Tell me stuff about highlife music

There are lots more, but these are the groups I see compiled the most and their work may be easiest to find. The best general highlife compilation I know is this one which seems to still be available.

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are folks on board with the Nigeria Special comp on Soundway?...it purports to be modern highlife (post 1970), but it sounds pretty classic to me...

It now seems like the words "modern" and "classic" are defined differently by various people. And some folks consider 1970 to 1976 material like this to be both modern and classic. The compilations are discussed a little bit here-

Rolling Sublime Whirled Music 2008 (a catch-all thread when you can't find another one that works)

presumably anyone who cares already knows about this blog, but i still link it every chance i get cuz it's so good. lots of highlife and hiplife stuff on there.

well, Youssou N'Dour et les Etoiles de Dakar is more akin to Senegalese garage punk, if there is such a thing. i love them, but they're mbalax and not guitar-based.
if you can find the oriental brothers international - heavy on the highlife! you will not be disappointed

presumably anyone who cares already knows about this blog, but i still link it every chance i get cuz it's so good. lots of highlife and hiplife stuff on there.

I didn't know about, but I'm very glad to discover it. Thanks!

BTW, that site led me to this one, which looks pretty great, too (veering a bit off-topic here, obv.; sorry about that).

http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=C2DFCE27-A12C-009B-242010E4FE7F3984#comments

The VOA blog is pretty great too

http://ecards.k7-de.com/strut/www/EboTaylor/img/cover.jpg

one of those albums that gets better every single time you play it

A name I've seen, but I don't think I've ever heard him. Will look for this.

his album Conflict got a reissue last year - good stuff (a little jesus'y)

I think so many highlife guys found Jesus that there's a whole gospel highlife market. Read something about this a long time ago...Although it could also be that some of the older musicians aren't making pop-accessible hiplife music, so they've gone where their style of playing can still work.

I need to research this some time

Yeah if u remember what u read on the topic plz let me know

found it:

http://www.afropop.org/wp/11332/john-collins-ghana-then-and-now-part-1/

Traditionally in Ghana, they worship God or their gods on their feet. It’s unknown to actually kneel to worship God. In fact, when you are amongst the Akan, you point upwards, you don’t get on your knees. I mean, if you’re getting on your knees, it means maybe there’s a god under the ground, but it’s not the Supreme God. So they broke away from the Christian churches, these separatist churches, and started using percussion and dancing; actually very much like the Black American churches. Then very recently, about ten years ago, the local churhces started to bring in the guitar bands. So then you have this evolution of gospel music, which is basically a synthesis of gospel, or singing about God, Jesus, and playing highlife and dancing to it. And this came at exactly the same time when the music industry in Ghana was falling to pieces: a military induced economic slump. So the church was becoming a patron for a lot of popular dance-music musicians. So if you want to see a lot of very spiritual live music, go to the churches.

I have a John Collins book and a compilation he put together.

what's the comp called?

haven't found it yet but check this out

http://www.afropop.org/wp/11332/john-collins-ghana-then-and-now-part-1/

this is the best genre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19SLUVaOfCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLGbCkqzkY8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyJur8RdsNQ

i don't really know much beyond the basics... listening to a lot of ebo taylor and soundway - ghana soundz vol. 2. don't know anything about the socio-political or historical context of this music but would like to.

Treesh if you haven't read that John Collins interview i linked upthread it's a good place to start

i've been crazy about highlife too, slowly exploring stuff -- youtube has been the biggest help actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGjzn3gXfT8&list=PLDF1CD2C60749FF60

I can humbly recommend

Solomon Ilori and His Afro-Drum Ensemble - African High Life
Gyedu Blay Ambolley - Simigwa
Ebaahi Soundz - Oye Tsei Lo?
Alhaji K. Frimpong - Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu
Hugh Masekela - Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz
Vis à vis - Obi Agye Me Dofo
and there's that Soundway comp, Nigeria Special from 2008

Was very glad to see Ebo Taylor live last year. He did one of his favourite highlife alone on the guitar at the end of the show as thanks, I have no idea what he played but it was beautiful.

this is great:
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/75137434/Sir+Victor+Uwaifo+Guitar+Boy+Superstar+197076.jpg

oh hell yes, that alhaji album is incredible

Celestine Ukwu hasn't been mentionned yet. A rare case where I'm left with the impression that the music itself is weeping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5hqxFb-LKM

wow, thank you

http://patthomasstrut.bandcamp.com/album/pat-thomas-kwashibu-area-band

circles inside circles

Just saw an interesting interview with Johnny Marr, where he was asked about the the highlife-y guitar in songs such as "This Charming Man," etc. Curiously, he said it was a complete coincidence, that at the time he hadn't heard a note of highlife and just happened to stumble across similar playing strategies independently. That's pretty cool, and I believe him, though of course, he later enlisted his trademark sound in service of more overtly "world" stuff, like "(Nothing But) Flowers" and Kirsty MacColl's "Children of the Revolution."

