Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Nick Dwyer

I hope you guys are all well. It’s an amazing honor to be joined on the couch this morning by an absolute legend of West African music. A lot of people in this room know a little bit about African music, I'm sure everyone knows about the legacy of Fela Kuti and Afrobeat. Since the explosion of the internet in the last 15 years, a lot of these incredible, almost lost musical styles that came out and were very prevalent in Africa in the ‘50s and ‘60s and especially the ‘70s, have been able to find a whole new life. In the last decade we’ve seen the Ethio-jazz movement, people like Mulatu Astatke, Mahmoud Ahmed, and all this music finding an audience all the way around the world, these guys performing again.

You’ve got styles like kwasa-kwasa from the Congo, the whole Congotronics thing’s been massive and I’m sure a few of you in this room know a little about a style of music that’s been all over West Africa called highlife. It started off in Sierra Leone and Liberia around the ‘30s and it really found an incredible home and evolved to an all new style which was heard all over the world in a country called Ghana, which was once called the Gold Coast. It’s my absolute pleasure to welcome to the Red Bull Academy 2011 one of the most notable voices in highlife, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. [applause]

How are you Gyedu?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I’m pretty good.

Nick Dwyer

It’s good to have you here. Look, what we always do to start off these things is play a bit of your music, so we’re going to hear some very, very soon. I’m sure a lot of people in this room might know a bit about Africa. They might know a little bit about certain African countries, some of you guys may even have traveled in Africa. But just to give an idea, Ghana is such a unique country, one of the most peaceful countries in Africa. It’s one of the only African countries that’s never known war. Economically, it’s had an incredible history. Tell us about Ghana and what makes it sit apart from other West African neighbors?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Thank you, Nick. First of all, I bring you all greetings from Ghana. [applause] Ghana is a very beautiful country. The population is about 25 million now. Ghana became dominant because of our first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He was the one who put Ghana on the map. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah had the chance to study in Europe, as well as traveling to America to study. When he came back to Ghana he brought with him pan-Africanism. Back in the States there was already a revolution going on with Malcolm X and W.E.B. Du Bois, all of them. They were all speaking about the emancipation of the African people, so Kwame Nkrumah, when he came back to Ghana he brought the same concept back.

When he came back we were under British rule at the time, and Kwame saw it fit that we became independent. Because there is awareness, everybody’s trying to be independent and us being ruled by the British people, Kwame felt it was time for the British people to leave Ghana to the Ghanaians, to allow the Ghanaians to mind their own affairs. So it became something huge for Africa. We had our independence back in 1957 and within a short period of about six years, close to about eight African states also obtained independence because Kwame taught them how to obtain independence. From there on there were lots and lots of establishments. Kwame Nkrumah established lots of factories, lots of businesses and everything was put into place. Whatever, we were rubbing shoulders with the colonial masters, Kwame Nkrumah saw to it that we can mind our own business.

Nick Dwyer

You even had factories producing cars.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah. We were producing radios. We were producing cars. We were producing sugars. We were producing clothes. So there were a whole lot of factories that Kwame Nkrumah put together. Africa, Ghana, came up there. [shows line above his head] We knew that in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was fighting for independence. But if you talk about the person who really brought Africa to the world map, it is Kwame Nkrumah.

Nick Dwyer

I’d love to talk a bit about Kwame Nkrumah later on and also the link to music for him, but what would you say about Ghana right now? Tell us about Ghana present day. How would you define Ghanaians?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

We’re going through a lot of changes right now because of the domination of the Westernized music. The younger guys are looking up to America, the rappers, the way they do it. You’re talking about the way they dress, you know, wearing their pants way down there, they’re also doing it. Everything that is connected to Americanism, the younger ones are doing it. But there’s been a gap – that shouldn’t have happened anyway. But there was a big gap that information wasn’t been passed onto the younger ones. Education wasn’t being done so they took it upon themselves to exercise what they see on TV and all that.

Right now changes are coming back, because the younger generation guys have turned back and seen that whatever it was they were doing doesn’t belong to us as a people. So now they’re realizing that and they’re coming back to what we’re gonna be talking about. Music started way back and we’ve gone through changes, from marrying the Western style of music into what we have in Ghana and all that. That has come up with so many forms of awareness, so we’ll be talking about that as time goes on.

Nick Dwyer

The first thing I’m going to play is something from the Apagya Show Band, which is yourself and one of your oldest, dearest friends who’s another one of Ghana’s most legendary musicians, a guy called Ebo Taylor. How long have you known him and how did you guys meet?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I’ve known Ebo from about 12 years when I was growing up because they had a band in another part of Ghana called Kumasi. In Kumasi they formed a band with the name the Stargazers Dance Band. If you listen to the forms of instrumentation, the things they were doing back in the ‘60s were so fascinating that I became an idol, and they became my idols. Because I was listening to the music that they were playing. They were using trumpet, saxophone, trombone, bass, guitar, drums, all that. The way they incorporated what they’ve learned from the other side of the world as to what we have in Ghana, it was very fantastic.

Ebo Taylor was a very good guitar player and I fell in love with the band. And at that age of about 12, 13, I was following this band. I remember, where my mother lives, there was somebody who sells records close to where my mother lived. And when I’m going to eat I would stand by where they sell the records, and I would stand there for almost three or four hours. The music made me stop there, I couldn’t leave to go and eat even though I was hungry. Ebo Taylor and all of them, the things that they were doing, the music they were playing, was so good to me. Eventually it came to a time that I met him face-to-face; it came to a time that we all played in the same band together. We’re still friends and we’re still playing together and these are some of the guys who opened my eyes and opened my ears to music.

Nick Dwyer

Let’s listen to this track right now, it’s called “Mumude.” It must be noted that you are a multi-instrumentalist. You originally started out playing bass and sax, but what you’re mostly known for is this voice, this very unique voice. So what year is this track we are about to hear?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I think it was about 1973, ’74.

(music: Apagya Show Band — “Mumude”)

Nick Dwyer

So when you hear that track, what does it take you back to?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

That voice you hear is my voice, and taking me back when I was about 24, 25, growing up and experimenting. The only thing is, around that time there was the influence of American music. A lot of bands were playing James Brown music, Wilson Pickett and more great American musicians. We found it quite good that instead of playing what they bring to us, we have to experiment with our own forms of music and this is one of the experiments. I’m very happy with that, though, and I’m still happy. Because anytime we did performances everybody that comes there loved what we were doing and they still love it. So it means that whatever we did, we were right on the good foot.

Nick Dwyer

So at the time it meant the local highlife music was being performed alongside music by James Brown, music by Wilson Pickett, music by Ike and Tina Turner, and obviously these American musics were hugely popular within Ghana. But when the local records came on, how would people react?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

First and foremost, people were too much involved with the western music, they were fascinated by that, they wanted to hear James Brown [impersonates James Brown], doing all that. When we came in, whatever we were doing was local, but it had some influences from the Western part. But we were making that our own instead of copying thoroughly what was coming from the Western world. So in the beginning it was challenging, but people started getting involved because whatever we were doing was dance music. At any time we performed this style of music people would just get involved. In Ghana, especially in Africa and around the world, we have two basic forms of music, rhythms. One is [sings one rhythm] and the other one is [sings another rhythm].

