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Does anyone know anything about highlife guitar?

Mad Drama TeacherMad Drama Teacher 1,985 Posts
edited May 2007 in Strut Central
I was reading an interview with Johnny Marr, one of my favorite guitarists, where he sort of spills the beans on many of the Smiths big songs, including many of my favorites. He mentions some of his playing as "highlify," an African style focusing on melody, which was purely coincidental, but it so happens that the highlify riffs are some of my favorite Marr riffs, so I'm wondering if anyone on here knows about any good African highlife CDs. There's some info on the internets, but I really don't want to take a shot in the dark, so any help would be much appreciated.

  Comments

  • rape_donkeysrape_donkeys 615 Posts
    i have heard good things about oby onyioha. but i have yet to actually listen to music.
  • BELIEVEBELIEVE 257 Posts
    You know it's funny--I've never noticed any resemblance between The Smiths' guitar work and guitar-driven highlife, but having been tipped off it's definitely there. A decent example of the tonal similarity would be comparing "This Charming Man" to "Guitar Boy" by Sir Victor Uwaifo. While Uwaifo is not the "original highlife sound" that came from Ghana (he's Nigerian), his music has the guitar sound and instrumentation that crossed over into popular african music of the late 60s-70s.

    I put "Guitar Boy" on a mix of songs I made for friends--you can download the full mix here:
    http://www.sneakmove.com/audio/Believe_Mix_06.zip

    Guitar Boy should be track 6.

    As for other guitar-driven highlife, here are some artists to check out:
    Rex Lawson
    Charles Iwegbue
    Alex Konadu
    Dr. Sir Warrior

    Most of the highlife music I own have been homemade comps with random tracklists or random 45s, so I can't offer much direction on the CD comp/reissue front...but there are lots of options out there I'm sure.
  • Mad Drama TeacherMad Drama Teacher 1,985 Posts
    Thanks very much for some direction, guys.
  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    Back in the early to mid 90's Guitar Player magazine actually did a series of really good articles on African guitar styles, if you're really curious check the microfilm at the library. I have all those issues in storage, but I can't get to them right now.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .
  • Mad Drama TeacherMad Drama Teacher 1,985 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    WOW!

    Thanks so much!
  • hogginthefogghogginthefogg 6,098 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    Thanks for the link. I just read Half of a Yellow Sun, a historical novel set during the Biafran war. The book makes several mentions of high life music, particularly that of an artist named Rex Lawson.

    It sounds about like I thought it would, but I guess I'm basing that on years of listening to benga records from the opposite coast of Africa (Kenya) and recent rewinds of Frank's mixes.
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    Thanks for the link. I just read Half of a Yellow Sun, a historical novel set during the Biafran war. The book makes several mentions of high life music, particularly that of an artist named Rex Lawson.

    Did you, now?
  • pabloscooterpabloscooter 370 Posts
    That link is nuts.

    I've been really into the the Jewels- Reap in tears Sow in Joy lp- awesome cover and some of my favorite highlife to date (sorry I cant find a picture on the internet)

    ET Mensah is considered to be the "king of highlife" his early stuff is some of the best.

    AND oby onyioha is not highlife.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    Do yourselves all a favor skip to the Kinshasa mixes.
  • hogginthefogghogginthefogg 6,098 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    Thanks for the link. I just read Half of a Yellow Sun, a historical novel set during the Biafran war. The book makes several mentions of high life music, particularly that of an artist named Rex Lawson.

    Did you, now?


    Faux_Rillz and Bassie lernt me ta read.


    To read exceptionally depressing books, that is.
  • BELIEVEBELIEVE 257 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    Damn, that's a great link. Thanks! Will check the Kinshasa mixes for sure. so much to learn...
  • zimbzimb 8 Posts
    there seems to be some confusion about guitar styles here - the "kinshasa stuff" is congolese guitar a whole different genre and maybe the richest in africa.

