RIP Nana Ampadu
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rip-nana-ampadu/
Renowned Ghanaian highlife musician, Nana Ampadu (Nana Kwame Ampadu), died on September 28, 2021.
In this interview from 2007, historian Jennifer Hart talks with him about the music that made him famous: God was everywhere in the street.
African Head Charge – A Bad Attitude
https://amf.didiermary.fr/african-head-charge-a-bad-attitude/
From album “A Trip To Bolgatanga” by African Head Charge with King Ayisoba.
From the long-running studio and live collaboration between master Jamaican percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and English dub producer Adrian Sherwood.
“A Trip To Bolgatanga” is a musical journey to founder member Bonjo’s current hometown in north Ghana. A psychedelic travelogue [...]
Meet Wanlov the Kubolor – African Gypsy
https://amf.didiermary.fr/meet-wanlov-the-kubolor-african-gypsy/
BBC interview around the main track from his album “Brown Card – African Gypsy”.
The original track features Keziah Jones and is also remixed by M3NSA.
K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas – Me Yee Owu Den
https://amf.didiermary.fr/frimpong-cubano-fiestas-me-yee-owu-den/
K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas, from AFRO-BEAT AIRWAYS – West African Shock Waves – Ghana & Togo 1972-1979
Organ-driven Afrobeat, cosmic Afrofunk and raw, psychedelic boogie… just some of the flavours to be found on this highly danceable compilation.
Basa Basa Soundz Feat. Fela Kuti – Dr Solutsu
https://amf.didiermary.fr/basa-basa-soundz-dr-solutsu-fela-kuti/
Ghanaian Afro-pop group, Basa Basa Soundz visited Lagos, Nigeria in 1976 to record an album at Decca Records. Afro beat legend, Fela Kuti was around the studios at that time and he liked what he heard of the band and he decided to record a track with them and it was “Dr. Solutsu.” […]
🚨 new #preprint online! 🚨
We study structure-stability relations in #MultiplexNetworks , using #tree-#liana interaction #networks from #Ghana as inspiration. We show that the stabilising effect of #modularity heavily depends on intra-guild interactions and is largest in case of intra-guild facilitation, highlighting the need to study how patterns in inter- and intraguild interactions jointly affect #EcosystemStability.
Rocky Dawuni – African Thriller
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rocky-dawuni-african-thriller/
“Performing his self-described ‘Afro-Roots’ sound, a fusion of reggae and Afrobeat groove, few artists have a more positive vibe than Rocky. His show is an incandescent Afro-Roots dance party.”
— LA Weekly
[…]
Santrofi – Alewa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/santrofi-alewa/
Santrofi is a young allstar band from Ghana, an 8 piece collective made up of a young generation of awarded musicians who have backed anyone in Ghana from Sarkodie to 2Face Idibia. Their mission is to bring Highlife back, not only to the world but also to Ghana, where the young generation has forgotten all […]
Blue Lab Beats – Motherland Journey
https://amf.didiermary.fr/blue-lab-beats-motherland-journey/
Blue Lab Beats are a London-based music duo, nominated since 2021 for multiple awards. They won a Grammy award in 2022 for their production on Angelique Kidjo’s Mother Nature. Their third album was released in February 2022 on Blue Note Records, and recorded in Ghana with Killbeatz. […]
Gato Preto – Barulho
https://amf.didiermary.fr/barulho-gato-preto-mendinga-carnival/
Gato Preto, with roots in Ghana, Portugal and Mozambique, mixes music styles, some like Kuduro or Favela Funk with the electronic vibes of AfroHouse.
In “Barulho,” Gato Petro goes even further : it’s Angolan Kuduro meets Punk & Metal with distorted guitars in an afrofuturistic or afro-postapocalyptic video.
Ebo Taylor – Love & Death
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ebo-taylor-love-death/
Ebo Taylor, Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer & Highlife musician. Here’s his first internationally released solo album in 2009, “Love And Death” where he reprises some of his ’70s classics alongside some new compositions, all backed by Berlin collective Afrobeat Academy.
Ebo Taylor & Uhuru Yenzu – You Need Love
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ebo-taylor-uhuru-yenzu-you-need-love/
Conflict was originally released in 1980 and was partially remade as part of Taylorʼs 2009 “Love and Death” album. […]
Ogyatanaa – Yaa Amponsah
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ogyatanaa-yaa-amponsah/
In the 1930s, Sam’s Trio, led by Jacob Sam, was the most influential of the high-life guitar-bands. Their “Yaa Amponsah”, three versions of which were recorded in 1928 for Zonophone, was a major hit that remains a popular staple of numerous high-life bands.
