Nigerian and Ghanaian Highlife Mix

Enjoy this lovely mix of classic highlife from Nigeria and Ghana. Included are some of my favorite highlife artists, such as Rex Lawson and Victor Uwaifo. For more highlife or other West African music, check out my Youtube playlists here or here.

All For You, E.T. Mensah and Black Atlantic Musical Currents

A beautiful example of Black Atlantic musical exchange from one of my favorite highlife orchestras, E.T. Mensah & The Tempos. Their song, "All For You," is based on the melody from the Caribbean tune, "Sly Mongoose." In addition to entering the highlife repertoire, "Sly Mongoose" surfaced in US jazz recordings, too, such as this lively rendition from Charlie Parker and Jack Sneed & His Sneezers. Don't forget to hear Lord Invader's take and Sam Manning's.

Some Randy Weston Gems

Robin D.G. Kelley is right, Randy Weston's "Zulu" does indeed sound a little like "Manteca," and nothing at all like South African music. As for "Pam's Waltz," which Kelley states is based on the calypso-styled quadrilles of the West Indies, and is quite delightful. Weston's music is so darn heterogeneous, there's always something for someone to love. The product of Jamaican immigration, Garveyism, calypso, folk, African, Caribbean, Latin, North African, and African-American traditions, Weston's music is cosmpolitan and pan-Africanist to an incomparable degree. I highly recommend "Niger Mambo" for a look at how Weston has been influence by highlife as well as Latin music.

Isoboye, Oko, Merengue Scoubidou, and Merengue

Listening to beautiful, jazzy and happy highlife from Nigerian master Cardinal Rex is very relaxing. Check out "Isoboye," and see the great debt West African highlife owes to Caribbean music. However, what I've loved about so much of the highlife of the 1950s-1970s of Ghana and Nigeria is the jazziness of the music and the uniquely West African percussion solos that are quite melodic and irresistibly get your feet moving. I have no idea what the song is about, and though I am not overly fond of the vocals on this track, the light, breezy atmosphere of this piece, really built around the guitar, is unforgettable. 

"Oko" is even better because of more frequent horn contributions to the song. Moreover, it's supposedly a 'merengue' or at least inspired by Caribbean merengue. Like "Merengue Scoubidou" by African Jazz, it shows how other non-Cuban forms of Caribbean music were consumed in West and Central Africa, the very homeland of Afro-Caribbean music! Listen to that guitar! Pure and not contaminated with so much distortion common in rock or metal. Oh, listen to "Merengue Scoubidou" by African Jazz and just try to tell me that Dr. Nico's deceptively simple guitar lines and solo don't uplift your soul! The Ry-Co Jazz version ain't bad at all!

While you're listening to the above, don't forget about "Merengue" by Franco & OK Jazz. Like so much Congolese 'rumba,' it sounds much more like Cuban son than Dominican merengue, though I believe Franco, if he was like Dr. Nico, the guitar sounded somewhat like merengue music to them. Franco's early music from this period and the 1960s is undoubtedly better than his later soukous music and most contemporary Congolese music I have heard. 

Cuban-Nigerian Musical Exchanges: Fela Kuti and Beny Moré

Cuban legend of 1950s music, Beny Moré, recorded "Babarabatiri," a song meant to evoke Cuba's African musical and cultural heritage, also covered by Tito Puente. The horn line sounds very similar to a particular Fela Kuti song from his afrobeat, period, "Shakara," which has a remarkably similar horn line. It's very likely a coincidence, but given the considerable influence of Cuban son, mambo, and son montuno in West Africa, I wouldn't be surprised if Fela Kuti had perhaps heard of Beny Moré and, consciously or unconsciously, borrowed the rhythmic horn line (later played on guitar throughout the song). Who knows, perhaps I am just being overly imaginative...you tell me what you think?             

