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The Rough Guide To Highlife (2003 Album)
''The Rough Guide to Highlife'' is a world music compilation album originally released in 2003. Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, the release covers the Highlife musical genre of Ghana and surrounding countries, focusing on the 1960s and 70s. Graeme Ewens wrote the liner notes, and Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network, was the producer. This album was followed by a second edition in 2012. Critical reception The compilation's release was met with positive reviews. Robert Christgau called it less even than the contemporaneous The Highlife All-Stars album '' Sankofa'' but "eccentric" nonetheless. He went on to name it the twelfth best album of 2003 in the annual '' Pazz & Jop'' poll. Writing for AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year absence from the ''Voice'', each year from 1974 onward. The polls are tabulated from the submitted year-end top 10 lists of hundreds of music critics. It was named in acknowledgement of the defunct magazine ''Jazz & Pop'', and adopted the ratings system used in that publication's annual critics poll. The Pazz & Jop was introduced by ''The Village Voice'' in 1971 as an album-only poll; it was expanded to include votes for singles in 1979. Throughout the years, other minor lists had been elicited from poll respondents for releases such as extended plays, music videos, album re-issues, and compilation albums—all of which were discontinued after only a few years. The Pazz & Jop albums poll uses a points system to formulate list rankings. Part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Darko
George Darko (born 12 January 1951 in Akropong, Ghana) is a Ghanaian burger-highlife musician, guitarist, vocalist, composer and songwriter, who has been on the music scene since the late 1960s. Darko was popular in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and his songs are some of the most timeless and enduring highlife tracks in Ghana's music circles. Some of his contemporaries include Ben Brako, C.K. Mann, Daddy Lumba, Ernest Nana Acheampong, Nana Kwame Ampadu, Pat Thomas, among others. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of burger-highlife with his first hit "Ako Te Brofo" ("The Parrots Speak/Understands English") which was released in 1983. The song remains popular among Ghanaians both at home and abroad, and is still played at funerals and parties. Son of a paramount chief, George Darko was educated at the Presbyterian School at Akropong. After playing for an army band entertaining troops in the Middle East, Darko returned to Ghana and formed the Golden Stool Band. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando Julius Ekemode
Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode, known professionally as Orlando Julius or Orlando Julius Ekemode (22 September 1943 – 14 April 2022) was a Nigerian saxophonist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter closely associated with afrobeat music. Julius began by playing drums or flute with juju and konkoma bands and learned saxophone to play highlife music, eventually playing with musicians Jazz Romero, Rex Williams, and Eddie Okonta. He began experimenting with combining traditional music with horns, guitar, and American genres, a fusion which came to be known as afrobeat. He had his first hits with 1965's "Jagua Nana" and the 1966 album ''Super Afro Soul''. In the 1970s, Julius moved to the United States, forming a band with Hugh Masekela and later working as a session musician before returning to Nigeria in 1984. A series of reissues in the 2000s and 2010s led to international touring and a collaboration with The Heliocentrics which reached the Billboard World Albums chart. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rex Lawson
Rex Jim Lawson (4 March 1938 – 18 January 1971), known as Cardinal Rex, was a singer, trumpeter and bandleader from Buguma, Nigeria. He became one of the best-known highlife musicians of the 1960s in Africa when Cardinal and his band dominated Nigeria's highlife scene. Early life Rex Lawson was born in 1938 in Buguma, Nigeria to a Kalabari chieftain father and an Igbo mother from Owerri. He was given the name Erekeosima which translates to "do not name this one" due to his father's belief that he would not live past infancy. He was the fourth child to his parents, the others having died of illnesses. At a young age, Lawson was afflicted with a severe case of small pox. While his mother brought him to various medicine men outside of Kalabari for treatment, his father feared he would die and lost interest in raising him. Lawson later sued his father for neglect while he was at school. He won the case, but his father cursed him in return, and the two did not communicate with one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Onyina
