“Highlife Time – Nigerian and Ghanaian Sound from the 60s and Early 70s” a 2xCD or 2xLP compilation by Vampi Soul.
Tracklist
- Opotopo – Belama
- Rex Lawson and His Rivers Men – Numfinye (Nome Alobo)
- Stan Plange and The Uhuru Dance Band – Grazing In The Grass
- St. Augustine – Jolosho
- Rex Lawson and His Rivers Men – Pay Me My Money Now
- Stan Plange and The Uhuru Dance Band – Dabra Ba
- Opotopo with Fatai Rolling Dollar – Won Bum
- Rex Lawson and his Rivers Men – Oko
- Stan Plange and The Uhuru Dance Band – Aasem
- Rex Lawson and His Rivers Men – Peri Special Mbanga
- Dan Satch and His Atomic 8 – Ikoro Special
- Chief Enyang Henshaw – Esonta
- Professional Seagulls Band – Afro Baby
- Opotopo – Etuk Owo
- Akana Man – Okina
Highlife, dance music played mostly in Ghana and Nigeria, represents one of the century’s first fusions of African roots and western music, and before 1970 it ruled dancefloors across much of West Africa. The story of West African big-band Highlife is the story of West African independence itself. From its early roots in church music, old African song forms, sea shanties and military brass bands to the orchestra podiums of the slickest nightclubs and concert halls of Lagos and Accra, Highlife has charted the growing confidence of a proud and gifted people casting off the shackles of empire: a people ready to live the High Life.
Accra’s E.T. Mensah was the pioneer, but Lagos was not far behind, with superstars such as Roy Chicago, Rex Lawson and Dr. Victor Olaiya performing to packed dancefloors where, unusually for West Africa, ethnicity didn’t matter – Igbo people danced with Hausas, and Efik guys with Yoruba women.
West Africa was prosperous, there was work for all – and for several glorious years, Highlife was the soundtrack for the good times. In 1967 the tragic Biafran War wrought three years of misery in eastern Nigeria, but soon after Highlife came to the rescue, the 70s music of legends such as Stephen Osita Osadebe helping to heal the scars as only music can.