Solomon Ilori's African Highlife

Solomon Ilori’s African High Life

A Blue Note record from the early 1960s and early ‘worldbeat’ or ‘world music’ fused with jazz, it is a sometimes cute, high-life record with some amazing Afro-Jazz bonus tracks. As a fan of highlife, I must admit that the highlife from West African bands in Nigeria and Ghana were much better than this, such as E.T. Mensha’s band, or Fela Kuti’s Kola Lobitos. Nevertheless, some of the songs come out quite well, such as “Tolani,” featuring a competent drum choir, Ilori singing (presumably in Yoruba?), talking drum, melodic drumming solos reminiscent of some of my favorite highlife, and what sounds like a band having fun in the studio. “Tolani (African Love Song)” is presumably a love song, and although I have no idea what Ilori is saying, compared to some of the other ‘highlife’ material on the album, is quite good. The saxophone solo, far from Fela Kuti, is okay and one can tell the musician is trying to sound like a highlife soloist. His solo is ‘cute,’ “African-like,” melodic, and, at times, sounding like Eastern-inflected avant-garde with some dissonances. “Ise Oluwa,” the next track, is a Yoruba hymn to God and reflects Christianization and missionary activity in 19^th century Yorubaland. It has a very simple melody and at over 5 minutes, is a little too long, but nice for cultural value and some perspective on Yoruba religious music. But there is very little to it that is ‘jazzy,’ but Ilori does play a pennywhistle, very easy on one’s ears. 

 

As for “Follow Me to Africa,” one hears that 6/8 ubiquitious rhythm and drum and pennywhistle solos, but, ultimately, the song gets old quickly because of its uninteresting theme and repetitiveness. The drum solo gets things moving again, but otherwise, it’s a piece of ‘exotica’ that unfortunately bores. Fortunately, the more ‘highlife’-sounding “Yaba E” is adorable, Caribbean-inflected (highlife is partly shaped by calypso and Cuban son), and features nice marimba and saxophone, sounding almost like something one could hear in Haiti or Trinidad. The lyrics also work here, too, with great band accompaniment to the likely Yoruba lyrics. In addition, the chorus and back-up vocals make it a celebratory, communal effort with catchy rhythms and appropriate use of the marimba or xylophone. The saxophone solo is a work of art, a mixture of bebop and highlife. “Jojolo” also has that community-oriented, Caribbean-driven beat and marimba or xylophone. The lyrical and clean guitar sounds like something straight out of Cuba or the Congo with some American influence, and the singers and percussionists give life to the guitarist and horn section. Although definitely not ‘jazz’ per se, but quite beautiful in its own ways with playful and often simple improvisation and appropriate call and response vocals, especially on the parts of the guitarist and saxophonist, the latter hinting at Middle Eastern or North African themes in his solo at one point before giving over to the drummers. One feels like this could be at a venue in Lagos or Accra in the 1950s or 1960s, and something I very much enjoy. The last track on the album before the entirely jazz bonus tracks, “Aiye Le,” also features vocals, and an easy, deceptively simple guitar accompaniment. Eventually, back-up vocalists join in and Ilori is not alone. Fortunately, the song is less than 4 minutes, because it becomes monotonous rather quickly. 

 

“Gbogbo Omo Ibile” is the first of where things become interesting. In a jazz band with Ilori’s drummers (I think McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones may have a part in this, it definitely sounds like it), the band does indeed sound like it is going home, home to Africa. The melody seemingly quotes from “Wade in the Water,” a famous Negro spiritual, and the percussionist, especially the talking drum, add in a wave-lake texture to the piece, so the jazz band, through their percussionist accompanists, wading across the water to the land of our ancestors. The soloists here are firmly rooted in jazz, too, the saxophonist sounding bop-oriented and refined, while a brilliant jazz drummer plays in time with the African drum ensemble to give structure to the turns and shapes conjured by the sax. At times, it almost sounds like it’s trying to break free of the confines of the polyrhythmic jam, until the trumpeter’s solo asserts his presence with extended notes or shouts. To me, he sounds like Freddie Hubbard, possessing his vigor and firm breaths of joy infusing the trumpet. The pianist keeps things funky with some well-chosen chords until the drummer, sounding like Jones, solos with the drum choir. He adeptly takes advantage of the bass and larger drums, pounding and hammering, as if he is drumming for his life to ‘wade in the water.’ One of the drummers, likely Ilori, gets in on the fun, too, speaking through his hand percussion while the jazz drummer swings and, with precise, fast hands, shows the beauty, complexity, and dexterity in West African percussionists, responding to his own rhythms while the song keeps swinging.