    Highlife is usually considered as coming from ghana/eastern nigeria and to a smaller extent cameroon. It grew out of big band music supposedly derived from army bands and played to the local well off (hence the term "highlife") the early highlife, such as E.T. Mensah are very brass oriented. Later in the 60s and more so the 70s there emerged "guitar band highlife" in which most of these brass insturements were replaced by crisscrossing interlocking guitars - the most famous of these bands (and the most prolific) was the african brothers band. Some of these bands, especialy in cameroon and eastern Nigeria, were heavily influenced by the congolese guitar sounds of OK Jazz, Dr. Nico and others.

    Supposedly The most popular song in africa supposedly is Prince Nico Mbarga's "Sweet Mother" which features camerounian highlife influenced by the congolese sound. If you listen to mbarga's sound I could see Marr picking up a vibe from it.

    For me the best examples of such sounds are those eastern nigerian bands like Ikenga superstars and super negro bantous.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    Actually no confusion about the styles. Like you I just like the Congolese style much more so I suggested people skip the highlife mixes. Keep flowing those downloads Ch==k=. Were you up on that site already?
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    there seems to be some confusion about guitar styles here - the "kinshasa stuff" is congolese guitar a whole different genre and maybe the richest in africa.

    Highlife is usually considered as coming from ghana/eastern nigeria and to a smaller extent cameroon. It grew out of big band music supposedly derived from army bands and played to the local well off (hence the term "highlife") the early highlife, such as E.T. Mensah are very brass oriented. Later in the 60s and more so the 70s there emerged "guitar band highlife" in which most of these brass insturements were replaced by crisscrossing interlocking guitars - the most famous of these bands (and the most prolific) was the african brothers band. Some of these bands, especialy in cameroon and eastern Nigeria, were heavily influenced by the congolese guitar sounds of OK Jazz, Dr. Nico and others.

    Supposedly The most popular song in africa supposedly is Prince Nico Mbarga's "Sweet Mother" which features camerounian highlife influenced by the congolese sound. If you listen to mbarga's sound I could see Marr picking up a vibe from it.

    For me the best examples of such sounds are those eastern nigerian bands like Ikenga superstars and super negro bantous.

    Opps, I lost my long ass post about "supposedly most popular in Africa". I talked about selling new African cds to African customers.

    I also did my world music top ten.

    And talked about Afrocando, I am replacing my long lost cd today.

    If any one is interested in any of these topics I will elaborate.
  • zimbzimb 8 Posts
    Actually no confusion about the styles. Like you I just like the Congolese style much more so I suggested people skip the highlife mixes. Keep flowing those downloads Ch==k=. Were you up on that site already?

    sorry about the misread, J. I've been on the site and there are indeed some pretty tasty things on there (and some of it pretty rare too)
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,391 Posts
    For the last word in highlife please push this button .

    Damn, that's a great link. Thanks!

    Wow. That site is wonderful.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    there seems to be some confusion about guitar styles here - the "kinshasa stuff" is congolese guitar a whole different genre and maybe the richest in africa.

    Highlife is usually considered as coming from ghana/eastern nigeria and to a smaller extent cameroon. It grew out of big band music supposedly derived from army bands and played to the local well off (hence the term "highlife") the early highlife, such as E.T. Mensah are very brass oriented. Later in the 60s and more so the 70s there emerged "guitar band highlife" in which most of these brass insturements were replaced by crisscrossing interlocking guitars - the most famous of these bands (and the most prolific) was the african brothers band. Some of these bands, especialy in cameroon and eastern Nigeria, were heavily influenced by the congolese guitar sounds of OK Jazz, Dr. Nico and others.

    Supposedly The most popular song in africa supposedly is Prince Nico Mbarga's "Sweet Mother" which features camerounian highlife influenced by the congolese sound. If you listen to mbarga's sound I could see Marr picking up a vibe from it.

    For me the best examples of such sounds are those eastern nigerian bands like Ikenga superstars and super negro bantous.

    Opps, I lost my long ass post about "supposedly most popular in Africa". I talked about selling new African cds to African customers.

    I also did my world music top ten.

    And talked about Afrocando, I am replacing my long lost cd today.

    If any one is interested in any of these topics I will elaborate.

    DUde, spill that wine.
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