Archive Recording Reviews
Title: Giants of Ghanaian danceband highlife,
1950s-1970s sound recording / [performed by] Tempos, Ramblers,
Uhuru.
Published/distributed: Tivoli, NY : Original Music, p1990.
Publisher number: OMCD011 Original Music
Physical description: 1 sound disc : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Archive ID #: ARCD 45
This recording chronicles the "glory years"
of three of highlife's most well known bands: the Tempos, the
Ramblers, and Professional Uhuru. The glory years of highlife
began in the late 50s and ended around the late 70s. Like the
name, highlife revolved around living the good life. When highlife
first became popular, it was the African returnees from the
Americas and Caribbean along with World War II soldiers who
lived the proverbial highlife. In some of the early clubs, there
was a dress code requiring top hats and evening gowns, which
helped to give rise to the moniker. To put it generally, highlife
is a highly danceable music style that started out with elitist
connotations that eventually climbed its way to the top of African
popular music.
Highlife's musical development is coupled both
with indigenous African street music as well as the elements
of the repatriated Africans' repertoire. During the 40s and
50s there was an influx of western soldiers who, wanting some
swing style music, worked side by side with native people because
many Africans had actually heard big band type orchestra's before.
However, highlife in the 60s was more dependent on the incorporation
of a jazzy element than on the use of the guitar or the big
band sound. In a telling sign, the death of highlife came from
the "international" connotations that it had, for
highlife was the local version of an international dance style.
For a time, there was nothing more uncool than music with the
taint of "internationalism," and very few bands that
had this sound survived into the 1980s.
The first band on this recording is E.T. Mensah
and the Tempos. E.T. Mensah was born in 1919 and was taught
how to play alto sax and the swing styles by a Scotsman. The
most notable aspect of the Tempos' playing style was the opposing
musical philosophy within the group. In the song, "Yei
Ngebewoh," you can hear the sweet sound of the trumpets
and guitar counter to the harsh drum and rhythm of Guy Warren.
Guy Warren, the drummer of the Tempos, wanted to have a bebop
feel to the music while Mensah was going for a much softer tone.
The bebop style has a notably harsher and austere sound. This
song contains many Western brass instruments, which adds to
the softer tonality of the song. It is ironic that it was the
conflict of musical philosophers that gave the Tempos their
unique sound, which eventually drove them apart. Another interesting
aspect of the Tempos' music is the use of English, or Pidgin
English. On the song "School Girl," English is used
almost exclusively. It seems that the vocals revolve around
Western patterns, giving the song a very Western feel.
The second band, the Ramblers International Dance
Band, is the largest on the recording with a total of 15 instruments.
The leader of the band was an African national by the name Jerry
Hansen who played the tenor sax. Because of the size of the
band, it had the potential to sound very full and almost overwhelm
the listener. This fullness was, however, countered by the fact
the band's sound was able to remain driving and simple throughout
most of its songs. This is definitely the case with "Nmere
Dan Biribi Ara." I felt that this band had a Latin or Caribbean
influenced sound that was achieved through the horn section.
Most of the band's songs were mellow, not exactly what you would
expect of a 15-piece band. In fact, the song "Ntoboase"
is a good example of this. It has a laid-back swing feel while
retaining a tightness that belies the size of the band. Notably,
the Ramblers survived until the 1980s, a feat that escaped the
majority of other highlife bands.
The third band on the recording was Professional
Uhuru, which was created out of the Broadway Dance Band, a pre-existing
band already popular in Africa. The band switched styles and
jumped into highlife in Ghana and remained one of country's
most popular bands for quite some time. This band heavily incorporated
various Afro-Cuban influences. An example of this is the song
"Medzi Me Sigya." The songs have a large degree of
fluidity built in; the horn section seems to shimmer more than
shout. There is a predominance of brass and wind instruments
in the melodic section, while drums and congos fill out the
rhythm section. The singing style is shorter and more repetitive
than some of the other bands. Also, the trumpet took the majority
of the solos.
One critique of this album lies in the fact that
it does not do a good job showing the transition and evolution
of highlife as a musical entity. Certainly highlife styles changed,
from the original swing or big band feel, to the eventual incorporation
of Afro-Cuban elements.
