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West African Highlife Band
West African Highlife Band: Salute to the Highlife Pioneers
by AAJ Staff
Highlife--a music born in West Africa following the collision of New World styles like jazz, calypso, and Cuban music--integrated these approaches with traditional drumming, vocals, and strings. Ghanaian bandleader E.T. Mensah, who is credited with the first real exposition of highlife, took a distinctly jazz-oriented approach with The Tempos. As the music evolved, it tended to move away into guitar-flavored pop.
While the '60s were a nostalgic time for highlife, very few modern groups have managed to get ...
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