Every dance music you hear coming from around the world, if it’s only a dance music, has these two things in it. Because these are the basics of dance music. So all these things we were doing, experimenting with this, we had that influence in it. And also from the bass because in Ghana if you play music of that nature, a kid of about four, five, six easily gets involved. When he hears the rhythm it drives him. He doesn’t understand the music or the words, but the influence of the music drives him, and that was something that helped us to do more experiments. At the same time as we’d do it, anybody that would come, people would get involved. And when they get involved they even applauded for us doing that, so it motivated us to do more of that.

Nick Dwyer

For people to really get what you guys were doing and just how revolutionary it was, combining the original highlife with these American influences, we should really go right back. We’ll play something by E.T. Mensah very soon, going back to the ‘50s. When highlife began it was essentially just congas, the rhythm and the guitar. Then these evolutions happened. But from the historical side of things, how did the music come about, when did highlife first start being heard in western Africa?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Because of the colonization that happened in West Africa, some of the black people who were taken away from Africa to Europe, Caribbean, Americas and all that. They met different kinds of culture over there, but they never forgot what they had with them before going. So when they got there, that became in time whatever they were playing. To me, it was highlife, but they were calling it calypso because of the different cultures they met there. In coming back, it came to a time that they were free slaves. “You wanna go back to Africa?” Many of them said yes, so they came and when they came with that style. In that time the Spanish guitar had been introduced.

So they came with it and when they came with it we had one format of music that we’d play, it’s based on the chords of one, four, five chords. So every music that you hear [sings], it’s all based singing around one, four, five. So when they brought it, it was fascinating. The Africans found it fascinating, so some of them also learned that form of guitar.

In the course of that they married what they brought from the Caribbean to the local music, because the local music was based on the congas. The congas was the first instrument that was made. We were playing dance music without even guitars because the moment that the conga is set [imitates congas], it’s something that gets everybody involved. When the Spanish guitar and everything was added it became another dimension.

So it happened and people started forming bands, but initially they formed guitar bands. And that is when the palm-wine style of music started to come in. Palm-wine is a drink back home in Ghana but where they sell palm-wine is where people meet, because at the end of the day’s work people go and want to have fun, drink and taste like that.

Nick Dwyer

I always hear the stories that the person selling the palm-wine was always a beautiful young woman, so the musicians would congregate, play the music to try and get palm-wine and chat up the woman.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

The first song that was made was called “Yaa Amponsah.” “Yaa Amponsah” is a name of a very beautiful lady and men were fascinated by that beautiful lady, so they go to where she is and she’ll be selling. People would bring the guitars and other people come around, they’ll bring the congas, the claves and all that, mix it up and it’s party time. And so continuously this was happening every evening. Because at the end of a day’s work, people want to go to where it’s happening, so they always go there. This is where “Yaa Amponsah” came in. The meaning of the song is a very beautiful lady who cannot keep a man because every man wants her. So they put her into a song, that’s where it came [from].

Nick Dwyer

This is one of the first highlife songs. What year would you say this would be?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Play it.

Nick Dwyer

So it’s a guy called E.T. Mensah.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

E.T. Mensah was late ‘40s into the ‘50s. He was the first guy who started introducing trumpets, saxophones and everything into the guitar band form of music. So E.T. Mensah opened the eyes of other musicians to be able to add other instruments to the forms of music that we have. So that is the experiment of that.

Nick Dwyer

E.T. Mensah, “Yaa Amponsah.” And the translation is?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

That’s what I was saying, that she was too beautiful that she couldn’t keep a man.

(music: E.T. Mensah — “Yaa Amponsah” / applause)

Nick Dwyer

E.T. Mensah “Yaa Amponsah,” one of the first examples of highlife recorded. It’s funny what you were saying, it’s so similar to calypso, it is calypso music essentially. It’s incredible, it’s beautiful. I guess one of the things about calypso music, its primary function – and I’m sure most people in the room know about calypso, the style of music from Trinidad and Tobago – calypso was there as a platform for the Trinidadians to speak out. Lyrically, it was full of social commentary, the gossip, what was going on at the time, angry about the political system or the price of milk. Was it a similar thing with the lyrics? What kind of stories were being told on these highlife tracks?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Basically, it was the same. Africa, we were passing on information from mouth-to-mouth. Socially, what wasn’t going right in the vicinity, in the community, we used our mouths to let people know. That is coming out of rhythms and everything, because we have a gongon that if information needed to be passed to anybody, when they hear the gongon [imitates gongon and sings], when you say, “gongon gon gon,” you’re saying the king is asking you to come. It’s information that we need to pass it on to you. So that was coming on. Basically this is with Africans. We think about socials, we think about the dos and don’ts of society, all that. So when the guitars and everything came, it helped us to spread it even stronger. The music that you heard, if you listen to it properly you’ll hear the bass, the standing bass, wooden bass.

The horns and everything, during the colonial masters’ time they brought the instrument, the horns, through the military. They were using them for marching songs for the military. Some of us took it away from the military area and brought it back to the civilian part of it. So every music that we hear coming from Africa is talking about something that’s happening within the community, it is being a way of life and that is what we have.

Nick Dwyer

Just before we move ahead in time, you wanted to play another track you’ve brought, which is a really good example of this early form of highlife, which is strictly more rhythm and guitar. Can you remember the name of the artist on this track?

(music: E.K. Nyame — unknown)

Nick Dwyer

What’s the guy’s name? You can’t remember?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

The Nyames. That’s E.K. Nyame. The one that’s singing, I’ve forgotten his name. But E.K. Nyame was a bandleader, he plays clarinet as well, and he put a band together. And they were very, very popular. They were traveling from region to region, playing, performing, and when they traveled they also had a comedy whereby they tell stories about life. They used to educate people about the dos and don’ts of life, and after that is done, then the music. Say, “I’ve taught you, I’ve given you information, now let us all enjoy.” That’s where this music comes from.

Nick Dwyer

Can you remember the first time – obviously, growing up highlife was all around you – but can you remember the first time you heard it and thought, “Wow, this is the music of my country”?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, growing up, right from my infancy, it was all over. The radio was playing the music from that era. When I was about eight, nine, the reason why we got closer to this is this music was played when babies were born and people want to celebrate, they come and play this music. When somebody passes away and that person is being mourned, they play this type of music. When we’re kids we just go around, a full set of instruments, drums, bass, guitar, and we play.

I remember what really fascinated me was the drums; when I look at the drummer, using his hands and feet all at the same time, I say wow! And different combinations. The right hand is playing something different, left hand is playing, the kick is playing, the hi-hat is playing. I said, “That’s what I want to learn.” But these are all the older musicians performing for us to be close and to be able know and feel what we have. When I was about eight or nine, I knew, because like I said, when this music is played, the children, middle, old, everybody gets involved. This is the style of music that puts everybody together.

Nick Dwyer

Were these bands that we’re hearing now, were they just having success in Ghana or were they traveling all over West Africa?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Basically, it was in Ghana, but some had the chance to travel to other West African countries, like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia and all that, because Decca Records was in Ghana and was recording these musicians on a two-track reel-to-reel. After they made records and started selling them, some of these guys from other countries came to buy them and take them back. After they played over there, they wanted the band to come because they were happy with what they were hearing. As a matter of fact, Decca Records did something good because they helped our music to spread out.