The Ogyatanaa Show Band, aka Burning Fire Show Band, was one of […]
Osibisa, the “Flying Elephants”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/osibisa-flying-elephants/
Osibisa is a British Afro-pop band, founded by Teddy Osei (RIP) in London in 1969 by four expatriate African (Ghana) and three Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were one of the first African bands to become widely popular, leading to claims of founding World Music.
I discovered Osibisa when I was a teen, and this band is […]
Ebo Taylor – Heaven
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ebo-taylor-heaven-ghana-soundz/
Ebo Taylor’s hypnotic track “Heaven” comprises modern jazz elements, and the song’s vocals borrow their format from a Ghanian nursery rhyme style, whereby children would repeat the final word of each sentence.
Originally released in 1977, Ebo Taylorʼs self-titled album is a rarity that truly exposes the genius of the Ghanaian producer and arranger. [...]
Soul to Soul (1971)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/soul-to-soul-ghana-1971/
Je pensais vous avoir déjà parlé de ce fameux concert Soul to Soul, mais en fait il semble bien que je l’ai omis pour l’instant…
Quelques années après cet événement, il y eut le fameux “Soul Power” à Kinshasa en 1974. Celui-ci à Accra y ressemble un peu, mais sans le contexte des boxeurs… Ce concert […]
Charlotte Dada – Don’t Let Me Down
https://amf.didiermary.fr/charlotte-dada-dont-let-me-down/
Charlotte Dada (sometimes spelled Dadah or Daddah), the “Girl with the Golden Voice,” is probably best known in the West for her soul cover of The Beatles’ song “Don’t Let Me Down” below, but she was on stage during the famous Soul to Soul concert in Ghana in 1971.
She started off her career with […]
E.T. Mensah & His Tempos Band – FomFom
https://amf.didiermary.fr/et-mensah-tempos-band-fomfom/
The original “Tempos” band was formed in 1946 as a “jam session” group by some European soldiers stationed in Accra. It played for army dances and at the Accra club. Over time, African musicians replaced the European ones, until finally it became an all-African band. Mensah joined the band in 1947. Shortly after this the […]
Nana Kwame Ampadu – Yaa Amponsah
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nana-ampadu-african-brothers-band-yaa-amponsah/
Nana Kwame Ampadu (31 March 1945 – 28 September 2021) was a Ghanaian musician and composer credited with numerous popular highlife tracks and he is known to have composed over 800 songs. He was the lead singer, chief songwriter, and founder of the “African Brothers Band”. He is regarded as a pioneer of highlife music […]
Hi-Lifes You Have Loved
https://amf.didiermary.fr/hi-lifes-loved/
Hi-Lifes You Have Loved is an old compilation (1972) of early African highlife tracks, featuring Stargazers Band, ET Mensah & His Tempos Band, Black Beats, Broadway Dance Band, The Rhythm Aces, etc. […]
Kologo – Alostmen
https://amf.didiermary.fr/alostmen-kologo/
“The kologo is one of the 2-stringed predecessors of the banjo played by herdsmen/healers in mid-West Africa.”
Formed by Stevo Atambire and produced by Wanlov (FOKN Bois), Alostmen’s music is based around the Frafra traditions of the kologo, a stringed lute, using traditional instrumentation in entirely new ways. […]
Ebo Taylor – Palaver
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ebo-taylor-palaver/
“Palaver” is a long-lost, previously unreleased 1980 album from Ghanaian guitarist and songwriter Ebo Taylor.
“This was done with my touring band, pretty much the same guys as on the Essiebons records I was making back then,” Ebo Taylor says […]
Wanlov the Kubolor – Never Go Change
https://amf.didiermary.fr/wanlov-kubolor-never-go-change/
“Never Go Change” is a song to blast bad leaders who are not affected by "dumsor” because they have generators, those that do not care about bad roads because they use better cars, those that do not care about traffic because they use police escort… […]
Rocky Dawuni – Beats of Zion
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rocky-dawuni-beats-zion/
Rocky Dawuni, global ambassador and humanitarian activist, released his highly anticipated 7th studio album “Beats of Zion” in 2019.
The thirteen-track set followed the GRAMMY nominated album “Branches of the Same Tree” (“Best Reggae Album” in 2016) and expanded Rocky’s “Afro Roots” sound to include the diversity of the Ghanaian music scene and its current […]
Dark Suburb – The Awakening
https://amf.didiermary.fr/awakening-dark-suburb/
Dark Suburb is an alt-rock band from Ghana. They started their musical journey in 2015.
Despite their intimidating stage personas, the band advocates a social perspective that looks beyond the confines of Ghana’s highly class-, gender-, and ethnicity-structured society. The “We are all skeletons” slogan looks to bones, not as symbols of death and warning, […]
