Members of the Local Dimension Band
In preparation for the Ghanaba Afro Jazz Nights in January 2025, the well-known Ghanaian music group, Local Dimension Band, has been rehearsing at the Ghanaba African Heritage Centre (GAHC) at New Achimota, near the Kingsby Hotel in Accra.
The Ghanaba Afro Jazz Nights, which will feature some music groups, is expected to attract a number of personalities including stakeholders in the creative arts industry.
The band is excited to collaborate with the institution in order to help raise awareness of Kofi Ghanaba’s legacy and his invention of Afro Jazz.
Local Dimension Band, which has been branded as one of the enterprising musical groups in Ghana with good stage presence, has promised to give fans extraordinary live musical performances at the Ghanaba Afro Jazz Nights.
Through monthly performances at GAHC, the Ghanaba African Heritage Foundation and the Local Dimension Band are bringing back Ghanaba Afro Jazz music from the 1950s.
Over the years, the band which was founded in 1996 by Aaron Bebe Sukura and Prof. John Collins has given numerous performances throughout Ghana and Europe.
Ghanaba, who is credited with creating Afro Jazz music, used native typefaces from a jazz kit to adapt the Hendel Hallelujah chorus from its classical source into an African version.
Ghanaba, a drummer, travelled from Ghana to the United States via Liberia at the beginning of the 1950s.
He was aspiring to become an American Jazz musician; he was on a quest to make it big on the American Jazz scene.
Upon arrival, Ghanaba realised that the jazz music being played by the American Jazz musicians was brought to America by the African slaves, so as an African, he decided to emphasise on the origins of jazz music, which are the drums.
This move led to the invention of Afro Jazz music, which has become very popular and widely played and enjoyed by all, thanks to Ghanaba who brought it back home to Africa.