Nick Dwyer

With Decca, you’re talking about a time that was after ’57, so it was post-independence. Were they British engineers? The record label was run by a British team?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, because they came with their own reel-to-reel tapes, they came with their own engineers in everything. So a big band would be set right here. Apart from even this small band, there’s big bands with two trumpets, two trombones, two altos, two tenor saxophones, baritone. If you hear the recording, using only two-track, the whole band had only one microphone, the vocalist had one microphone. So if you’re recording and there’s a mistake, you all have to stop and start all over again. It’s not like modern times that if you make a mistake and go, “It’s on that track? OK, the musician will replay this track.” No, the whole band will stop and play back again. And they did a wonderful job, because if you listen to the records that they did, they’re wonderful.

Nick Dwyer

The name highlife has an quite interesting story behind it. Well, there’s a few different stories but one that keeps coming up that’s quite an interestingstory. Tell us about this word highlife. How did the music become known as highlife?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Back in the colonial era, there were other Africans who were educated as well. So the colonial masters were in bowties, tailcoats and all that – that’s how they dress when they’re coming to a ceremonial. The educated blacks also put on their bowties, just like them, and they’ll go to a dancefloor. But the only thing that happened, at that time there were things like quickstep, slow foxtrot and boleros. But all these forms of music have a structure in the form of dance. When you’re playing foxtrot, you don’t know how to dance foxtrot, you just sit. When they’re playing quickstep and you don’t know how to do it, you just sit.

So some of the Africans also learned how to do the foxtrot and all that, so when the colonial masters were doing the foxtrot they would also be on the floor, dancing with them. The other Africans wouldn’t have money to pay to go to the dancefloor, they would be standing back. When they see the other Africans dancing with the colonial masters, they were, “Oh, wow, these people are leading the high life.”

So the forms of music was on every week or two weeks, there were dances and things like that. Those that don’t have money would say, “These brothers are leading the high life. Look how they are in their tailcoat.” It’s like they have taken themselves away from us and they are rubbing shoulders with their colonial masters. That word highlife stuck.

As a matter of fact that shouldn’t have been the name of this form of music. There was a name back in Ghana called “osibi.” If any of you know about the African rock band who got very popular in London, called Osibisa. I don’t know if you’ve heard about Osibisa, but that name came from the original name for that, called osibi. So we should’ve called that style of music osibi, but it turned around and became highlife. So everywhere you go, “Oh, you want to listen to highlife music?” Then they play you the osibi music. That’s how it got stuck. Now everywhere in the world you go, “Oh, you have highlife music?” What music is highlife? But that’s how it’s been, we’ve taken it and moved on.

Nick Dwyer

You touched on it when you first started talking; 1957, Ghana became independent and it was led by one of the greatest thinkers, greatest minds, the most educated people Africa ever knew, a man called Kwame Nkrumah. He took the teachings of Du Bois and Marcus Garvey and he really was the first African leader to talk about Africa for Africans and predicted this neo-colonialism and was an incredible, incredible man. If we can go back to 1957 – I know you were only a tiny kid – but can you remember the day Ghana became independent, the first African nation to become independent. What was the feeling like on the street?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Those that don’t know Kwame Nkrumah, those of you who haven’t seen him before [stands up, shows t-shirt with a picture of Kwame Nkrumah on it / applause]. That’s him. That morning, when we heard Ghana had at long last obtained independence, jubilation was everywhere — in the city, the suburbs, everywhere, because the radios were pumping it out. [sings] Ghana, we now have freedom. All was singing and jubilating. I was at school at that time but they gave us the Ghanaian flag and all of us were waving. [sings] Ghana, we now have freedom. Ghana, land of freedom.

It was jubilation everywhere — everywhere! I remember at school when they gave us the flags, we went through the streets, jubilating. From there we went to a park, a park where all of us met. The band started playing, playing the music of independence. I’ve never seen a day like that in my life. Never. Because what I was seeing, everything was connected to the happiness of being independent. And it’s been wonderful. That man, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, he opened the eyes of even other African states to be independent. When we became independent in 1957 within a short period of about six, seven years, almost eight, nine, ten African other countries obtained their independence.

Kwame Nkrumah invited them and taught them how to obtain their independence and that opened the door for Africa to be for Africans and for Europe to speak for Europeans and America to speak for Americans. Aside from that, there is one thing that gets us connected – music. Irrespective of whatever the tune plays, music was always bringing us together. Talking about highlife, highlife was the only music that was able to bring the colonial masters and the Africans together, because when highlife is played, nobody teaches you how to dance to it. Highlife is something you just look at it and you get it, you just get involved.

So the colonial masters who get involved in highlife, they don’t know where the one is. [laughter] So they throw their legs all over. But they were happy. When you see a Ghanaian, we’re dancing to the beat. But the colonial masters were [dances badly, sings] because they can’t find where the one is. So highlife is a music of unification, a music that puts everyone together. Thank you. [applause]

Nick Dwyer

One of the great things about Kwame Nkrumah when he was in power, he really believed in the power of music and he really believed so much in the power of African music. It was a time globally when a lot of people in the western world had this image that most Africans lived in the jungle and it was poor, it was starving, it was whatever.

Kwame Nkrumah believed one of the best ways to show the world what Africa was about was through music. He would tour bands wherever he went. Please tell us about this: If you were a musician and you wanted to study, he would send you abroad and the government would pay for your education so you could become a musician. Correct?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yes. Those up-and-coming musicians, Kwame Nkrumah sent them away to England on scholarships to go and learn the rudiments of music and all that. When they came back they brought with them what they’d learned. Kwame Nkrumah also established different bands because most of these institutions had their own band. If you were good, anywhere Kwame Nkrumah was traveling to, he’d ask you to accompany him.

So Kwame Nkrumah was traveling anywhere he was going with traditional musicians, contemporary musicians, and he would tell them, “Play, and let them feel the African personality.” And it was a huge thing, because Kwame Nkrumah was the only president out of Africa who put time into music, who traveled with musicians. He saw that we have a culture that is very, very strong that we don’t need to let pass away. If you come to the Western style of music, I think, like what my brother Nick is saying, a disservice has been done to the people from the Western world because they’ve painted Africa like it’s a safari, jungle, no streets, no cars.

Even when I went to America, some of the black people who had their own roots in Africa, when you talk about Africa, they’re, “Africa? Africa?” Because they’ve been told that Africa is a place of jungle. But that’s a disservice because Africa is the cradle of mankind. All the music we play in the world came from Africa. And Africa, any rhythm you want is in Africa. Africa has different kinds of ethnic groups and every group has its own form of music and rhythm. But what the Western world – I’m talking about the disservice the western world has done to musicians coming from the western world – is that because they painted Africa as a jungle, the rhythmic side of the music has been neglected.

When I look at the music coming from the Western world, they’re too much into playing scales, arpeggios, all that. Beside that they don’t have anything, but the scales and the arpeggios you’re playing have to be based on a rhythm. If the rhythm is not there it’s like the music you’re playing is hanging. So that’s the kind of disservice. Whatever you’re playing you’re doing wonderfully – you know your instruments and you play them perfectly well. But, if you come to Africa, that’s when your music will become complete, because the rhythms that will make you experiment with what you know and add it to what you have, it’s not yet done.