“Agbamurero” takes the jazz band and drum choir on a more “African” route, with cowbell, call and response chants, and prominent piano. “Agbamurero” apparently alludes to the rhino, and the composition’s force, strengthened by the drum choir and chants and the ‘drum-like’ piano pounding, could easily evoke a rhino stomping through the savannah. Then the pianist and trumpet take over, exerting a more blues-rooted style that comes out as funk that somehow meshes well, particularly during the trumpeter’s ‘fully’ jazz solo. He breathes in long gasps of blues and soul, stretching the notes to form a river of aural funk on the polyrhythmic waves from the band, especially with additional help from the pianist. Thus, what we have here is a seamless fusion of hard bop with thunderous West African drumming, and a flute or pennywhistle solo that is also jazz-rooted. The drum solo here is also quite nice, and similar to some highlife band’s drum solos, though those are also highly influenced by jazz in addition to West African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. But here everything succeeds, the cowbell, the jazz drumset, hand percussion, each contributes to something great than the sum of all its parts. Ilori and the jazz drummer play call and response, too, each one soloing and playing in tandem.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. “Igbesi Aiye,” translated as “Song of Praise to God,” is a spiritual, jazz poem for God. Like “Gbogbo Omo Ibile,” brilliant trumpet improvisation with religiously fervent piano accompaniment contributes to an ethos of divine tribute. The trumpeter, blowing away, sounds like someone chanting for God in a Yoruba ceremony, as in “Ise Oluwa,” while the saxophonist also plays in a relaxed style but with utmost gravity, bop-like at times, while holding the notes at times for exhortations. Whoever the flautist is, they perform superbly, invoking God(s) as the trumpeter did, and, for a lack of terms, calling the spirits as if located in the deep recesses of the forest. The drummer, likely Ilori, plays his drum melodically, in response to the vamp that the entire song is built on, showing off his chops at “praising God,” since no deity could avoid the infectious rhythms here. The essential cowbell rhythm, forming part of the clave and basic component of much Afro-Caribbean music, is appropriately used in this quasi-religious spiritual. For any fan of Blue Note’s “experimental” releases with “African” music, this is a must-hear. Indeed, much better than Art BLakey’s “worldbeat” releases of percussion-oriented travels in Caribbean and African music, two of the tracks, “Jojolo,” and “Yaba E,” as well as the three jazz bonus tracks, indicate fascinating, Afro-Jazz. On the strength of the last bonus tracks, with their jazz bass, West African percussion, and attention to blues, modal jazz, as well as African music forms, this is a five star release. Any fan of jazz, especially the type of jazz that was becoming en vogue in the early 1960s, such as the universal spiritualism of Coltrane’s music, fusing African and Asian spiritualties and musical influences, must listen.

Sawa Sawa Sawale

The best part about this Ethiopian remix of a Nigerian hip-hop song based on Cardinal Rex's "Sawale" is that it's ultimate origins lie in Cuba. "The Peanut Vendor" or "El Manicero," a Cuban classic from the early 20th century features the exact same rhythm and similar guajeo. Thus, an old Cuban song with Afro-Cuban rhythms traveled across the Atlantic and influenced Nigerian highlife musician Cardinal Rex's "Sawale" from the 1960s, which is one of my all-time favorite West African songs. If this does not exemplify the broader Black Atlantic world of music transculturation, I do not know what else does. The African diaspora from Cuba and the Caribbean's music returns to the source, West and Central Africa, and then spread to Ethiopia and other regions of the continent. Cuban son, rumba, beguine from Martinique, Haitian kompas, American funk and soul, and jazz have transformed the music of a continent. Listen to a mambo-era recording of "El Manicero" by a Cuban here.

Also, "El Manicero" has been used for other West African highlife musicians, too, such as this one.

Amazing World of "World" Music

An incomplete playlist of Jamaican rocksteady, reggae, and ska music with some Jamaican-influenced songs from the US and UK. Worth listening to here.

A West African music playlist including Afrobeat, highlife, folk music, mbalax, and other genres from Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, and Mali. Enjoy!

An Art Blakey playlist, also incomplete, but a good start. Listen!

Rough start on a John Coltrane playlist here.

Brazilian playlists galore! I have 3 different playlists encompassing MPB, samba, bossa nova, jazz, and a few other genres, such as baiao.
Check them out here, here, here, and here.

A Blues playlist here

A playlist including Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions, and other Chicago soul artists here

A Soul/R&B playlist also worth checking out

Congolese rumba 

Latin Jazz

Boogaloo/Latin Soul including many of the best Nuyorican artists of the genre's zenith in the 1960s

Miriam Makeba, South African kwela, marabi, and jazz included here

Hip-hop playlist as well