Because this recording was of very high quality,
it sounded like it was made in a studio. I thought that the
recording achieved a clarity that was great. On the quality
side, I really had no complaints. However, I did find it a little
odd that the album had about twice as many recordings of Professional
Uhuru than the other bands. It was probably simply due to the
fact that there were not other recordings of the other bands
available. But, if that had been the case, I think it would
have been beneficial to have added a fourth band instead of
creating a compact disc that is half one band and one half two
others. It places a disproportionate amount of importance on
that one band. Aside from that I thought the album was very
well done and highly recommend it.
Reviewed by Patrick Doust (Winter 2005)
Title: The JVC video anthology of world
music and dance [videorecording] : Middle East & Africa
II : Egypt/Tunisia/Morocco/Mali/Cameroon/Zaire/Tanzania / producer,
ICHIKAWA Katsumori.
Published/distributed: Tokyo : JVC, Victor Company of Japan
[production company], 1988 ; Cambridge, MA : Rounder Records
[distributor], [1990]. Physical description: 1 videocassette
(56 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. + 2 guides.
Series: JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance ; vol.
17.
Archive ID #: ARVT 73
The JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance:
Middle East and Africa II is an eclectic sampling of music and
dance culture found on the African continent. Music and dance
are often inseparable, and the twenty-two clips spanning the
area between Morocco and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) provide an excellent introduction to the instruments and
dance styles utilized by various ethnic and cultural groups.
The video features Arab North Africa in the first half, covering
Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, and transitions to Sub-Saharan
Africa and the areas of Mali, Cameroon, DRC, and Tanzania in
the second.
The first clip from 1989 introduces the audience
to the popular music of Egypt. "Ana gamlak ya kol Iraqi"
is a song expressing support for Iraq. A chorus of oud players
accompanies the qanun, a zither-like trapezoidal box. The song
is lush and melodic, featuring a lead male vocal and a theater
style-setting with a raised platform for the performers.
Two video clips from Tunisia highlight the Bedouin
tradition and the classical music found in the desert Arab nation.
Bedouin musicians on the darabukkah (hourglass shaped drum),
zither, and violin accompany a woman dancing. The woman's hips
sway to the beat, her long and loose garment gathered around
her waist as she sashays across the room. The video cuts between
footage of the musicians and the coffee and hospitality they
are sharing. The second clip, titled "Ma'luf" features
Andalusian-influenced music. "Ma'luf" was brought
by the Moors to North Africa and by Arabs themselves through
conquest in the 7th Century. "Ma'luf" is an example
of classical music, incorporating drums beaten with mallets,
the nay (a reed flute), tambourine and oud. Men wearing suits
sing in the chorus in a melismatic style. Footage of a Tunisian
village is interspersed; the whitewashed buildings accented
with blue windowpanes and painted blue balconies. People in
headscarves mingle and shop, a quite idyllic picture of Tunisian
life.
The musical journey arrives next to Morocco, with
a comprehensive overview of musical and cultural groups. The
Berbers, natives of the region, are featured in two clips. They
incorporate hand clapping with chanting and a heavy beat provided
by the tar and large drums. Women in beaded bright color costumes
wear zig zag collars and earrings. In lengthy ritual performances
such as these, where a trance is sometimes induced, the women
shout randomly. Berber street musicians are also featured, playing
chordophones like the rababah that utilizes a string attached
to a stretched membrane and played with a bow.
The Moroccan Gnawa group is also featured, an
ethnic group that migrated from West Africa to the North. In
the clip "Iwana," their complex and intricate dance-style
is featured. Men perform synchronized dances, spin, jump up
and down on their feet with their knees bent, and kick their
legs out. One of the lead dancers demonstrates a move where
he jumps up in the air and bends his knees as he lowers his
head and keeps his arms straight. The dancers achieve an almost
break dance-like fury, with a crowd of impressed observers.