So I’m saying this based upon the fact, if Africa being painted as a safari; Africa is no safari. Save some money and see Africa yourself and come and mingle with the African musicians, because there’s a lot to learn. Me, coming from Africa, when I went to America, there were so many things I didn’t know when I was in Ghana until I went to America. Whatever I saw and learned from America helped me to be complete because I have the basics. This is what’s gonna make you complete. Until you come to Africa you’re never gonna be complete.

Nick Dwyer

Shall we play one more track from the end of this period, we’re talking ‘63, ’64, before this really experimental stage started kicking in, when you started performing yourself? But we’ll play this track by T.O. Jazz, which to my mind is one of the most beautiful highlife tracks. I believe T.O. Jazz was one of the products of the “studies abroad” that Kwame Nkrumah put in. You can probably pronounce that much better.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

[looks at screen] “Owou Adaadaa Me” means like “death has lied to me.” You see where the name of the track is coming? It says death, death has lied to me. Philosophically, this is how we do in Africa. Every name has a great meaning. If somebody says death has lied to me, he’s going to explain that to you in his music so you know why death did that.

(music: T.O. Jazz — “Owuo Adaadaa Me”)

So because of that she’s not coming back, that’s what she’s trying to explain.

Nick Dwyer

Around the same time you started your first band. How old were you, what year was it and tell us about your first band?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

My first band was called Tricky Johnson Sextet. Tricky Johnson played for E.T. Mensah, he was a guitar player for E.T. Mensah. After he left E.T. Mensah he came back home and established his own band. Because his name was Tricky Johnson he called it Tricky Johnson Sextet. That was the first band I ever played in and that was 1964. This guy, he wanted a vocalist, so I heard about it and went to him and said, “You want a vocalist? I can sing.” “You can sing? What can you sing?”

At that time we were listening to music from James Brown, we were listening to music from Sam Cooke, we were listening to music from Ray Charles and all that. So I told him I can sing “What’d I Say” from Ray Charles. He said, “You can do that?” So he picked up the guitar and... [sings “What’d I Say”] So I did that and he said, “Come back the next day.” So I was employed right from there and that was the beginning of me performing with a band. During that time there were other bands, but to strictly perform with a band as a vocalist, that was my first band that I did perform with. And because the era was changing, we were also changing with the era. So that’s how it happened.

Nick Dwyer

So tell us about the shows. What’s interesting is everyone grows up with this image of Swinging London, this time period in London. But simultaneously in Africa, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, had this whole scene, the Swinging Addis scene. At the same time in Accra, Swinging Accra, it was flamboyant, it was crazy. Paint us a picture of Swinging Accra.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

When you came to Accra at that time, Accra was a city of Ghana and in the city alone we had over 20 different kinds of clubs, even more than 20. And every club had a band, so it means that everywhere you went there was music. Everywhere. So Accra was booming with happiness because at the end of the day’s work, people would know where to go. Even at the time of working, we had some things called the afternoon jump.

Those at work would go off work at 12 o'clock to go and have a break, come back to work; at 12 o'clock they’d run straight to where the music is. For just that one hour, they don’t want to miss it. They’d go straight where they music is and join in, drink something and all that. They’d go back to work after an hour. After 4:30, five, they’d come back. Because music is something that helped people taking their minds off the problems of work, the problems of home and all that, so when they came their minds were open to music. Everywhere that you go, sometimes if you go to a club you’ll see two or three different bands performing in one club. When one band finishes performing, they’ll go to another club to go and have another performance.

So music was everywhere. Everywhere you go, the way people dress and things like that. The influence of America and Americanism was heavily right there. So when you see people dress like the way an American dresses, they walk like, “Hey, man. What’s up, man?” That influence was pushing people and it was putting people together and the music was doing that. It was wonderful that the name Swinging Accra came because when you entered Accra you’d be part of the swingers.

Nick Dwyer

Going back to the musical influence, one element that had a strong influence, not just Africa, but all over the world was a radio station called the Voice of America. Obviously, during World War II, American Army bases popped up all over the world from Eastern Europe to Guam to Okinawa and, of course, Africa. And with long wave, all of a sudden this American radio station was being pumped out all over the world. Would you say that because of the radio station you were hearing American music for the first time?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

It helped because on the Voice of America they had a program called the Jazz Hour and in that Jazz Hour, they were doing from 10 PM to 11 and this is where they were playing music from the Count Basies and Duke Ellingtons, Charlie Parkers and Dizzy Gillespies and Wes Montgomerys, Jimmy Smiths and all of that. Where I lived, I didn’t have a radio but there was a jazz fanatic who lived in the same building. Every 10 o’clock he’d switch to Voice Of America and I’d go and stand by the back of his window. I’d stand there for the whole hour. There was a radio DJ called Willis Conover and he would play, explain, play another one and explain and all that.

And that was feeding me with information. At that time, at that age, I didn’t know too much about music, but because I was musically inclined I was able to differentiate. If you take music coming from the Western world, you have music in 12 bars, 16, 24, 32s and all that, and I was able to differentiate these forms of music. And it helped me. I wasn’t the only one listening, all the Africans were listening. We didn’t have money to buy records or radios, so this is where we’d get our music from. And it helped me a lot because there were forms of instrumentation. They used to have a signature tune [sings] they’d call it “String of Pearls,” I don’t know if anyone knows it. [continues singing]

They had different arrangements for it and it was making us to see the different forms of music — the introductions, the bridges, the arrangements and all that. So that man did a good job, especially for me, and very luckily for me I was in Washington at the Voice of America for an interview and here was that man. I was shocked. When I told him about what he had done for me when I was growing up, I mean, he was so fascinated he had to embrace me. It was good because of the communication between the Western and Africa.

Nick Dwyer

Around that time Louis Armstrong came to Ghana and it was the first time a non-African artist had played in Ghana. You weren’t old enough to go to the show. But was that a big deal when he came to town?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Oh yes, we knew Louis. Louis was back in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, all that. We were hearing of him, though we hadn’t seen him face to face, but we were seeing his pictures and all that. So when we had our independence and our president Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah invited him to come, it was phenomenal. He was at the airport and music was played there at the airport. He came with his trumpet and he was met by E.T. Mensah. E.T. Mensah was very popular at that time, he had some records out as well. So E.T. Mensah was holding his trumpet and here Louis Armstrong was holding his trumpet and they didn’t play any of Louis Armstrong’s music, they played Ghanaian music. Louis Armstrong was standing there listening, E.T. Mensah would play his solo and when he’d finished, Louis Armstrong picked up his horn and came in and everyone was [yells], it was so fantastic.

He really fitted in there and he was pumping. It brought something. Somebody we see on pictures, we’d heard of him and right now he was face to face with us. At the airport, libation was poured culturally. E.T. Mensah at that time had a club. So after they went to the president’s palace they ended up at E.T. Mensah’s club. That was when Louis Armstrong started enjoying what he has called his own roots music.

He fitted in there, there was nothing that was take him away from that. When the music was played he knew he belonged to that. So he picked up his trumpet and played. Wow! All the musicians as well, all of them trooped in there because they wanted to have a feel for what Louis would bring from America. It was fantastic and that was the job that was done by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It opened the eyes of all the bands to start experimenting.

