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Katamanto Highlife Orchestra
Katamanto Highlife Orchestra

Album DK 2004 on Katamanto Music label
World (African, Highlife)

Subtitle: Do Something Before You Die Highlife music from Ghana Produced by Katamanto Music KHO 011 NCB Booklet 6 pages REVIEW OF KATAMANTO HIGHLIFE ORCHESTRA CD The CD is a an excellent and up-tempo re-working of a wide selection of Ghanaian highlife styles. Two of the songs are based on a fusion of highlife and Ga traditional music called ‘Ga cultural music’ that emerged in the early 1970’s in Accra, pioneered by Wulomei led by Nii Ashitey. Indeed track four KK (K.K. I’m dying, don’t you know me after all these years) is a song by Nii Ashitey. Another Ga song is the title track ‘Maafio’ about a boy who has offended his aunt. This was a very popular song released by the Ga cultural group Blemabii, managed by Nii Diamond, Addy, in the mid 1970’s Tracks Two is by Kofi Sammy who was leading the famous Okukuseku’s guitar band from the 1960’s. In the late 1970’s he and his band stayed in eastern Nigeria and the track ‘Why DoYou Run’ is influenced by the Pidgin English highlife songs popular in the Igbo areas of Nigeria. Many Ghanaian highlifes musicians spent time in Nigeria from the late 1970’s to 1983 due to collapse of the Ghanaian music industry at that time - and so Pidgin English highlifes subsequently popular with Ghanaian highlife musicians: another example on the CD is ‘ Fine Fine Women’ by Big Boy Dansoh Track Tree ‘Mahunamu’ is another highlife song by Kofi Sammy, but this one is sung in Fanti (it complains about gossips) and utilizes a traditional Akan 6/8 rhythm . Track Six ‘Won Gyae’ (again complaining about gossipers) is by the Western Diamonds, a big band highlife band that was formed in the 1980’s in Takoradi and boasted amongst its early members the singer Papa Yankson and guitarist C.K.Mann The Last two tracks by a musician called Kwame Nkrumah are highlifes that have been influenced by the Congolese version Afro-Cuban rhythms (Congo Jazz or Soukous) introduced to Ghana from the 1960’s through records. ‘Money Palava’ is a highlife with a rumba infusion, whilst ‘Don’t Do Me So’ has a Afro-Cuban Pachanga feel. This last song is the most relaxed of the album and is interesting in that the singer occasionally diverts to an old Libarian proto-highlife song called ‘Friday Night I Give You Dollar’ that was introduced to Ghana around 1900 by visiting Kroo seamen guitarists from Liberia. All in all an enjoyable and danceable musical journey into various styles of Ghanaian highlife John Collins DEc 04 ACCRA

Musicians

	Katamanto Highlife Orchestra , album by
	Kristoffer J. Rosing-Schow sax, fl, alto saxophone
	Niels Oldin bs, as, sax, alto saxophone
	Sellasie Dewornu cwb, cng, djm, congas, djembe, bells, calabash
	Gert Østergaard Pedersen dr, drums
	Søren Norsell eb, electric bass
	Preben Carlsen eg, electric guitar
	Frank Bøgestrøm voc, eg, g, electric guitar, vocals
	Jesper Holm ts, tenor saxophone
	Anders Juhl Nielsen tr, trumpet
	Collins Woode Mensah cwb, voc, vocals, bells
	Rikke Lie Flensburg perc, voc, vocals, percussion

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