x-post--A recent Afropop Worldwide email is touting that new Pat Thomas from Ghana highlife album

yeah this is nice

Heard K. Frimpong for the first time yesterday and can't stop listening to this on repeat --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Cft3-NGhg

from Aquarium Drunkard's Year In Review 2022:

Celestine Ukwu—No Condition Is Permanent: A gloaming wonder abounds on this Mississippi Records compilation of Nigerian highlife courtesy of existentialist Celestine Ukwu and his Philosophers National band. A collection of five tracks culled from the group’s spirited 70s discography, the playing here leans into the woozier and more hypnotic side of highlife sounds—the guitars slide waywardly, the horns dip low into tranquil contemplation, and Ukwu’s voice, sometimes appearing sparsely, like an enigmatic philosopher materializing and vanishing into a buoyant, watercolor dream state. Ukwu is said to have create a thinking man’s highlife, and one hopes it takes.

new to me and what a glorious discovery, this is some of the best music I've ever heard. beautiful idiosyncratic early-70s Nigerian (Igbo, very notably) highlife. you don't really need this particular compilation, the four songs in question (as well as many of his others) are widely available on Spotify (and I’m sure elsewhere) in numerous guises as Nigerian releases.

"Okwukwe Na Nchekwube": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8JL_4C7JRs

"Tomorrow Is So Uncertain" (not on this compilation!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUobKLVtpg

Celestine Ukwu hasn't been mentionned yet. A rare case where I'm left with the impression that the music itself is weeping.

― Nabozo, donderdag 30 april 2015 16:49

I do believe this is the track Nabozo posted back then, "Ilo Abu Chi": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Unxu02q0s

We have a friend that lived in Ghana for a while who told us how much she enjoyed highlife music. So I played her some compilation of highlife music, and she basically said lol, what she listened to sounded nothing like what we played her. Made me intrigued!

the comp has the same name as the great track from Marijata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RNXp9NHxmw

true hit!

that Marijata track is great, but apart from the similar title sentiment it doesn’t have much in common with Ukwu (even apart from the fact that they’re Ghanaian, not Nigerian/Igbo). don’t think it even classifies as highlife, sounds like afrobeat to me.

which is also why it’s a weird title for the Ukwu compilation. I guess for some reason they couldn’t or didn’t want to use the “Tomorrow Is So Uncertain” title, which expresses the same sentiment, but is actually a song (and album) of his - a song that’s actually on the (5-, not 4-track) compilation, unlike what I claimed in my earlier post!

again, that new Ukwu compilation is not streamable, but all of his six albums are in fact on Spotify (twice in most cases).
I playlisted them in case anyone’s interested.
the 2022 compilation has one track from the first album (“Onwunwa”), one from the third (“Tomorrow Is So Uncertain”), and three from the fourth (“Ejina Uwa Nya Isi”, “Okwukwe Na Nchekwube” and “Ilo Abu Chi”).

just fyi, if you do want to stream the new comp specifically, it is technically possible via Bandcamp: https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/no-condition-is-permanent

I didn't immediately recognize the name, but I know “Okwukwe Na Nchekwube” from Soundway's Nigeria Special compilation, which I was excited to link you all to as it's wonderful, but it appears to have gone out of print :(

(it is ostensibly on Spotify but with many greyed out tracks: https://open.spotify.com/album/02anNBQ72TFiWjpTcyvkuW)

The Philosophers National is a very good name for a band

Legend Ebo Taylor has passed, age 90

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/feb/09/ebo-taylor-ghanaian-highlife-pioneer-dies-age-90#:~:text=Ghanaian%20musician%20Ebo%20Taylor%2C%20a,A%20colossus%20of%20African%20music.

Happy I saw him live in my town a few years back, in a cellar with 50 people. It was energic and delicate. He played a traditional highlife tune at the end, mostly him alone on guitar.

The groove lives on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z54HkbHg8Ec

Man, I'm deep down the highlife rabbit hole for the foreseeable future. Started out with K. Frimpong and his Cubano Fiestas, then Dr. K. Gyasi and the Noble Kings, and now I'm listening to A.O.E.I.U. by Florence Adooni. So much joy.