Jazz Articles about Steven Smith

About Steven Smith

Album Review

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley & Hi-life Jazz

Read "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley & Hi-life Jazz" reviewed by Peter Jones

by Peter Jones
December 29, 2022

This is reportedly the 35th album from Ghanaian singer/rapper/tenor saxophonist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. But although he has toured Europe and the US extensively, he remains relatively unknown in what we call “the West." It is a situation that ought to change, and if there was any justice in the world, this is the album that would do it. Ambolley is a leading modern exponent of high-life (or hi-life) jazz, a genre that grew out of the so-called “palm wine" ...

Album Review

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley And Hi-Life Jazz

Read "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley And Hi-Life Jazz" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 7, 2022

In the beginning, that is to say the 1950s and 1960s, there were two main strands of highlife, Ghana's national dance music. One was rural based, played by ensembles using acoustic guitars and traditional percussion instruments. The other was urban based, played by bands using kit drums as well as traditional percussion, and with large horn sections modelled on American swing orchestras; the style was dubbed “dance band highlife." In the 1970s, as electric guitars became commonplace in ...

Album Review

Horace Tapscott with the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra: Ancestral Echoes – The Covina Sessions, 1976

Read "Ancestral Echoes – The Covina Sessions, 1976" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 1, 2020

When pianist/composer/conductor Horace Tapscott founded the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra (PAPA) in 1961, it was by design a support collective for all arts, bringing pride to the black community, specifically that of South-Central Los Angeles. PAPA signified social activism, teaching empowerment, and advocating Tapscott's belief that channeling African ancestral roots was a key to succeeding. Tapscott, who died in 1999, had forsaken wider recognition to bring music and teaching to his community, but his catalog has seen a revived interest ...