Photo courtesy of Forced Exposure Records.
GHANA SPECIAL Soundway documents Ghanaian highlife’s roots
“By 1957, my guitar solos were being whistled around the
country,” Ebo Taylor boasts as he reminisces on his successes
during the early years of highlife. It’s true, by the time he was
twenty years old, Taylor could already be considered a seasoned highlife guitarist. No doubt growing up in Cape Coast
gave him an edge; coastal Ghanaian musicians drew from a
rich lineage of palm-wine guitar, a distinct blues-like folk music that gets its name from the special palm beverage often
served at musical gatherings. But Taylor’s talents were exceptional. By 1957—the year Ghana gained its independence
from British colonial rule—he had already toured the country’s dance-band circuit, an honor usually afforded to only the
most affluent Ghanaians or the most talented and seasoned
musicians. Taylor’s guitar playing also earned him a spot touring West Africa with the Havana Dance Band, making him a
regional star.
Much to his parents’ dismay—they hoped he’d become
something respectable like a doctor—Taylor knew he was a
good guitar player and chose musicianship as a career. His talent rose to symbolic ranks because of his country’s historical
timeline. Ghana was navigating the hazards of sovereignty,
its people struggling with their new identity—trying to reconcile the vestiges of colonialism with its responsibilities as
the shining star of West African freedom—and highlife music
became an important symbol of cultural unity. Highlife, a
special brew with equal parts big-band jazz horns, Ghanaian palm-wine guitar riffs, Caribbean calypso rhythms, and
traditional African percussion, represented Ghana’s heritage.
Music’s significant cultural role during the uncertain years of
Ghana’s youth was not lost on Ghana’s first president, Kwame
Nkrumah, who sent Taylor and many other gifted Ghanaian
musicians to London music schools on prestigious national
scholarships. “It was in London that I learned more about
arrangement and composition, and I was exposed to American arrangers like Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller,” Taylor
explains. His years at London’s Eric Gilder School of Music
32
would refine his talents and transform him into a skilled musician, writer, and composer.
Taylor is one of many prolific highlife musicians featured
on Soundway Records’ latest release, Ghana Special: Modern
Highlife, Afro-Sounds, and Ghanaian Blues 1968–81, which
delivers thirty-three gems from Ghanaian highlife’s golden
years. It was during this period that both Taylor’s career and
highlife music took shape. Returning from London in 1968,
Taylor quickly became one of the most influential musicians
on the highlife scene. He immediately reformed his old crew,
the Broadway Band (whose later incarnation, Uhuru Dance
Band, is featured on this release), hipping them to the jazzstyled instrumentations that he picked up while abroad. His
writing and composing skills landed him a gig as in-house arranger and A&R for one of Ghana’s largest independent labels,
Essiebons Enterprises, where he created hits for himself and
other highlife legends.
Taylor’s work in the ’70s helped shape the modern highlife
sound. His four solo LPs featured classic highlife arrangements
on the A-side and more modern sounding, Afro-fusion tracks
on the flip. “Back then, adding new elements in our music was
exciting,” he says. “I wanted to push things.” Taylor’s modern classics like “Twer Nyame” kept traditional highlife instrumentation—crisp, big-band-style horn arrangements with
grooving percussion—but added fresh, modern elements like
electric keyboards and guitars, reinventing the highlife sound
for a new generation.
These days, Taylor and highlife music have a rightful place
at the University of Ghana, under the tree in the main court
of the music department where Taylor teaches Ghana’s next
generation of musicians their basics in palm-wine and highlife
guitar: “Minor chords, it’s all about your minor chords.” Always boasting, he teaches through story and by example. “My
solos were outstanding,” he says. “People called for me when
the band would come and play. Now pay attention to this
solo.” . Kristofer Ríos