Jazz Articles

West African Highlife Band: Salute to the Highlife Pioneers

by AAJ Staff
March 11, 2003

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 ...