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Highlife Musicians
Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasses multiple local fusions of African metre and western jazz melodies. It uses the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional African music, but is typically played with Western instruments. Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and guitars which lead the band and its use of the two-finger plucking guitar style that is typical of African music. Recently it has acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound. Highlife gained popularity and the genre spread throughout West African regions. Pioneers like Cardinal Rex Lawson, E.T. Mensah, Victor Uwaifo, all perfected this sound by infusing traditional Africa drums and western "Native Blues". After the Second World War, its popularity came within the Igbo people of Nigeria, as they got influenced to form Igb ...
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Palm-wine Music
Palm-wine music (known as maringa in Sierra Leone) is a West African musical genre. It evolved among the Kru people of Liberia and Sierra Leone, who used Portuguese guitars brought by sailors, combining local melodies and rhythms with Trinidadian calypso to create a "light, easy, lilting style". It would initially work its way inland where it would adopt a more traditional style than what was played in coastal areas. It would eventually gain popularity after Sierra Leone musician Ebenezer Calendar recorded songs in the 1950s and 1960s and continues to hold a small amount of that popularity. Etymology Palm-wine music was named after a drink, palm wine, made from the naturally fermented sap of the oil palm, which was drunk at gatherings where early African guitarists played. History This music was created from a fusion of local and foreign sailors, dock workers, and local working-class people who would go to palm-wine bars to drink and listen to music. Portable instruments ...
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Guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or Plucked string instrument, plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either Acoustics, acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or Amplified music, amplified by an electronic Pickup (music technology), pickup and an guitar amplifier, amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone, meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood, with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteen ...
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Highlife Guitar
Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasses multiple local fusions of African metre and western jazz melodies. It uses the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional African music, but is typically played with Western instruments. Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and guitars which lead the band and its use of the two-finger plucking guitar style that is typical of African music. Recently it has acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound. Highlife gained popularity and the genre spread throughout West African regions. Pioneers like Cardinal Rex Lawson, E.T. Mensah, Victor Uwaifo, all perfected this sound by infusing traditional Africa drums and western "Native Blues". After the Second World War, its popularity came within the Igbo people of Nigeria, as they got influenced to form Ig ...
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Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC, with the Guanahatabey and Taino, Taíno peoples inhabiting the area at the time of Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonization ...
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Bell Pattern
A bell pattern is a rhythmic pattern of striking a hand-held bell or other instrument of the idiophone family, to make it emit a sound at desired intervals. It is often a ''key pattern'' (also known as a ''guide pattern'', ''phrasing referent'', ''timeline'', or ''asymmetrical timeline''Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 54) ''Africa and the Blues''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. .), in most cases it is a metal bell, such as an agogô, gankoqui, or cowbell, or a hollowed piece of wood, or wooden claves. In band music, bell patterns are also played on the metal shell of the timbales, and drum kit cymbals. Sub-Saharan African music Gerhard Kubik notes that key patterns are not universally found in sub-Saharan Africa: "Their geographical distribution mainly covers those parts of Africa where I.A.4 (Kwa languages) and the ' western stream' of the I.A.5 (Benue–Congo languages), or ' Bantu' languages are spoken, with offshoots into the Lower Zambezi valley and the Nyasa/Ruvu ...
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Clave (rhythm)
The clave (; ) is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for meter (music), temporal organization in Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music, Cuban music. In Spanish, ''clave'' literally means key, clef, code, or keystone. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, Cuban rumba, rumba, conga (music), conga, son (music), son, mambo (music), mambo, Salsa music, salsa, songo music, songo, timba and Afro-Cuban jazz. The five-drum stroke, stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Cuban rhythms. The study of rhythmic methodology, especially in the context of Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-Cuban music, and how it influences the Music and emotion, mood of a piece is known as clave theory. The clave pattern originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions, where it serves essentially the same function as it does in Cuba. In ethnomusicology, clave is also known as a ''key pattern'', ''guide pattern'', ''phrasing referent'', ''timeline'', or ''asymmetrical timeline''. The clav ...
