blended Latin, soca, and zouk styles with contemporary production techniques. Jigi Jigi, from that album and his second contribution here, shows this range of influences and features a blistering trumpet solo from Kevin Robinson alongside some wonderful timbales playing.
Twi, a variety of the Akan languages spoken in central and southern Ghana, features extensively on this release, including on Gye Wani, from one of Ghana’s best-known vocalists, Pat Thomas, ‘The Golden Voice of Africa’. One of the very first musicians to leave Ghana, Pat spent time in Berlin, London and Accra before settling in Toronto, an essential location for Ghanaian migration. The horn riffs and Afrobeat percussion here present a sound much closer to ‘traditional highlife’ than many on the compilation, with a vocal rawness echoing the gritty soul/funk of James Brown.
In the 1980s, this Canadian city, the home of the North American burger movement, also spawned Marijata (confusingly also the name of a Ghana-based Pat Thomas band from the 1970s), a band formed by Nana Agyemang Badu Opambuo and fellow Ghanaian, Richard Adom, which also featured Ata Kak, who was later to achieve fame as a singer/rapper, on drums. Otanhunu, taken from their LP Ma Ndaadame, is a joyful, uplifting, seven-and-a-half minute romp, with the swirling organ of Mark Adams and conga playing of Maringue Joe augmented by driving brass. The synth breaks around the four-minute mark, and the subsequent “duelling” with the organ is glorious.
Smouldering poly-rhythms, relaxed, laid-back solos, and female vocals intertwining with the brass instrumentation feature on M.C. Mambo, a track recorded in Ghana in 1985, from Pepper, Onion, Ginger & Salt, a group which blended local and foreign, German, musicians. West Africa, in this case, Benin, also saw the release of the LP Star Of the Sea by Ernest Honny, from which the song New Dance is taken. Having moved to Benin in the 80s, Ernest continued to display the innovative, creative and boundary-pushing edge that was his trademark in the previous decade when recording for the Essiebons label. New Dance is a prime example of how far musicians took traditional Highlife into hitherto uncharted realms of experimentation. Awash with celestial vocals from Adele Adeoko and Mary Amegan, and utilising a Yamaha RX11 drum machine along with Korg 61, and Yamaha Digital DX7 synths, the track is very much 80s pop music with an African swing.
Four more cuts were initially released in Germany. Five songs in, we get Kaakyire Nua, a contribution from one of the genre’s key pioneers, George Darko, whose Akoo Te Bofo single is regarded as the genesis of burger highlife. Kaakyire Nua, recorded in 1983, can also be viewed as groundbreaking. Musically, modern technology is employed, as mainstream disco beats blend with sax solo, emphatic bass-lines, synths and guitar effects, possibly fed through a vocoder, producing the burger highlife sound par excellence, whilst within the lyrics, the traditional Twi proverbs are replaced with less culturally specific traditional folkloric references, and in so doing Darko manages to avoid alienating the Ghanian audiences whilst the ‘hooks’ draw in the non-Akan speaking audience. Many others later emulated this important shift in emphasis.
The previous track clocked in at just under eight minutes, and the extended length of many of the songs on this release is also a common feature, with Rex Gyamfi’s Obiara Bewu registering at nigh-on seven minutes. Another wonderfully optimistic and buoyant song, with wild synth notes and rhythms in abundance, the guitar sounds, perhaps incongruously, nevertheless create a definite Soweto Township vibe. Rex is recognised as another burger heavyweight, and the album from which this song is taken, 1985’s Hi-Life For You, was a great success in both Ghana and Nigeria; interestingly, in contrast to many of the tracks on the compilation, most of the musicians on this LP were foreign, rather than Africa-born.
The remaining two ‘German’ tracks are both from the top drawer. The first, Fre Me (Call Me), taken from a 1985 E.P. of the same name, is by Charles Amoah, one of the best-known disco and burger highlife artists of the time. Recorded in Bochum, this song, once again, sees Highlife being taken in new directions, Latin piano progressions, use of a wide range of percussion instruments, together with bass synthesiser, Yamaha DX 7 and Moog synthesisers, electronic drums (RX11 and Simmons), thrilling sax work from Johannes Seidemann, together with outstanding backing vocals from Ampofo Acquah, who was later to feature inGinger Baker’s African Force, make for a deep, funky, R&B sounding take on burger highlife, or, as Amoah himself describes it, “‘ethnopop’.” The second, Mumude, recorded in Berlin by Nan Mayen, with the merest echo of Highlife in its opening Fanti lyrics, is another polished piece, again with an 80’s pop feel and groove.