Nick Dwyer

Moving into this experimental phase and all these African-American artists who had such a major influence — one man who had such a major influence and whose music was going down incredibly in Ghana was a guy called James Brown. Tell us about James Brown.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

James Brown changed the face of music in Ghana. Before James Brown we had strictly highlife bands playing... [imitates highlife] But when James Brown came in with... [imitates James Brown funk groove] Wow! Everybody was crazy for that style of music. Other bands started springing up. Now, most of the bands that sprung up from that time even forgot about the highlife music because of the influence coming from the Western side with James Brown, Wilson Pickett and all of them. But the most heavy influence was coming from James Brown. The music of James Brown is connected to a tribe in Ghana called Frafra.

That tribe, where they hear James Brown, they don’t understand even the words what James Brown is singing, but the rhythm. And if you hear the music apart from James Brown, it’s similar, the same. Back in Ghana they have a local-made guitar and when they pick it [imitates it, sounds like James Brown], so when they hear James Brown on the same platform, oh they go crazy. [sings “Give It Up or Turn It Loose”] It’s the same thing.

If you look at the features of James Brown and look at the features of the people of that tribe, it’s the same. So James Brown’s lineage is from that tribe. So James Brown turned everything upside down. When I say upside down, I am not saying in a bad way, in a very good format. That was the strength of James Brown and he changed. During that time there were school bands. Dancefloors, everywhere you’d go, all of them are playing American music, whereby James Brown music was more dominant than other forms of American music.

Nick Dwyer

Shall we listen to a track now that illustrates this change? You wanted to hear the Uhuru Dance Band.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah.

Nick Dwyer

So you were in the Uhuru Band. How many years were you in them for?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I was in for about three years.

Nick Dwyer

And what does “uhuru” mean?

Speaker: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley:

“Uhuru” means freedom. And that word, uhuru, is coming from Kenya. In the time of independence, Jomo Kenyatta would say, “Uhuru! Uhuru!” When that band were formed they were trying to find a name for it, so since Ghana was independent, that word is good for it. It’s freedom, so bring it.

Nick Dwyer

What year would this be?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

This would be around about ‘64, ’65.

(music: Uhuru Dance Band — unknown)

He’s saying he can’t stand the cold so he’s going to find a beautiful lady to be by his side. That’s what he’s saying.

Nick Dwyer

So that’s the Uhuru Band, which you were in for how many years?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

For three years.

Nick Dwyer

And was it with the Uhuru Band… – by the way [applause] – that was the first time that you got the opportunity to travel and play, correct?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yes, I traveled with them to Nigeria and I did my first recording with that band. Just to go back to the music, you can hear some jazz influences, you can hear Duke Ellington influences, all in that. This is something we were doing back in the ‘60s. So as the Western world is thinking we’re living on trees, we were enjoying right on there heavily! [laughter]

So Uhuru was an influential band because when the president was traveling he traveled with this band. Somebody came to record the band and he came to my room, because I was the bass player for that band. So he came in my room, we were talking, he said he’d come to record. “You’ve come to record? I have some songs as well.” So, “OK. Let me hear it.” So I picked up the guitar and played. He said, “Yeah, that’s nice music.” Lo and behold when we finished the recording my music became the most popular of all the songs they did.

For your information, when you go back to the Guinness Book of Records they say that Sugarhill Gang brought rap. That’s a mistake. It looked like someone didn’t do his homework very well because I was the one who brought rap to the whole world. Because commercially, I was the one who recorded rap music.

Nick Dwyer

Shall we listen to this track? This is a very famous track, recorded in ’72 and released in ’73, and as Gyedu was saying it’s the first commercially available time a rap was recorded. Gyedu is given the title as the man that brought rap to Africa. He’s the first person in Africa to rap on record, but quite possibly the world as well.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

The world. [laughter / applause]

Nick Dwyer

It’s a track called “Simigwa-Do.” What does it mean?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

“Agwa” in our language means a seat. So when we say simigwa-do, that means I’m sitting on my seat. This basically pertains to kings. When the dance is being held and the king is sitting down and the music is being played, the king gets fascinated and gets up and dances a little bit, it becomes the ultimate. So after dancing he comes back to sit on his stool as a king, simigwa-do. And it was like that, so I said I’m the king of that so I’m gonna give it that title.

(music: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley — “Simigwa-Do” / applause)

Nick Dwyer

So the other thing that’s interesting – as you’re saying, quite possibly the first time a rap was ever recorded on record – the other thing that became very much a staple of hip-hop in terms of the block-party scene is the call-and-response.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Call and response is something that is in Africa, every music is like that. So in Africa when you get up it’s... [sings, crowd respond] So this is what it is; the rap is an African thing. [applause]

Nick Dwyer

One of the main lyrics you’re singing is bo fruit. Tell us what is a bo fruit.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Bo fruit is food, just like, what you call, a doughnut? When you sing about food, people become happy. James Brown was doing it, mashed potato, popcorn, you know? So, I said, “OK man, abada bo fruit...” People were just fascinated. Even today, today, I’ve got so many names. I have my original name given by my parents, but music has brought me different names. The younger schoolchildren, they see me and [shouts], “Ambolley bo fruit” / “Ambolley...” [makes gargling sound] And any time they say it, I say, “Bo fruit, yeah.” If you’re able to come up with something that will influence the younger generation, I love it.

But rap itself is an African thing – apart from me putting it on vinyl as a commercialized music, among the queens and kings we have people who’re linguists. They are the ones who sing praises or speak praises to the king when the king is coming. And it’s totally rap. [raps] It’s totally rap. That fast pace of speaking, it’s right there. So hearing that rap music is coming from America, like that’s what it is. It’s not what it is. Whatever is happening to our music is like what is happening with our mineral resources. They get gold from Ghana, Africa, take it to Europe and refine, come back and re-sell it to us.

It’s the same thing they did with our music. They take our music because they have good studios over there, they re-manufactured it and brought it back, like hip-hop. So the younger generation don’t know about the past; they think it’s something new. No, it belongs to Ghana. We have it. It’s in the blood. So I’ll tell the rappers to come to Africa. If they want to really, really rap and when they come, yeah, toe to toe.

I remember somewhere in Los Angeles there was a party and Will Smith, the actor, he started as a rapper. He came there and the one organizing the party is a friend of mine so I went. Music was being played and when they came to start the rap, yeah. After he rapped I picked up the microphone. Yeah, let’s do an African thing. [applause / laughter] The combination was really good, it made him see the nitty-gritty of it. He’s in Africa, so we tried to bring them back so that traditionally and commercially you can put them all together and boom!

Nick Dwyer

One thing before we move on from “Simigwa-Do,” you said in the lyrics yourself it’s not just a song, it’s a dance. And you invented a dance for it and everywhere you’d perform, the girls and guys would go quite crazy when you performed the “Simigwa-Do” dance. If I play the track can you give us a little taste of the “Simigwa-Do” dance?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, I can give you some because my dance is a form of comedy.

(music: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley — “Simigwa-Do” cont.)

