West African Pop Roots

368 Pages·1992·8.19 MB·English

by  John Collins

iii
Temple UnIversity Press
Philadelphia
Temple UnIversIty Press, PhIladelphia 19122
CopYright © 1992 by Temple UnIversIty Press All rights reserved
Pubhshed 1992
Printed m the UnIted States of America
An earher versIon of thIS work was pubhshed m 1985 under the title AfrIcan Pop
Roots The Inside Rhythms of Africa by W Foulsham & Co Ltd, London
The paper used m thIS pubhcatlOn meets the mmlmum reqUIrements of
American National Standard for InformatIOn SCIences-Permanence of Paper
for Prmted LIbrary Materials, ANSI Z39 48-1984 i§
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collms, John, 1944-
West African pop roots / John Collms
p cm
Rev ed of African pop roots c1985
Includes mdex
ISBN 0-87722-793-4 (cloth) - ISBN 0-87722-916-3 (paper)
1 Popular musIc-Africa, West-HIstory and CriticIsm 2 Folk
musIc-Africa, West-HIstory and cntlclsm 3 Muslclans-Afnca,
West-BIography I Collms, John, 1944- African pop roots
II TItle
ML3503 A358C63 1992
781 63'0966-dc20 91-35089
CIP
Photographs John Collms, Anton CorblJn, Flemmmg Harrev, Juhet HIghet,
Jak KIlby, SylVIa Moore, Yemo Nunu, Ton van der Lee, Ian Watts
Contents
IntroductIOn ix
1 TradItIOnal Cool and Hot Rhythms.
African MUSIC m the Space Age 1
2 FIrst FusIOns-Orchestras and Brass-Bands·
E T Mensah, the Kmg of High life, and Kmg Bruce 17
3 Palm-Wme and GUltars:
"Sam" (Kwame Asare), Kwaa Mensah,
and E K Nyame 32
f./.. The Man Who Made a "TradItIOnal"
MUSIC Called Kpanlogo 42
5 RagtIme to Rumba 49
6 Jazz Comes Home to Afnca 53
7 Soul to Soul 58
LoJaq ~ SounJs
anJ piltsonalililzs
8 Fela and the Afro-Beat RevolutIOn 69
9 The JUJu Boom 85
10 OSlbIsa's Cnss-Cross Rhythms 94
v
VI CONTENTS
11 Afro-Rock Catches On 101
12 Afro-DIsco 112
13 VICtor UwaIfo, the GUItar Boy 122
14 The Drums ofKofi AYIvor 128
15 The Afro-Reggae of Sonny Okosun
and Alpha Blondy 134
16 GUItar-Band ExplosIon·
Hlghlife, Maringa, and Makossa 143
17 "F" PromotIons
Ghana's Melting Pot 158
18 LIfe on the Road.
Modern A ftican Minstrels, the Jaguar Jokers 167
19 The Afncan-French ConnectIon 182
20 Pushed Out by ApartheId 194
21 The Llbenan Pop Scene 203
22 Francophone West Afnca
and the Jah Expenence
by Flemming Harrev 209
S(lction \fout- ./flusk Business
23 The Afncan Recordmg Industry 247
24 Afncan MUSIC Umons 256
25 Runnmg a Band and a MUSIC StudIo m Ghana 262
S(lction \fiO(l Ovets
CWSS-
26 Afnca Goes West 285
27 The Onginal Afncan Cross-Overs:
Ghanaba and Kwesi Asare 287
28 Roots, Rasta, Reggae.
Stepping-Stones back to Aftlca 298
CONTENTS vii
29 Afnca and New Wave 305
30 Black and WhIte 308
About the Author 331
Acknowledgments 333
Index 335

Mest Aftican Pop Roots IS the extraordmary and mtlmate story of
the hIdden roots of Afnca's popular muslC It traces the bfe and
messages of Afnca's body musIc-body mUSIC transported across
the AtlantIc to the New World, where It was transposed mto myr
Iads of tlme- and mmd-bendmg styles These styles reflect lIfe
styles generated from a common hentage, all pomtmg back to Af
ncan roots
ThIS creatIve explosIon crossed back to Afnca, exposmg Af
ncans and blacks of the dlaspora alIke to a multItude of creatIve
sources, from whlCh new syntheses emerged Cross-over mUSIC
from Afnca and the dlaspora has spread to every part of the globe.
For more than a hundred years dance muslC has been dommated
by Afncan and black-msplred rhythms
What IS the fascmatIon of thIS pulsatmg force? The world has
come to know It from the outsIde, back-to-front as It were. FIrst
there were the spmtuals, the blues, pZZ, and hot gospel, all based
on the rhythms of Afnca Thelomus Monk thought of hIS plano as
a drum Then there was the emergence of Afncan rhythms
through modIfied whIte forms such as rock and roll, when BIll
Haley cottoned on to the popular potentIal of black mUSlC-mUSlC
that was dnvmg young whIte Amencans to tune m to IllICIt black
radIO statIOns, and to pace the wrong SIde of town to find out how
to clIck theIr fingers, move theIr bodIes, and talk m a language
unknown m theIr homes
Then West Afnca's OSlblsa burst onto the mternatIOnal muslC
scene TheIr "Afro-rock" muslC resounded wIth a rhythmIc ener
gy that came dIrectly from Afnca When OSlbIsa were unleashed
on the BntIsh publIc, they took audIences by surpnse As one cnt
lC put It, OSlbIsa "grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and
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