Highlife Music

Highlife Music

Highlife is a popular genre of music that hails its roots from the West African country of Ghana. It uses melodic and main rhythmic structures heard in traditional Akan music. Highlife created at the turn of the 20th century, in coastal cities such as Accra and Cape Coast. Highlife initially started as a fusion of traditional palm wine music with colonial sounds and instruments brought over from the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Portugal. combining elements such as British brass music, English sea chanteys, West Indian calypso along with which across finger picking style, this gave rise to a genre of music called palm wine music known locally as (Maringa). However, it is said that the song “Yaa Amponsah” (composed in 1919) by Kwame Asare (also known as Jacob Sam) and his Kumasi Trio created the blueprint for the genre by modifying the palm wine sound, he did this by supplementing the guitar section with a rhythm accompaniment (he added drums and percussion).

Pre-WW2 highlife music was commonly played at high social gatherings for the wealthy elite in Ghana. These gatherings usually consisted of Ghanaian musicians playing Western instruments to create ballroom dancing music such as Waltzes, Foxtrots, Quicksteps, and Ragtime. Lower class onlookers who gathered outside these venues would hear the music being played and would term these events as “highlife” (a derisive characterization of the African elite) giving birth to the genre's name. This changed in a colonial free post-WW2 Ghana, mainly thanks to the music of E.T. Mensah (labelled the “King of Highlife”) and his Tempos Band from Accra. He started to move away from the traditional orchestral set up and sound heard in pre-war Highlife music to a jazz combo set-up and started to include elements that helped eradicate “Highlife’s” elitist meaning for example lyrics were now sung in local Ghanaian languages instead of English, they introduced new percussion instruments such as bell, rattles, claves whilst fusing traditional Ghanaian music with Caribbean Calypso. In the 60s and 70s Highlife would move away from the big band/jazz set up and go back to the guitar led highlife music that was played during Palm wine era at the begging of the century.

A typical modern Highlife ensemble includes a percussion section involving instruments such as a basic drum kit, the drummer will usually play a steady, regular beat whilst being accompanied by rattles, hand drums (this is usually played in an improvised fashion) and Ghanaian bells (this is played in a structured way). There is also large Guitar presence during a performance, up to 3 guitars are usually played along with keyboard instruments, such as organs, or more recently common, synthesisers.

Some of the musical characteristics’ which inhabit the Highlife genre include, its use of the flattened seventh note (7♭), as it tends to use the common diatonic scale for its melodic lines, and its use of the subtonic (VII♭) to dominant seventh (V7) cadence as way of resolving to the tonic chord (I). This is played due to the genre’s influence of jazz music and its links to traditional Akan singing, where the ‘blues note’ is commonly played. The lead guitarist will usually perform a melody on top of a harmonically basic chord progression that tends to loop throughout the duration of the song. The vocal melody in highlife is usually sung based on the guitar riff of the song. Guitarists will often play interlocking melodic lines if two guitars or more are being used, and this is performed using a Flatpicking technique. The guitarist will tend to play arpeggiated chords that are based off guajeo, (an Afro-Cuban genre of music) barring any elaboration or improvisations throughout the piece. The rhythm of the guitar will also commonly be played around a 3/4, 4/4, or 6/8-time signature, matching the clave motif that’s often played throughout a song’s duration.

Another trait of highlife is its use of call and response singing which involves the lead singer phrasing melodic belts to his group members, who respond in harmonious singing. This will usually be alternate between long solo sections that are often improvised by the lead singer; and group singers who will usually re-enter the song simultaneously with the lead singer, to emphasise the story or moral of the song. The lyrics of a Highlife song will typically be presented as a story that forefronts various morals and lessons in life. The main language that is used during a highlife performance is called Asante Twi (which is the common language used in southern Ghana). However, highlife is occasionally sung in languages such as Ga, Ewe and English.

Highlife music has a prominent following in Luton due to the high African community living in the town (4.5% of the town’s population are ‘black African’ and 0.5% are ‘mixed’ African). Gospel variations of Highlife can be heard being played at ceremonial functions such as Weddings and Birthdays, featuring musicians such as Wale Adebanjo and The Salters. Highlife is also played at social functions and gatherings such as ones organised by the Ghana Society Luton. Highlife also plays a prominent part at the Luton Carnival (Europe’s largest one-day carnival) where its music is featured heavily due to the large presence of Afro-Caribbean/African people in attendance (large gatherings of people from neighbouring towns and cities such as London attend due to the popularity of the carnival).

A picture of the Highlife Legend, Pat Thomas performing with the Davison Band at the annual Kente Dinner Dance, hosted by the Ghana Society in Luton.

This picture shows the band, ‘Wale Adebanjo & The Salters’ performing at dinner event which was called ‘Highlife Time’ and was hosted by the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN UK)

Another picture of the band, ‘Wale Adebanjo & The Salters’ that was taken during a wedding reception party in Luton.


Recommended Watching

Highlife Music






Further Reading

Statistics


History of Ghanian Highlife Music

Highlife Music

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

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