By John Owoo
(In Accra – Ghana)
The second edition of “Our Music Festival” – which featured five evergreen musicians ended last Monday at the Goethe-Institut with scissor kicks – an amalgam of highlife with other genres that brought nostalgic feelings to several members of the audience.
With a lineup of living legends such as Pat Thomas, K.K. Kabobo, Akablay, Nii Aryee Ankrah and the Germany based drummer Ekowmania, the artists showcased their singular and collective influences while refracting them into a new synthesis.
Undeniably, highlife laced with inflections of ragga (K.K. Kabobo), highlife mixed with Kundum rhythms (Akablay), contemporary highlife (Pat Thomas / Nii Aryee Ankrah), highlife fused with reggae (Ekwomania) and traditional music from Efeee Noko Cultural Troupe, turned the evening into one of a possible renaissance for Ghanaian highlife.
Supported by Makcabo Band, these matured musicians brought new life into highlife as horns, guitars, keyboards and percussive instruments utilized the essential rhythms and sounds of highlife to showcase its power and capacity to inspire diverse music genres.
With frenetic pace drumming and recurring rhythms alongside changeable guitar lines, the audience was taken on a journey that transferred them into a musical groove, where highlife was born, nurtured and transformed into diverse variations.
Earlier two Ghanaian musicians – saxophonist Gyedu Blay-Ambolley and flutist Dela Botri – presented a plaque to the director of the Goethe-Institut Heike Friesel for her support and that of the Institut for the arts and artists in Ghana.
In a recorded message, the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mark Okraku Mantey sent fraternal greetings to the organizers of the festival and expressed the readiness of government to continue to support the promotion of tourist sites and the arts in general.
Organized by Ekowmania, “Our Music Festival” aims at offering a platform for Ghanaian artistes with different approaches to music to showcase their stuff while reminding the world of some of the attractive melodies that abound in Ghana.
Goethe-Institut Ghana, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, UNESCO, Triple A Security Printing and Packaging, Chop n Chill, Golstar Air and FYNNexhibits supported the festival.