[dances with participant, sings / applause]

Nick Dwyer

Another thing that’s quite interesting that was happening simultaneously was, of course, Fela Kuti and the Afrobeat thing. You mentioned before that the “Simigwa-Do” track that was born out of you being in Nigeria, talking to a producer and going, “Hey, look, I’ve got solo songs.” One thing about Fela is, Fela actually spent a bit of time before he became really famous living in Ghana in the mid-’60s.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Fela started way back. He wasn’t a musician anyway... Well, I cannot say he wasn’t a musician, because another time before he became big he was an organist. His father was a priest so he was playing the organ in church. So he had the knowledge about the musical chords and everything. Then the father sent him to England to go and learn how to become a doctor. I think he swayed and thought, “No, I don’t think that is for me.” So he chose music and went to Trinity College of Music and all that.

There he met Ebo Taylor, because Kwame Nkrumah also sent him to England on a scholarship. When Fela came back, because he had the knowledge of the keyboard before he went, it opened his eyes because he learned how to play the trumpet in England. When he came back he formed his own band. He was full of ideas, how he wants to turn around African music.

So he was in Nigeria and the music he started playing had a whole lot of jazz influences in it. People couldn’t cope with it, because it was something different, it was something new. People liked the old format of highlife [sings it], it’s an easygoing thing. But if you bring in instrumentations like [imitates Afrobeat], people take time to try to analyze where you’re coming from. So that didn’t sit well with Fela, so Fela looked at it and thought, “I have to go Ghana.” If you’re talking about highlife and everything, it was Ghanaians who opened the eyes of Nigerians to highlife music.

Over there the Uhuru Band and all that, when they perform they’re wearing suits. They have sheet music in front of them, saxophone players reading and playing, everyone reading and playing. It shocked the Nigerians because if you were standing outside of where the performance was going on, you’d never have thought it was Africans who were playing. They thought that maybe some Europeans had come to play in Africa. Those who had a chance to go in and saw the Ghanaians performing, they said, “What?” They all looked at the sheets, unbelievable! So that opened the eyes of Nigerians to say if you want to learn highlife, go to Ghana.

So Fela came to Ghana. He had a band called Koola Lobitos, so he came to Ghana. There was a club called Ringway Hotel where the bands meet, different types of bands who were experimental. Good bands. And Fela would also come with his band and the interaction. Fela did jazz and everything in England and he also came to meet his contemporaries, so it was really happening. So Fela went back to Nigeria and around 1968, ’69 he took his band to Los Angeles. They were in Los Angeles trying to hustle because Fela saw that, man, we have to let the Western world hear what we have.

So he went and they were playing, but immigration matters and everything came in. Fela told them if they don’t go back home it looks like they’ll send the whole band back home. So they went into a studio to record and when they went back home the record was released. Wonderful music. You hear Tony Allen, the drummer, he was really playing. Fela had some other musicians as well, but you hear this was a new, different era. That was when Fela called that music Afrobeat.

In America he met a girl and the girl introduced [him to] Malcolm X and all that. So socially, politically, Fela took that and went back to Africa. You could see most of the African governments weren’t doing good to their own people. So he started singing about them. But Fela is a musician, he writes his own music, the instrumentation, the horns, everything. He writes everything and gives it to them. Because he’s from the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria, the Yoruba tribe has some minor-minor influences because Yoruba music is played on minor. So that became an influence and the Afrobeat took on.

When he recorded... [imitates Afrobeat], because he’s a musician, he knew how to combine the instruments and everything. Him, the musicians, the bassline, the drum line, the guitar line, they’re always steady. They don’t play anything. If he tells the guitar player to play... [imitates guitar part] That’s where he’s gonna be. So most of the musicians, sometimes they feel bored repeating the same thing. And his music is sometimes about 18 minutes, 20 minutes, playing... [imitates part]

But if you listen to the rhythm and everything that is combined, it’s influential because he knows how to combine and arrange the music. Where the horns stop, where they come in and everything. So it’s the same form of rhythm but you see that there’s a spirit, there’s a spirit that’s inviting you, something you want to hear that you can’t get away from. It caught on, Afrobeat, the younger, the middle, the older, everybody. It started spreading, came to Ghana and all that. The Ghanaians, also the younger bands that started springing up, they also started experimenting in the Afrobeat forms of music.

To me, Fela is a very great influence, out of the whole of musicians coming from Africa. His music is down to earth, his music is local, but you can feel other influences in it and it’s very strong. I’m a musician as well, but whatever he’s done, I call him a musician. That’s the power of Fela.

Nick Dwyer

Did you ever have the chance to perform in his club?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, I went to Nigeria. Ebo Taylor was my bandleader and Ebo Taylor and Fela went to the same school so they knew each other. So we performed in the same club, The Shrine, that Fela had and it was wonderful. Seeing what Fela was doing, seeing what Ebo Taylor was doing, different minds trying to portray different forms of music, it was fantastic. People hear Fela now playing saxophone, but Fela is a very good trumpet player. That was the instrument that he majored with. Very good trumpet player. But he had a problem in Ghana and the problem stopped him from playing trumpet.

Nick Dwyer

What was the problem? [laughter] There’s a funny story here.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Fela came to Ghana with his band and there was a hotel called Hotel President. Basically that’s where they stayed when they come. But flamboyantly, you know Fela’s musicians don’t care, they’d be smoking weed and everything, all that. So trouble erupted between the police and his musicians and some of the people who worked in the hotel. So Fela was, “Hey man, kill him. Yah!” Instead of asking, “Oh my brother, what’s going on?” It was, “Hey man, let’s go.” And the cook who worked in the hotel, he didn’t know that this was Fela and he gave Fela a blow right to the mouth.

That was disrupted. That was the end of Fela. That night he was performing at the Apollo Theater in Ghana and he was playing trumpet and crying. “Is that gonna be the end of my horn playing?” He’s a smart guy so he looked at it and said, “Trumpet? OK, man. I’ll switch to saxophone.”

So I went to Nigeria and played with him in his club. From there we went to play another club, a school called Suka University where we played side by side with Fela and that’s where he started learning how to play the saxophone. In his room you cab hear [imitates saxophone scales and rudiments], learning the scales a and these things. That made him move away from trumpet to saxophone. But I love him on trumpet. But he’s a musician, so he knows his way around anyway. Whether it’s a saxophone or not, he knows what to do to fit it into his style of music.

Nick Dwyer

At some point soon we’ll throw it open to everyone here and I’m sure there’ll be people who’d like to ask some questions. I know you’ve got so many stories, we could be here a long time. But unfortunately everyone sat through a very inspirational four hours yesterday, so I’m determined to make sure everyone gets a lot of studio time today. I want to play something else right now. You keep mentioning Ebo Taylor, who to this day is such an incredible musician, and I’d like to play another Apagya Show Band track. This is one called “Kwaku Ananse.” What is this track about?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Kwaku Ananse is a trickster. So what he did was he cultivated a farm with his family. After the crops grew he wanted to enjoy that alone without his family. So Kwaku Ananse told his family that something would happen to him, but if he dies, he wants to buried in the farm. Something happened, we don’t know if he pretended, but he pretended to be dead, so they took him to the farm and buried him in the farm. Every night he gets up, the crops, whatever he wants to eat, he cooks. When he finished he goes back because he knows what time the family will come.