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Guajeo
A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a tres, piano, an instrument of the violin family, or saxophones. Piano guajeos are one of the most recognizable elements of modern-day salsa. Piano guajeos are also known as ''montunos'' in North America, or '' tumbaos'' in the contemporary Cuban dance music timba. History The guajeo shares rhythmic, melodic and harmonic similarities with the short ostinato figures played on marimbas, lamellophones, and string instruments in sub-Saharan Africa. The guajeo is a seamless blend of African and European musical sensibilities, and was first played as accompaniment on the tres in the Afro-Cuban son and related music. The tres is a Cuban guitar-like instrument, consisting of three sets of double strings. Changüí The guajeo emerged in ...
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Arpeggio
An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpeggios may include all notes of a musical scale, scale or a partial set of notes from a scale, but must contain notes of at least three Pitch (music), pitches (two-pitch sequences are known as Trill (music), trills). Arpeggios may sound notes within a single octave or span multiple octaves, and the notes may be sustained and overlap or be heard separately. An arpeggio for the chord of C major going up two octaves would be the notes (C, E, G, C, E, G, C). In musical notation, a very rapid arpeggiated chord may be written with a wavy vertical line in front of the chord. Typically these are read as to be played from the lowest to highest note, though composers may specify a high to low sequence by adding an arrow pointing down. Arpeggios ...
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Ghanaian Diaspora
The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominantly inhabit the Republic of Ghana and are the predominant cultural group and residents of Ghana, numbering 34 million people as of 2024, making up 85% of the population. The word "Ghana" means "warrior king". An estimated diaspora population of 4 million people worldwide are of Ghanaian descent. The term ethnic Ghanaian may also be used in some contexts to refer to a group of related ethnic groups native to the Gold Coast. History The ethnogenesis of Ghanaians is traced back to nomadic migration from Nubia along the Sahara desert then south to the Gold Coast, and the Ghanaian ethnogenesis taking place on the Ghanaian Gold Coast region from the 10th to 16th century AD. Early Ghanaians were involved in a lucrative trade with gold bars and other natural minerals to the Portuguese in 1471; these Ghanaian states were among the wealthiest on the African continent from the 17th century ...
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Igbo Highlife
Igbo highlife is a contemporary musical genre that combines highlife and Igbo traditional music. The genre is primarily guitar-based music, with a rare characteristic blend of horns and vocal rhythms. Igbo highlife lyrics are sung mostly in Igbo language, Igbo with occasional infusion of Nigerian Pidgin, Pidgin English. One of the most influential composers and performers of the music is Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe whose career spanned over 40 years. Osadebe's discography comprises numerous popular songs including the 1984 hit "Osondi Owendi" which launched him on the world stage as a pioneer of the Igbo highlife genre. Another prominent musician, Singer and guitarist Oliver De Coque is considered "one of the prime exemplars of and chief innovators in contemporary Igbo popular music." Coque was responsible for the increasing popularity of Igbo highlife with a deeper perspective of Igbo sounds being translated on the guitar. Among his best-known hits are "Biri Ka Mbiri", "Ana Enwe ...
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Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, a population of more than 230 million, it is the List of African countries by population, most populous country in Africa, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's sixth-most populous country. Nigeria borders Niger in Niger–Nigeria border, the north, Chad in Chad–Nigeria border, the northeast, Cameroon in Cameroon–Nigeria border, the east, and Benin in Benin–Nigeria border, the west. Nigeria is a Federation, federal republic comprising 36 States of Nigeria, states and the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, Federal Capital Territory, where its capital, Abuja, is located. The List of Nigerian cities by population, largest city in Nigeria by population is Lagos, one of the largest List of largest cities, metr ...
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Igbo People
The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and historically also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'', / / ''Eboans'', ''Heebo''; natively ) are an ethnic group found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Their primary origin is found in modern-day Abia State, Abia, Anambra State, Anambra, Ebonyi State, Ebonyi, Enugu State, Enugu, and Imo States, while others can be found in the Niger Delta and along the Cross River. The Igbo people are one of the largest List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups in Africa. The Igbo language is part of the Niger–Congo languages, Niger-Congo language family. Its regional dialects are mutually intelligible amidst the larger "Igboid languages, Igboid" cluster. The Igbo homeland straddles the lower Niger River, east and south of the Edoid languages, Edoid and Idomoid languages, Idomoid groups, and west of the Lower Cross River languages, Ibibioid (Cross River) cluster. Before the period of Colonial Nigeria, British colonial rul ...
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