The remaining eight offerings were all released in the UK. Adjoa Amisa, from Andy Vans, is an enigmatic piece which, over its eight and a half minutes, presents as a much more laidback sound, readily identifiable as 80s, heavy on synth effects and percussion, with soporific guitar chords and vocals which are almost plainsong-like in their delivery, and, incongruously, with a solid Congolese undercurrent. Starlite’s Anoma Koro, taken from their 1991 L.P. Meko, at nine minutes nineteen seconds, is another lengthy track which combines Accra highlife, synth effects, Afro-Cuban claves rhythms and endearing vocals with relentlessly driving, repetitive guitar patterns and horns which, once again, bring to mind the music of the Townships.
Trombone player Abdul Raheem’s career dates back to the 1960s. After playing throughout West Africa, in a variety of bands, he joined Osibisa and moved to London in the 80s. Alaiye, with its Yoruba lyrics, is an up-tempo composition just bursting with energy, which accentuates funky horns and throbbing bass lines that threaten the speaker cones, but the spotlight really falls upon Abdul’s stunning trombone playing. Jon K’s Asafo is equally frenetic with the burger highlife sound illuminated perfectly once more. Whilst the original version made famous by C.K.Mann ran to 13 minutes, the version presented here is only a third as long, which is a shame, as the scorching guitar solo from Alfred Bannerman and the, at times, falsetto vocals end all too quickly.
The same comment cannot be levelled at Barima Nsu, Kwasi Afari Minta’s ten-minute offering. A victim of the Kings Cross Station fire, which cut short his career, the song is taken from the cassette release of the same name recorded in Dalston with the help of Tigi Beckley following the tragedy. A relentless groove permeates the track, and, somewhat bizarrely, the vocals sound very much like Bob Dylan.
The widely-travelled Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, credited with being the first musician to incorporate rap forms into local highlife rhythms, also created the musical genre Simigwa. He released his Apple L.P. on Sunrise Records in 1986, which he describes as “experimental, with elements of funk and disco, backed by highlife”, and this compilation carries the title track. When listening to the song, one could be forgiven for thinking of the Theme for Shaft, not only in terms of the vocal delivery but also the creative brass and bass playing, alongside the outstanding Yamaha DX9 and Korg Synth contributions of Bessa Simons.
Indeed, Cape Coast musician and producer Bessa, another one-time member of Osibisa, contributes a track in his own right, too, by way of Sii Nana, the opening track from his 1990 L.P. Bessa. A lighter song with a pop sensibility, his keyboards are very much to the fore and are augmented by some fine flugelhorn playing, courtesy of Mandy Budge.
The final track, Asosbrachie, comes from Nana Budjei, a singer and guitarist originally from central Ghana who moved to London in the mid-80s. Taken from his 1988 album Afrikaman, which won Blues and Soul Magazine’s ‘Best African Album’ award, the song represents the epitome of reggae-highlife, tinged with Southern Soul flavours which he sees as “my masterpiece, influenced by reggae maestros Bob Marley and Alpha Blondy, and traditional Akan folklore music”. It’s a fitting end to a compilation focusing on the various highlife mutations that occurred during the 80s and early 90s.
Soundway are to be congratulated on compiling an album that truly reflects the proud Ghanaian identity found in the innovative and creative style of the groundbreaking burger highlife.
Available as 3xLP gatefold, 2CD & Digital formats, with extensive background information, this review was completed using the CD version.
Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93 is released on 10th May on Soundway.
To celebrate Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93, a live supergroup featuring three generations of musicians, including Pat Thomas, Charles Omoah and K.O.G, will perform at UK’s Womad Festival and HKW in Berlin:
11th July – HKW, Berlin, Germany – more
27th July – Womad Festival, UK – More