The two classical music clips from Morocco exemplify
the diversity found. The first clip, titled "Prelude to
Sunset," features a full and polyphonic texture and an
all male band dressed in white playing the oud, nay, violin,
tambourine, hand drumming, with no vocal accompaniment. The
melismatic singing and a close relationship between the vocal
and instrumental parts can also characterize classical music
of Morocco. In the clip, "Imd yazn," the instrumental
parts provided by the rebabah echo the melody of the singer.
The video's trip to Morocco ends with a highlight-the video
takes us to the Jema el Funa plaza in Marrakech. We are overwhelmed
by the sights of the open-air market, the tent stalls, hand
drumming, gymnastics, cartwheel-back flips, snake charmers,
monkeys, dance teams, magicians, and scorpions that populate
the plaza.
Next the video shows other parts of Africa and
the extraordinary diversity found there. The decision to dwell
extensively on the Fulbe people of West Africa highlights the
many styles of music found just in one region. The journey South
begins with a stop in Mali where we see the "Masked Dance
of the Dogon" performed by the Dogon people living in the
village Sangha in the mountains. The incredible footage captures
the brightly colored red and yellow straw skirts and armbands
worn by the Dogon. Large woven masks hide the faces of the dancers,
who integrate arm movements with head turns in unison. Stilt
walkers congregate in the middle of the ceremony as people carrying
puppets walk by and a man with a large metal protrusion from
his head bows low to the ground.
The Fulbe people of Cameroon are featured in a
variety of settings. They are a large ethnic group, comprising
some 15 million people spread over the areas of Senegal, Mali,
Nigeria, and Cameroon. They practice Islam and while some groups
depend on agriculture and cattle, others are strictly nomadic.
We see a praise a song to King Lisa, where griots (professional
musicians) are led by the main sanai player (wind instrument)
leader. We can hear the microtonal Arab influences in the way
the sanai, an aerophone is played.
The video delivers us next to two performances
featuring the sanza and the balafon, respectively. An important
regional instrument, the sanza is a thumb piano or lamellophone
that is made from a wood block with keys made of bamboo. In
the example, two sanzas accompany one vocal part, and the effect
is light and airy. The xylophone, another important regional
instrument, is also given its due credit. In a xylophone performance
at the Ngawadere palace, the large instruments are attached
to strings so they can be worn around the neck. The xylophone
performers play different parts, achieving a polyphonic sound,
and are accompanied by musicians on the long drum (tori) and
short drum (maadan).
The next three clips present the buusaw, garayya,
and calabash, three instruments from West Africa. The "buusaw"
clip features the instrument of the same name, a trumpet fashioned
out of an animal horn. The clip of the bowed lute (known as
goge in most parts the Central Sudan but is here referred to
as garayya) features a performance in Dargala. Lizard skin is
stretched over a gourd, and the attached strings are played
with a bow. Perhaps most interesting however is the accompanying
calabash, a hollowed out gourd scraped over a stick while being
tapped and shuffled along the sand. Part scraper, part resonator,
the calabash can be played solo as a muted drum beat as in the
"Dummbo" clip or can be played by many people in a
chorus as in bowed lute clip.
The video makes one last stop with the Fulbe people
to feature their tradition of minstrel poets. We hear minstrel
poets from Maroua and Dargala, and the "Cowherd's Song
of Bagotoun." The minstrel poets sing-speak in a melismatic
tone, with occasional responses from accompanying minstrels.
They perform poems about social issues or epic legends written
in meter to respectful crowds of listeners. A particular kind
of poem is the "daacol" a cow herding song that poets
receive money for when they include the names of patrons.
The last two stops on our journey of the African
continent take us to two ritual performances in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. The Mbuti people of
DRC perform the "Dance of the Bambuti" with leaves
around their waists and on their head. They shuffle in a circle
counter-clockwise to a drumbeat. In Eastern Africa, the Masai
of Tanzania are featured in a ritual of the young adult men
of the warrior class. The Masai are completely dependent on
their livestock and do absolutely no farming. The men practice
their vertical jumps, sometimes achieving incredible lifts of
30 to 40 centimeters. Onlookers elaborately decorated in collars
and earrings observe them. Providing a poignant conclusion to
the video, we are ultimately left with a sense of appreciation
for the varied musical traditions of Africa.
Reviewed by Mary Inadomi (Winter 2005)
