Growing up I remember hearing bits and pieces of African music on the radio or in the car; The Bhundu Boys, Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Miriam Makeba. It wasn't until I was about 20 that I first heard the track "Sweet Mother" by Prince Nico Mbarga - sometimes called the unofficial african national anthem. I picked up a world music sampler record in a second hand shop and as soon as I heard it, I knew that this was something different. I started digging in the world music bins in record shops and buying up anything that had a bit of a rythm to it. This was about 200oish and there still wasn't really much information about this kind of thing on the internet, there wasn't a lot of reissue of west african music and so it was pretty hit or miss for me.
It wasn't long before I discovered Fela Kuti, and from there things just snowballed. Strut records released a reissue of Segun Bucknor stuff from early 70s and it wasn't long before I stumbled on Ghana Soundz! Ghana Soundz was a compilation put together by Miles Cleret and released as the first release on soundway records. This was 1970s funky highlife from Ghana, a sound that blew my mind.
I have never been much of a dancer, but this was the first "dance music" that I couldn't get enough of. Rich brass parts and heavy rhythms, faster that the laid back afrobeat of Fela, exciting and uplifting. I was hooked.
Highlife was initially the popular bigband and dance music of Ghana from the 30s and 40s, evolving from the palm wine music and mixing with the big band tunes favoured by the british living in what was then the "British Gold Coast" colony. Through independance in 1957 the music continued to evolve, taking in influences from europe, the carribean and the USA as well as neighbours Nigeria, Congo and Benin. By the later 60s, the sound had incorporated funk and soul sounds from James Brown (see Geraldo Pino) to west coast psychedelia (see Super Eagles).
Over the next few years I added to my collection of west african tunes and started my West African music database document where I tried to keep track of who I was listening to and what little info I could glean from record sleeves and books (like the rough guide to west african music) about them. I stopped updating it quite a while ago when information about 60s and 70s music became easier to find online, but I do like to look at it to remind myself of what I was battling with back in the early 2000s! I can also easily imaging a world where the modern internet of slop becomes so clogged up with garbage that this information is lost, or at least becomes hard to find again, so I keep it safe in case it should ever need revived.
In autumn of 2005 I had the chance to travel for 3 months as part of my degree, and chose to spend the time in Kumasi, Ghana. I was based at Komfi Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and spent the mornings following ward rounds and trying to help outm and the afternoons hunting for records in the hot sun!.
I had such a great time, hunting around the market and visiting people's homes trying to track down any good records. Eventually I was lucky enough to meet with the son of K.Gyasi (of K Gyasi and his noble kings) who ran a local "oldies show" on the radio. We sat at his his place playing through his records and talking, and he agreed to sell me anything that he had 2 of and some stuff that he reckoned was good and he might get again! As we talked it turned out that Miles Cleret had passed through when researching Ghana Soundz and used his turn table to listen to things he had.
Another student who was at the hospital thought it was fun looking for records (and was much more confident talking to people than me) so came along some afternoons with me looking for records and exploring Kumasi. We became great friends for a decade before falling in love and deciding to stay together for the rest of our lives. I went looking for highlife and ended up with the love of my life. ( ´ཀ` )ྀི.
We got to visit a record museum, where there had been a flood and the curator was desperately trying to re-catalogue all the records he had. I got a picure of Sarah with him, but given it was 2005, didn't think to get a picture of me.
The 2010s and 2020s have been amazing for the re-issue of classic afrobeat and highlife, with lables like soundway, strut, and luka bop putting out some incredible compilations and reissue of original albums. The Afrobeats movement has brought modern african music to a much wider audience across the UK and europe and has brough much more interest in the older stuff too. It's a wonderful time to be alive!