Traditional music from Ghana

In the USA

Of all the musical giants to emerge from West Africa in the last twenty-five years, few have equaled the stature of the great Mustapha Tettey Addy, master GA drummer from Ghana. Addy was born in the traditional Ga area of Ghana in 1942 into a large family of famous drummers and dancers. Learning the gongs, Dongo, Blekete, Fanti Osode, and the famous talking drum, as well as other traditional Ga drums at a very early age, he has performed, toured and recorded throughout the world, exporting an appreciation of these wonderful rhythms to continually wider and more enthusiastic international audiences.

On this recording produced by Michael Steyn of Tangent Records, U.K., Mustapha Tettey Addy unleashes the rhythms of the Ashanti, Ga, Fanti, Ewe and Dagomba peoples of West Africa. This legendary master is captured here at his best in a classic and timeless solo performance.

In the USA

Smithsonian Folkways recording of Ghanaian traditional music

In the USA

Some great music by from the Mamprusi, Frafra, Kasena, Dagarti and Kusasi ethnic groups in Northern Ghana.

In the USA

Roots highlife - intimate, down-home small bar music.

In the USA

Traditional music from various parts of Ghana

In the USA

Early highlife

In the USA

In the USA

I owned this recording for years and never tired of it. Click on Listen and listen to a few of the clips - you'll want it, too. Unfortunately it's only available in the USA used. Try the Amazons in other countries (below).

In the USA

With 400 ethnic groups in Nigeria alone, The Rough Guide to the Music of Nigeria & Ghana (from the Rough Guide series) covers a vast canvas. So it's no wonder--and probably a sensible idea--that Fela Kuti, the Nigerian singer best known in the West, should not be included (on the grounds that his records are ubiquitous anyway). What is included here is dominated by that quintessentially mid-20th-century style known as highlife, best exemplified by its undisputed king E.T. Mensah. With his old-fashioned diction and immense charm, Mensah rides along on a gracefully Westernized instrumental sound. King Sunny Ade, who displaced him (and who was briefly picked up by Western promoters as a potential West African Bob Marley), prefers hard-driving rhythms and clean a cappella choruses. But on this superb CD charm is the key element, with a multitude of variations on local rhythms and instrumental combinations. Check out the two-string gourd molo, as played with brilliant panache by Captain Yaba; or revel in some of West Africa's best-loved party tracks, including those by C.K. Mann and Eric Agyeman. There's up-to-the-minute stuff from expatriate bands in America, and a wonderfully atmospheric gig with the most recent highlife king, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe. --Michael Church

In the USA

Great classic style highlife music - if this doesn't get you out of your seat, you're dead.

In the USA