15 Jul HIGHLIFE FUSION.

Highlife is recognized as Music from Ghana and Nigeria but started in Ghana. It has been a Fusion of the Local Traditional Drums rhythm,singing,and also Foreign(Western) style of music. Lets dive in with brief History of Highlife.

Brief History Of Highlife

Before the name Highlife, there were already Guitar Bands music which was mainly Singing in Local languages accompanied with The traditional Instruments and the Acoustic Guitar in Mid and Fast Tempos(Rhythm).All the Ethnic groups in Ghana had their own type of tradition instruments, some even carved their own version of guitar but the common used Guitar was the Acoustic Guitar. The Guitar Bands Rhythms were given names but they summarized all the forms of music as OSIBI. OSIBI was the first name given to all forms of music in Ghana but later changed to what we know as Highlife today.

The Change From OSIBI To Highlife

There are many stories about how Highlife got its name, but the most common story we heard from our Legends was back in the Colonial Era in Ghana. During that time, there were Educated Ghanaians who also dressed like the colonial masters when coming to organized room shows and ceremonies in the major Capital cities like Accra,Cape Cost and Kumasi. They adopted and learnt the cultural lifestyle of the colonial masters like their Music with its structural dance like Quick-Step. During those shows, they had fun and mingled more with the colonial masters so their fellow Ghanaians who couldn’t afford the gate fee for the show stood outside and tagged their fellow Ghanaians Inside as living a HIGH LIFE since they were freely mingling with the colonial Masters. These shows were organized almost every week, so people kept saying “Highlife” and it got stuck, however affected the music name as well. Since then, they stopped using the name OSIBI and replaced it with HIGHLIFE.

The Side Of Fusion in Highlife

According to the Legendary Ebo Taylor, he said “Highlife was first played by Musicians who have acquired skills in playing Foreign Instruments like Electric Guitar,Trumpet,Saxophone,Trombone,Drums etc, and they were played in organized show rooms in Kumasi,Accra,and Cape Coast where White officials and Black Government met to have good time. These bands became known as the show room bands like ET Mensah, and King Bruce, playing white styles like Quick-Step(purely white harmonies).But the Blackman said, let me use part of Military Music, and American Music, and extract some melodies into our local Rhythm fused together”. On this note, Highlife is a fusion of the local Ghanaian Rhythms with white harmonies, therefore the Fusion of Highlife started when Highlife started.

Upon all the extraction of foreign melodies into the local Ghanaian Rhythm, there is a particular syncopated rhythm that defines Highlife and it has always been present in all Highlife songs. Our Legends always state that any music with that syncopated rhythm is Highlife or has the Influence of Highlife Music. Lets Listen to the rhythm below;

Furthermore, Highlife is a theme given to all Music from Ghana with the rhythm above. There are different forms of Highlife such as Sakyi Highlife, Palmwine Highlife, Burger Highlife etc, all are fusion with what I said earlier and with the Highlife synocapted Signature rhythm. Fusion in Highlife has expanded since the beginning of Highlife with different views and ideas. One Important Revolutionary in the Highlife world that I want to conclude with is the version of Highlife to the Adasamma Group. Their concept and approach has not yet been done in the world of Highlife. Their combination of time signatures and chord changes with melodies, stand different from the Highlife we know but has all the Highlife Elements. Listen to a Single they Released and have an idea of what I mean. I believe their concept carries the Future of Highlife Music.