Nana Tuffour
Legendary highlife musician Nana Tuffour died on Monday morning following a short illness.
He was 66. The unfortunate incident occurred at his residence in Kumasi and his body has subsequently been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) mortuary.
Popularly called ‘9924’, the man was renowned for his musical influence. He is known for hit songs such as ‘Akatakyiwa’, ‘Odo Kakra Sika Kakra’, ‘Owuo Sei Fie’, ‘Me Yere Dada’, ‘Abeiku’, among others. He also had over 15 albums to his credit.
James Nana Tuffour kicked off his musical journey with great keyboardist Alex Konadu, popularly known as ‘one man thousand.’
He later joined the Wanto Wazuri Band as a pianist before becoming the front man for the Waza Africo Band due to his great vocals and unique lyrics.
In no time, he was envisioning a solo album, a reason for which he sojourned in Nigeria. In Nigeria, he began working with legendary Nigerian musician King Sunny Ade as his keyboardist.
In 1979, he released his first album ‘Highlife Romance’, followed by many other hit albums. A countless number of Nana Tuffour’s songs were recorded at Bodo Staiger’s Rheinklang studio in Duesseldorf, where also many other highlife stars from Ghana had produced their hits.
By Francis Addo