So when the family come it looks like someone has come and disrupted the farm. You see that many of the fruits have been pulled out. It happened a couple of times, then the son of Kwaku Ananse said, “I know what to do.” So he carved a human being and put glue all over the human being and left it. Then at night time when Kwaku Ananse woke up from his grave, he saw someone standing there. He said, “What are you doing here? Who told you to come here?” Because it’s a dummy there’s no reply. “Can’t you hear what I’m telling you? Who told you to come?” Then the dummy, speechless.

You know what he did? Then he slapped the dummy, pow, and when he did the hand wouldn’t come back to him because of the glue. “Uh, you won’t release me? I’ll slap you again.” So he took the left one, bang, slapped him and both hands are caught. Then, “You won’t leave me? I’ll boot you.” So the leg got caught and he got stuck on it. So the next morning when the family came he’s stuck on the dummy. So the wife asked him, “I thought you were dead. So you were the one who’s been stealing from the farm. What have we done to you? We were a family, we could’ve enjoyed it. But because you were selfish this is where you are.” So that is the story. [applause]

(music: Apagya Show Band — “Kwaku Ananse” / applause)

Nick Dwyer

The Apagya Show Band, which is, of course, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Ebo Taylor. You and Ebo, you still really good friends, you still working together?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Very much so, we’ve been together since kids and I’ve grown up to be his friend in the realm of music. We’re still sharing and performing. He’s been touring these days and we’re thinking of going back to the studio to put some things together. He’s an influence, so I don’t wanna miss him. He’s about 76 now but he’s still kicking, so I want to find out his secret why he’s still kicking. We have something to put in common and eventually we’ll go back to the studio.

Nick Dwyer

There are so many questions I’d like to ask but I’ll try to keep it to one more. Before that I’ll pass it to the audience. Has anyone got any questions for Gyedu-Blay Ambolley?

Audience Member

I’m interested in today in Ghana. How do most people find new music? Is it still the radio that’s the big thing? In Sweden the radio’s had a big decline and everyone’s finding it through the internet all the time. I’m a big fan of the radio and I still find it really interesting to listen to someone selecting music for you and not just getting it through different marketplaces. So can you tell me a bit about that?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

In Ghana right now the influence of hip-hop, and now in Ghana they call it hiplife, has influenced the younger generation of guys so much. Talking about radio and everything, they play more of the hiplife music. But that is also coming from the influence of the telephone companies because they’re targeting the youth and they need to use the hiplife to be able to target the youth. That’s been one side of the influence. That’s also helping to kill the real music that we have.

But we’ve got to now, because what we have is what we have. We cannot lay it out and pick somebody’s and make it our own. We’ve got it back that we want to put all of this traditional music back, inform the children, educate them, let them know that there is something before hip-hop or anything. We have to let them know what we have already, because you can add it to hiplife, give it another form, style of music instead of copying totally the hiplife thing. So this is what’s happening in Ghana, but we’ll fight against it. These days the world is a global village. You have the world on your phones, so all of it’s going on out there. But we have to fight and make them know that culturally we have something. [applause]

Audience Member

I know you spoke about Louis Armstrong, Parker, Gillespie and the bebop influence. I’m just curious if you share the same affinity for later jazz, like Ayler, Coltrane and Miles. Even like the electric Miles stuff, how you guys felt about that.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, we’ve been following the trail of jazz, where it’s leading to and all that. Miles Davis is one of the greatest musicians. Later on, he had to switch to the rock thing and the electronic thing. He did that but he didn’t understand why, all that time he’s put into music, he’s not making as much money as the rock musicians are making. Most of the jazz musicians are playing in clubs and things like that. The rock musicians are playing big festivals with thousands of people. So he said, “No man, I’ve got to have part of that.”

So that led him to switch, but he’d already made his name. Wherever he goes he has his some following. The whole thing has been changing. Later on, from what Duke did, Miles, Coltrane, later on with Wayne Shorter, it’s another form of music. That group that Miles formed, talking about Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, even before there was John Coltrane and George Coleman. So that group he formed became a very strong group that opened the eyes of jazz musicians. Miles was using the younger jazz musicians to tell a story and it worked very well. Starting with John Coltrane and all those other guys and moving to Herbie Hancock and the Wayne Shorter and Ron Carter, that was another major influence.

We followed a trend of the changes that were coming, but it’s only us who know music that are doing that. The younger generation, you mention Miles, they don’t know. All these people that have influenced the music culture, they don’t know. But we’re trying, because we want to inform. Everything’s based on information as well as education so this is what we’re trying to do so that we’ll bring them.

Audience Member

I definitely hear the three horn lines on top, but on top of the steady beat, and I think it’s really cool.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Thank you.

Audience Member

My main knowledge of Ghanaian music is from the Ghana Soundz compilations. I have volumes one and two, and if you listen to that, then Accra seems so cool. The Swinging Accra, you know? There’s so many really funky and cool and interesting tracks on those compilations. I just wonder if you have any excerpts of how those compilations came about, or if you think they’re really reflective of the scene at the time. Because sometimes compilations, they try to get it but maybe they don’t get the whole story. So just whatever you think about Ghana Soundz.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I think it’s something good. This is something that should’ve been done by even us to tell our story.

Audience Member

You’ve got how many tracks on that album?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

So many. [laughs]

Nick Dwyer

It’s funny, there’s all these other bands on that album and then it’s like, oh right, you’re in that band too.

Audience Member

I was wondering if you have a count.

Nick Dwyer

It’s a really good question. Do you feel that those compilations are a really accurate reflection of that period?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

As a matter of fact so. I know that guy, Miles [Cleret], he came down and one good thing he did was he started to find out where he could obtain all those forms of music, reflective of what he was hearing when he was back in England and what he came to meet. He did a good job because what’s on that CD reflects what was going on back in the late ‘70s, into the ‘80s. He did a very good job because most of them, you don’t hear them anymore. Ghana Soundz compiling them and bringing it back, yes, that’s a good job and I applaud him for that. And I’m very happy that out of that you’ve also been informed about what’s going on out there.

Audience Member

Those compilations are amazing. They were integral in my appreciation of African music of that period.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I remember I was invited to go and perform in Amsterdam, and they wanted me to play all that music I did back in the ‘70s. I said, “Man, I’m moving forward.” [applause]

Aside from that I was also fascinated that these are songs we did in the ‘70s and now they’re becoming popular in Europe. Wow! I have a video of what we did in Amsterdam playing all these forms of music and if you look at the crowd, almost 50,000 people. We played at the Haarlem Jazz Festival and all of them, everybody, wow! It means we did not work in vain. Yeah. And that’s what makes me proud. [applause]

Audience Member

Just real quick. I went to school near Nashville, Tennessee, and I had so many friends with those records on vinyl, jamming your records at parties.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

It’s good to hear that, because all those records were party, party, party music to make people feel good about themselves.

Audience Member

I have a question about the hiplife culture happening right now. Have you ever experienced artists sampling portions of your music or classic Ghanaian music to make their hiplife music? Or is it truly based on Western sounds?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

They started with Western sounds but it seems they’ve hit a wall so they’re returning.

