Born in 1937 in Cotonou, Ignace de Souza got involved in music at a young age, playing during the 1950’s in the country’s first professional dance band, Alfa Jazz. Zeal Onyia, a Nigerian trumpeter, encouraged him to drop the saxophone and play the trumpet instead.
In 1955 he moved to Accra and joined Spike Anyankor’s Rhythm Aces, one of the major bands playing while the highlife scene was exploding.
