How the years fly when you are not counting! That was what went through my mind when I watched the Ghana Music Awards (GMA) on television last weekend.
The style of music was different from what it used to be when live music performances, complete with instrumentalists, were in vogue.
It looks like these days nobody cares about musical arrangements, melody and others anymore.
Gone are the days of the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG), later renamed Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ACRAG), whose awards were based on solid professionalism.
Among its award winners were Asabea Cropper, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Amakye Dede and many other serious musicians like the late Kofi Ghanaba and the late King Bruce.
Of course ECRAG awards were not limited to music alone.
Some of its award winners in other categories of the arts were Professor Nii Yartey, Professor Atukwei Okai and Professor Emeritus J.H. Kwabena Nketia.
It seems only like yesterday when Chikinchee’s (real name is Gilbert Amartey Amarh)Let’s Do The Highlife album took this country by storm.
The year was 1990.
The hit singles Sakora Kose and Kese Menim from that album still bring back sweet memories even though many of the people I have heard singing those songs do not remember who the artiste credited with the songs is.
A decade earlier, the late Faisal Helwani had put together a group of talented musicians who became known as Edikanfo and whose Roots Of Highlife album was such a sensation that it had the music of Ghana knocking loudly on the door of world fame.
It is probably not for nothing that Edikanfo to this day remains the only band from this part of the world to have recorded with the world famous Fleetwood Mac!
Those were the days when this country was awash with talented instrumentalists, singers and composers and they probably would have given to Ghana what Mori Kante and Salif Keita gave to Mali or what Youssou Ndour and Baaba Maal gave to Senegal if the coup detat of the last day of the year 1981 had not taken place.
The years of curfew imposed on the country as a result of the coup made many of those talented musicians leave Ghana for greener pastures elsewhere since their trade is largely a night-time activity.
For a large part of the decade that followed, this country saw a virtual absence of live band music and the introduction of what came to be known as spinning groups.
In my opinion this affected the quality of music that was offered even though some Ghanaian musicians living abroad tried to keep the Ghana flag flying in the world of serious music.
On the home front, this country saw compositions both secular and gospel, that clearly could not match internationally.
The effect of this situation has been with us to this day.
It is against this background that I find as useful any awards to encourage musicians to come up with good quality music.
I did not see that last weekend.
What I saw was the making of mediocrity a standard and honouring it.
Sadly, many a young musician will be striving toward this mediocrity and the music of Ghana will be the loser.
When ECRAG or ACRAG used to award artistes, and in spite of the many attacks it had to endure, one thing was certain: nobody quarrels with who is chosen as the Flagstar.
The Flagstar award which was ECRAG’s highest award was given to those who had lifted high the name of Ghana in the world of arts for a long time and were worthy cultural ambassadors for Ghana.
If the question be asked: what has the person who won the highest award last weekend done for the music of Ghana?
Long before the awards night, there was what looked like a complete orchestration in the media to project an individual as the best among the lot.
It was therefore, too much of a coincidence that the same individual became the eventual winner.
Let us get serious in this country; music is serious business.
It was; the music of the Swedish group ABBA that at a point was the leading foreign exchange earner for Sweden.
The same could be said of the music of the Beatles and what it did for Britain.
Again, it took the music of the late Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and others to firmly plant the tiny island of Jamaica on the world music map and today reggae music has become international music.
Ghana needs something similar and not some of the furious cacophonies that are receiving all the praise and which radio stations are bombarding us with.
Have we forgotten that we still could listen to and learn from the vintage highlife music recorded by the likes of E.T. Mensah, King Bruce, Jerry Hansen, Uhuru Band, Sweet Beans, Sweet Talks, Kofi Ani Johnson, Hedzolleh and others?
As I have stated above, music is serious business and we must begin to see it as such.
That is the reason why I like the New Music Ghana project and the effort to unearth talent for the enrichment of the music of Ghana.
It is in these young and talented musicians in the various regions of Ghana that the future of this country’s music lies for they are the people who can break onto the international scene.
Written by Baba Abdulai
Hot Issues with Baba Abdulai
Email: [email protected]
Credit: The Spectator
Gread stuff Baba. But you’re going to piss of a lot of this fake goons. Their level of self esteem is below the gutter and therefore have to big each other up to promote this fakeism they’re calling an industry. I hope the so call ‘stake holders’ read your comments and think it through.
Highlife brought the white man to our shores to party and dance with our leaders at that time because it was original and it was made by us. Today we’re trying to be better Americans than American’s themselves. How this will be possible, beats me. Those with their keen eyes opened are watching. You see them suffering ’cause all the hoopla is not bring any money nor any quality of life, yet, they keep doing the same thing.
Am glad you see through it and calling for a REAL SOLUTION. We cannot make better crunk than ATL native producers, nor can we make better hiphop tracks than native bronx/harlem producers. We really need to re-evaluate our selves and our decision.
This is the same method that was used to kill of the American Indians. By removing them away from their culture and giving them the ‘challenge’ of adapting to suits and ties. That’s what made them self-destruct and vanished off the North American continent. The same thing is been done to Ghanaians. Let’s go back to highlife and infuse out kete and adowa drummings in our culture. They will come instead of us trying to chase them. God help us and wake us up from their self hating madness. Your article was really inspirational to read. God bless your heart for the truth.
amakye i strongly agree with you ,but why have you waited all this while to come up with this blog.i think you should come up with a nu album and all those good musicians out there.the fact is none of you are releasing anymore thats why we hear all these crap called hiplife,theres nothing like hiplife its highlife.please tell the djs to play good music on air and stop all that nonsense they are playing,ghanains like to copy too much stop promoting someone elses music and promote high life
can you believe i have a vst intrument made by native instruments its a collection of samples when played you hear variety of loops in this sampler thres ghanahighlife,adowa,kpalonga,kete,abgadza,ewe and lots more why do you think the whiteman would come and sample our good rythms and sell,cos the are too good and original.
Say it again Bro Stephen. TELL EM. Between what’s this NI VST you’re using?
I do some remote support for Native Instruments and use their flagship product as well.
We have more than we need. The thing is, this same ‘talentless’ individuals Baba Abdulai’s article is talking about will refuse to make way for the Old tymers. Once all the old tymers pass (Knock on wood), we will loose highlife forever!. I myself wouldn’t mind taking lessons from Adofo, Ampadu, Abrantie Amakye, K K Kabobo, Aseibu Amanfi, Paa Bobo, to name a few.
its called zero g afrolatin slam
Oh, Afrolatin Slam, i thought that was what you were referring to. Yeah, it has some nice Adowa, Kpanlogo, Samba, and other presets in there. Very nice piece of software indeed.
Oh bro Stephen, I forgot. Thanks for sharing that with me by the way 🙂
its even on rex files,rmx.and recycle and anysoftware that uses rex files
Yup yup, I actually have their whole 12GB ‘ Zero-G WorldPack’ library which contains the rex, acid loop and wav version so am good. I was just impress to see your willingness to share knowledge in the public view like that. A trait not commonly found in most of us nowadays :). All the while, still good looks though.
The original highlife was a lot of fun to listen to as well.