Highlife

Style de musique ghanéenne et nigériane né au début du XXe siècle

Highlife

Highlife is a West African music style born in Ghana (then Gold Coast) in the 1920s and which spread to Nigeria and throughout West Africa. Fusion of local rhythms (such as merchant ship dances and palm-wine music) with Western music (British military marches, jazz, Trinidadian calypso and palm-wine guitar), highlife is characterized by enticing guitar melodies, brass instruments and polyrhythmic structures.

The pioneers include E.T. Mensah (the king of highlife, with the Tempos Band), Nana Ampadu, and in the 1960s-70s: Osibisa (international highlife-groove), E.T. Mensah, Brimo Kwami, and the Nigerians Victor Olaiya and Remmi Oyeniyi Osunlade. In the 1970s-80s, Sunny Adé (juju) and groups like the Oriental All Stars Band took highlife further.

Highlife has profoundly influenced afrobeat (Fela Kuti came from highlife), fuji, palm-wine and modern afropop.