King of Highlife Anthology

This is the largest compilation of recordings by ET Mensah that anyone has ever seen. It means that, perhaps for the first time, current generations can feel the force of the Ghanaian modernist whose musical DNA fed into the music of Ghana, Nigeria, Benin and surrounding countries. Highlife became the sound of independence in the countries that were leaving British colonialism behind, some 60 years ago. Modern highlife indisputably starts when the Tempos were led by trumpeter and pharmacist ET Mensah and drummer Guy Warren (later Kofi Ghanaba) in the late 40s and early 50s. Their new fusion of local music with Caribbean and Latin rhythms and melodies, plus the highest quality musicianship, spread like wildfire via a perfect storm of live tours, radio play and record sales, fanned by the winds of change that were sweeping across colonial Africa. Mensah was hailed as the king of highlife and toured all over West Africa. Louis Armstrong famously came to play with the band in Accra in 1956, which was also the year that pioneering UK trad jazzer Chris Barber brought Mensah over to play with his band in the Royal Festival Hall.

Here is a rich musical pool of 69 tracks to dive into. There's English-language political songs that praise independence, Kwame Nkrumah and his vision of a united West Africa; there's rich dance-band highlife sung in Ga, Fanti and Twi; there are calypsos, often in English and pidgin; Latino tunes in the 50s Congolese style; and love songs, dance-craze songs and even a delicious cover of ‘Sloop John B’. The exhaustive contextualising liner notes are written by professor John Collins, a musician, musicologist and professor at the University of Ghana in Legon. I would like to have had more information about the recordings, such as a chronology and personnel details. But you can’t have everything and this already feels like a huge gift to posterity.