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European languages, Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership (c.f. Indic ''rājan'', Gothic ''reiks'', and Old Irish ''rí'', etc.). *In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate in Latin as ''rex (king), rex'' and in Greek as ''archon'' or ''basileus''. *In classical European feudalism, the title of ''king'' as the ruler of a ''kingdom'' is understood to be the highest rank in the feudal order, potentially subject, at least nominally, only to an emperor (harking back to the List of Roman client kings, client kings of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire). *In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Olaiya
Victor Abimbola Olaiya , (31 December 1930 – 12 February 2020), also known as Dr Victor Olaiya, was a Nigerian trumpeter who played in the highlife style. Though famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the ''Daily Times'' called him "The Evil Genius of Highlife." Early life Olaiya was born on 31 December 1930, in Calabar, Cross River State, the 20th child of a family of 24. His parents, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo, came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State. Olaiya came from a very rich family. His father's house, Ilọijọs Bar, stood at 2 Bamgbose Street, Lagos Island, until it was demolished in September 2016. Career At an early age he learned to play the bombardon and the French horn. After leaving school he moved to Lagos, where he passed the school certificate examination in 1951 and was accepted by Howard University, US, to study civil engineering. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Konadu
Alex Konadu (1948 – 18 January 2011) was a Ghanaian singer-songwriter and guitarist who was known for his contribution to the Highlife tradition. Konadu sang in the Asante language Twi. He was nicknamed "One Man Thousand" for his ability to draw crowds wherever he appeared, and it is rumored that he performed in every single town and village in Ghana. Konadu's song "Asaase Asa," from the 1976 album by the same name, details a tragedy that befalls a man, killing his wife and sister. The song is dedicated to all those that have lost loved ones, and consequently, it is a "must-play at any Ghanaian funeral". Biography Konadu was born in Adwumakase Kese in the Kwabere No. 3 District of Ashanti in 1948. He was part of the Kantamanto Bosco Group, the Kwabena Akwaboah and then the Happy Brothers Band before he became a solo artist. After watching him rehearse, record producer A. K. Brobbey signed him and organized a band that focused on uptempo Highlife guitar music. Konadu died ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nana Ampadu
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 also known as ''Adwomtofo Nyinaa Hene''. Ampadu was the lead singer, chief songwriter, and founder of the "African Brothers Band". He is regarded as a pioneer of highlife music and one of the most illustrious Ghanaian musicians of the 20th century. Music Ampadu's "African Brothers Band" was formed in 1963. One of the founding members of African Brothers Band was Eddie Donkor. The name was in support of the call by Kwame Nkrumah for African unity. The group was later renamed the African Brothers International Band in 1973. Ampadu came to prominence in 1967 when he released his song ''Ebi Te Yie'' (or "Some Are Well Seated"), a song that was seen as potentially critical of the then-governing National Liberation Council and disappeared from the airwaves, only returning after the end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Uwaifo
Victor Efosa Uwaifo (1 March 1941 – 28 August 2021) was a Nigerian musician, writer, sculptor, and musical instrument inventor, university lecturer, music legend, and the first Honorable Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism in Nigeria. He was the winner of the first gold disc in Africa (Joromi) released in 1965 and seven other gold discs in Guitar boy, Arabade, Ekassa series and Akwete music. He recorded under the name "Victor Uwaifo and His Titibitis". Early life and education Victor Efosa Uwaifo was born in Benin City, Edo State, Colonial Nigeria and obtained his secondary school education at the Western Boys' High School Benin and St Gregory's College, Lagos, from 1957 to 1961. He began playing guitar when he was 12 years old, his earliest popular music influences being records of Spanish and Latin American music. He studied graphics at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State and graduated in 1961–63 at the age of 22 years old. He received a bachelor's degree wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Mensah
Joe Mensah (died 2003) was a Ghanaian singer and musician. Described as a music icon of Ghana, he is one of the progenitors of the highlife music genre and among the more renowned highlife musicians of the 1950s and 1960s. His hit songs include "Bonsue" and "Rokpokpo" from his 1977 album ''The Afrikan Hustle''. Mensah played an essential role in the creation of the Ghana Musicians Union and served as its first president. While in the United States he studied music at the Juilliard School and founded a radio show on WKCR at Columbia University featuring African music, which continues today. References External links Joe Mensah discography Ghanaian highlife musicians 2003 deaths {{Africa-musician-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
