Hitsville Re-Visited

The cavalcade of 1970s and 80s African album reissues shows no signs of slowing. This one, originally released in 1982, is the work of two pioneers of Ghanaian music: guitarist Ebo Taylor and singer Pat Thomas. They'd already made several albums that solidified the genre of highlife funk, a harder-hitting, often minor-key take on the lighter highlife style.

Hitsville Re-Visited isn't that though. Here, together with Taylor's band Uhuru Yenzu, they go back to an earlier style from the beginnings of highlife. As such, there's much less funk and disco here. In fact, the overriding sound that jumps out is that of classic calypso, topped with Thomas' easy vocals and Taylor's palmwine-style guitar. A particular highlight throughout are the solos from saxophonists George Amissah and George Abunyewa, who inject an element Caribbean-inspired jazz à la Sonny Rollins' ‘St Thomas’. The end result is feel-good and fun but with only four tracks, it leaves us with less than half an hour of music. A pleasant listen but perhaps best as a diversion among the rest of these artists' funkier back catalogues.