HIGHLIFE

Highlife is a musical style that originated in Ghana and Sierra Leone in the early 1920s. Its name is a reference to a European style of dressing-up for an evening of dancing. The musical style draws from local dance rhythms and traditional African music, further brought to life with jazz and swing influences. In its early years, highlife was known by a variety of local names and seldom performed outside Ghana. It was difficult to define exactly what highlife was, since it included sea shanties, and jazz piano and guitar. By the 1930s, highlife encompassed ballroom dance styles for the wealthier classes, while local bands featuring brass, guitars, and other Western instruments played less Westernised music for the middle classes.

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It was during World War II that highlife took on its distinctive sound. Big band jazz ruled the radio airwaves and was played in clubs, bars, and concerts. Ghana’s busy seaport villages were bustling with soldiers and sailors from all over the world who brought with them their musical tastes and influences, introducing jazz and swing to the highlife mix of traditional African music. Accra, Ghana’s capital and largest city, became a hotbed for distinctive highlife styles and artists who would gain worldwide renown. One of the most influential highlife artists in the mid-1940s was Emmanuel Tetteh Mensah, known as E. T. Mensah.

Once known as the “King of Highlife,” E. T. Mensah was born in 1919 in Accra. Mensah was barely out of high school when he formed his first band, the Accra Rhythmic Orchestra. During World War II Mensah worked with Scottish jazz trumpeter Jack Leopard, who inspired Mensah to write highlife arrangements that incorporated jazz and swing influences. In 1948, Mensah joined the popular band The Tempos, and became the band’s leader and arranger during the 1950s. The Tempos became a widely popular highlife act, performing in English as well as in numerous African languages. They took highlife across the borders of West Africa, and on to Europe and the U.S. Highlife reached a high point in the 1950s and the 1960s, with bands like Tempos, Black Beats, Uhurus, and Broadway performing in Ghana, and Bobby Benson, Rex Lawson, Roy Chicago, and Victor Olaiya working in Nigeria. These bands capitalised on the driving rhythms of African contemporary music, coupled with popular jazz and swing styles, in aggressive, highly danceable arrangements. Other leaders in this style were E. K. Nyame Onyina, Kakaiku, and Nana Ampadu’s African Brothers International Band. The African Brothers emerged as major stars in 1967 with their first hit “Ebi Tie Ye.” Bands took the opportunity to speak out on issues of concern to the African people, including civil rights and political oppression. Artists such as Fela Kun were political as well as musical personalities, often incurring the wrath of their countries’ dictatorial regimes.

Ghana’s highlife, Nigeria’s juju, and Zaire’s soukous are among the better-known African styles, aspects of which have influenced Western pop musicians. By the 1970s highlife was perhaps past its peak; juju began to take over in western Nigeria, though highlife was kept alive in eastern Nigeria by artists such as Celestine Ukwu, Osita Osadebe Prince Nico, The Ikengas, and The Oriental Brothers International Band. Even in Ghana, highlife was affected by the disco invasion, though styles continued to be developed by C. K. Mann, the Sweet Talks, and Alex Konadu. E. T. Mensah launched the first of many successful comebacks in the 1970s during a revival in Ghana. Later, in 1986, and from a wheelchair, he began a successful solo world tour following the re-release of his 1950s recordings. Although the influence of highlife can still be heard in modern African styles, by the 1990s highlife bands had almost entirely disappeared from the musical arena.

James Tuverson