Nick Dwyer

I think there was an example of Ebo Taylor and Usher, a song called “She Don’t Know” was sampling Ebo Taylor, right?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Exactly. And one of the three guys, they call them Replay, they also sampled my first record that I was sharing with you. Right now the hiplifers in Ghana, right now I’ve collaborated with five or six of them. They see that I’m the source of that, so they’re all coming back for collaboration. In a nutshell they became too Westernized, but now they see they have to return. So changes are coming. But it’s all based on information and education.

Nick Dwyer

Before we go, we’ve only got it off YouTube so it’s not the best quality, but as you mentioned, these guys sampled your record and invited you to perform it. This came out last year but this is to give people an idea what hiplife is. How old is he, this guy Replay?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I think it’s about two years.

(music: Replay feat. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley — “Simi Rap” / applause)

Nick Dwyer

It is pretty cool, though, the whole notion of the new generation, these hiplife producers, and they haven’t been looking behind at all. They haven’t been looking at Ghana at all, they’ve just been looking at America. But for them to come to you with your biggest song of 1972 and invite you along, is it a good feeling performing that alongside the new generation?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, it’s a good feeling for them to be able to recognize. Looking back and they said, “No, we better rekindle this,” and they’re bringing it back. It’s a good thing, making me feel that they’re not missing the mark. Though they missed it, they are coming back to where the mark is.

The only problem I have with the hiplife, these modern guys, is they want to do about ten songs a day. [laughter] Because they don’t know music. They’re going to the computer, cutting and pasting, writing words to it, hey, do another one. I’m like, man, you can’t do music like this. You do music to take it out there for people to listen to and buy. We call that sharp-sharp music. Sharp-sharp music will die sharp-sharp. These are the only problems that I have with them, because I will try and speak with them. If you do anything to take it to the market, make sure you do it well. Because people are not stupid. You throw anything to them they pick it up. That’s what’s happening. [applause]

Audience Member

I think African music is based on repetition most of the time. They take a pattern, then they repeat it and it evolves until the song ends. I’m guessing it has something to do with the rituals and the sacred, but I’d like to hear about it, the magical part of the repetition and what it means to you.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Most of the things we do are based on rhythms. When you put a chord to it, mostly in Africa the music is based on one and two. One and two is only two chords and they keep on repeating it. But what is surrounding the one and two is what matters, because the instrumentation around the one and two that makes you forget that it is repetitious music. Because the rhythm is what drives people. [sings] That’s what drives people. The rhythm will drive you, and people don’t care too much about playing that in a 32-bar sequence. Because you know 32-bar, eight, eight, eight, you keep on changing. No, people don’t care too much about that.

Those who care about it were the musicians who have learned music, that they want to experiment and turn the 32s and 16s and 24s into our form of music. But our form of music, if you listen to Fela, you see that most of his songs are based on two chords. But the horn arrangement, the guitars, the solos and everything makes it very unique.

Audience Member

Is this connected to traditional ritual or something?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

I wouldn’t say that it is a ritual, but it’s a form of music that we are very close to. The conga was the first instrument that was made in Africa by taking the skin of an animal and putting it on it and... [imitates conga] That was the magic, and when that happened it brought along other forms of music.

So if you say ritually and things like that, I think we live it, that style of music. We Africans, we live it. If you go to another form of Africa they’ll play 6/8. Ethiopian music is only 6/8 and that’s what they know. Go to another part it’s 2/4, another part is 4/4, so it’s all in different forms. And sometimes you mix the 6/8 into the 4/4 into order to give it another variation. But African music is basically based on rhythms, and we add in instrumentation and everything to it just for coloring and things like that. But hey, ritually or not ritually, it’s the same thing.

Nick Dwyer

We’ll have one more, then we’ll have a little break.

Audience Member

I’d like it if you could speak more about the recording process. You said you had two mics in the beginning. How did that progress and in that moment how would you distribute the musicians in the room to make the mixdown?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Every mixdown and everything was done as you were playing in the room, because we didn’t have the gadgets to take it outside and see that the vocalist was too much, the bass was too much, so let’s bring it down. No. So everything was done with only two microphones. The whole band would have only one microphone in front of them. It’s something that really shocks me myself. When you hear the music after it was recorded, you hear everything — bass, drums, horns, everything. The vocalist would be given only one microphone and as they were recording, everything, it’s going into the two-track. To me, that was magic.

Right now we have options of 32 tracks or something, every instrument has its own track. But it was magic and it worked. Those big band sounds playing with a jazz influence were only recorded on two tracks, but as you listen to it you hear everything. To me, that was magic.

Audience Member

Did you have to stop doing it in the moment you got more microphones?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Yeah, because when more gadgets were being brought in and all that, it also gave room for other experimentations and that allowed other things to be done and put into it. The other one, like I said, you’re recording, you make a mistake, and the whole band had to stop and start all over again. But with the new gadgets, the whole band can play and we can go back to the person who makes a mistake and let him put it back in there. That’s how it evolved. [applause]

Nick Hook

The song with the rap was the only one in English of all the songs we heard. Was that conscious?

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

That was my first music I was coming out with and I wanted people to understand it, not only in Ghana but outside of Ghana. That’s why it said, “I wanna tell you pretty baby about a new dance / They call it Simigwa-Do / I’m gonna show you how to do it / If you don’t know how to do it just listen to me. Before we come to...“ [sings in foreign language] Thank you.

Nick Dwyer

We’re gonna leave it there, but Gyedu will be here for the rest of the day so if you have any more questions for him and if you want to get him into the studio, he really wants to get in the studio with you guys. The last question… Well, I guess it’s part statement, part question, but the greatest test of music is the test of time. Forty, even 50 years on from this music you created back in Accra in that time, we still listen to it and it still sounds just as incredible as I'm sure it did at the time. So thank you very much for this incredible timeless music. [applause]

You’ve got a whole room full of musicians and artists, people who will hopefully go on and create some really timeless music themselves. What’s your greatest piece of advice for this room? I’m not gonna reveal your age but you’re certainly not young anymore and you’re still making music, you’re still doing exactly what you love doing.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

You said you’re not going to reveal my age, but sometimes it’s good to reveal. As you see me, I’m over 60 years, but your body is your temple. If you take good care of your body then your body will take good care of you. I’ve had this at the back of my mind for a long time and I feel I need to enjoy the gift that the most high God has given to me and if I stay healthy I’ll enjoy it, so that’s what I’m doing.

But musically, all of us are musicians. We’ve evolved into music. I think experimentations are very, very important, because wherever you came from, you have your own form of music that belongs to you. Aside from that there are other forms of music everywhere, somewhere. So I think we need to be open-minded and experiment with our music and let Africa be part of your vision. You can travel to Africa, not to go and live there, but if you want to live there that’s your prerogative. But there you will find different forms of music, you will find different kinds of musicians that you can interact with.

I think there was a violin player. I think he came from France or something like that. He did a nice job with some African musicians, just like what Paul Simon did going to South Africa, mix up with South African musicians and that was Graceland. Man, let that be our vision. Traveling involves money. If you don’t have it, you can save towards that. As a lifetime experience it’d be very good for you to go to Africa. You just go there, go and consume, mingle, mix with them, feel it, and bring whatever that you saw and bring it back. Do your own thing. Because music is a language and we all know how to speak that language, so that language brings us all together. So let us all be together and play together and move together and sing together. Boom. [applause]