Funky Highlife

A 1975 release on the Essiebons label from Ghana, this is an album of occasionally funky but mostly sweet highlife, recorded at a time when Western music was seriously encroaching upon the shores of West Africa as rock and disco swept all before them. CK Mann’s music was not totally untainted by outside influences either. Ever since 1956 (when Ghana was still the Gold Coast under British rule) Louis Armstrong’s American jazz had been a part of the country’s mellow sound and trumpets and other brass played their part in keeping this music buoyant.

Mann’s biggest success came in the late 70s, when he teamed up with Papa Kofi Yankson and recorded the Osode album, reviving a traditional beat. Here he is with his Carousel 7, five years after their first hit, coasting on his solo guitar with solid bass, pumping organ, a raft of percussion and fanfare brass providing triumphant punctuation. By the mid-70s funk and soul had invaded the Ghanaian consciousness but Mann managed to make it relevant to his own sound. This disc reissues the original LP and includes eight bonus tracks. The opener, ‘Asafo Beesuon’, being almost 14 minutes of roiling groove, is worth the price of admission alone.