3. Ramblers

In the late 50’s and 60’s there was a highlife boom, probably as a result of celebration due to our regained independence. There was music everywhere because there was a lot of celebration in that era. There was a particular sound which we have come to know as highlife.

Like a beautiful, blossoming teenager, Ghana was trying to find her identity and music played an integral role. The late E.T Mensah helped us create a genre unique to us, E.T Mensah’s highlife paved the way for a man called Jerry Hansen to find fifteen other passionate musicians to form the Ramblers Band.

At the time, the Ramblers were one of Ghana’s most popular touring and recording groups. I like the way allmusic.com describes the group, “Jerry Hansen they developed a highly individual style, featuring two lead vocalists singing in close harmony over a lush 15-piece orchestral backing, mixing highlife with soul and Latin material. By the end of the 60s they had won large followings in neighbouring Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.”

I believe Dr. Kwame Nkrumah fell in love with them as well and gave them more exposure opening up more markets to them. Some of the band’s hits include Ama Bonsu, Ahomka Wom, Auntie Christie, Swinging Safari, Better Nii.

The group fizzled out in the 80s due the diminishing fortunes of the genre but subsequently, one of Jerry Hansen’s sons, Jerry Junior, has revived over the years with obviously different members of the band but they are yet to see the glory days their predecessors chalked.