Ghana
High-Life & Other Popular Music

Great news, world music fans! Nonesuch records has just begun re-releasing its entire Explorer Series catalog, originally released between 1967 and 1984. Starting with 13 titles covering Africa, and ending 92 titles later in 2005 with its 15 titles devoted to India, all the original field recordings have been remastered. For those just finding out about world music, the CDs in this series also make for a relatively inexpensive introduction to indigenous musics of the world. (And relative short intros, too, it must be said, since the re-issues maintain the original releases’ running times of a little over a half hour. Such was the life an an LP.) School and public libraries interested establishing a world music collection would do well to start here.

Anybody whose current knowledge of world music is limited to current popular music, by Youssour N’Dour, for instance, rather than the traditional music of African countries, might want to start with this volume. Ghana: High-Life and Other Popular Music features Saka Acquaye and his African Ensemble circa 1969, and Western influences on his instrumentation and song structures are clear. (Although the “Western influence” is an ironic one, borrowing as it does from jazz, blues, and calypso—music created by the African Diaspora.)

In additional to original compositions, popular songs and instrumentals, dance numbers and band showcases, Saka Acquaye also adapted a number of traditional songs from different African ethnic groups and regions, updating them for a cosmopolitan, urban audience. The Gonga tribe, Pygmies, and Watusi; the Congo, Kenya, and Ghana—their musics all converge in this eclectic setting. Think of Ellington in the 1930s, when he was combining dance music and art music, and you have an idea of Saka Acquaye’s aspirations as a band leader and composer.

A joyous music, it is aptly named “High-Life,” and this CD serves as a beautiful snapshot of a particular time and place in West African musical history.

—Tom Bowden is the Managing Editor of Tech Directions and serves as Contributing Review Editor to The Education Digest.