Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Highlife legend Gyedu-Blay Ambolley has issues with the quality of highlife songs being churned out by the young musicians in Ghana, describing them as songs that will not cross borders.
In his assessment of the Ghanaian music industry, the veteran highlife musician described it as having big problems, among which is the computerised proliferation of the indigenous highlife music.
Speaking on Kasapa FM with Kojo Preko Dankwa, Ambolley said, “Every country has its music. What these young ones are doing in terms of singing and speaking Patois is that what we are calling highlife? There are certain instrumentations that accompany highlife music. This time, you don’t hear those instruments in their songs. When they do their recordings, there is no bass player; there is no drummer, because the technology has already programmed the instrumentations in their recordings.”
“These young ones sample European sounds and call it highlife. These can’t cross borders. It can only be accepted by Ghanaians outside the country when it does cross borders but to cross borders and make income, obviously not what they are producing lately,” the highlife legend indicated.
“A vivid example is the ‘Casa Africa Vis-a-Vis Ghana – Espana’ project. You’ll notice that the Spanish delegations were interested in those who play and perform with live bands. That is what I am talking about,” he stressed.
–Kasapafmonline