Kyekyeku and Professor John Collins to discuss highlife music at #ACCES2019

The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) will feature a session at ACCES music conference on November 29, 2019 that take a shot through the journey of highlife music.

The session, under the theme Highlife Music – A Journey Though the Genre, will be held at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences today at 10:45am and will feature University of Ghana professor John Collins and highlife musician Kyekyeku, with the two panelists set to discuss the early history and development of the Ghanaian musical tradition.

Yesterday, Kyekyeku and his band, Ghanalogue Highlife, performed at Alliance Française Accra. Other artists including Ghana’s YaaYaa, UK/Mali’s Songhoy Blues and Togo’s Arka’n also delivered stunning performances.

The ACCES 2019 music conference opener on November 28, 2019 also saw Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor and Bibie Brew receive honorary Awards.

Collins is a music intellectual and musician who has been active on the Ghanaian music scene since 1969. He graduated from the University of Ghana (1972) and University at Buffalo (1994) with a BA degree in sociology & archaeology and a PhD in ethnomusicology, respectively. He began teaching at the University of Ghana’s music department in 1995 and obtained a full professorship at the same institution in 2002. Collins has written more than 25 research publications on such topics as highlife, dance, world music and Fela Kuti.

Kyekyeku represents a generation of young Ghanaian musicians promoting highlife music in his home country and abroad. His sound is a mixture of energetic highlife and Afro-funk and harks back to highlife and Afrobeat progenitors Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas and Nana Ampadu. His lyrics are reminiscent of village songs, protest songs, love songs and ancient African spirituality. Kyekyeku and his band have performed at various events across Africa as well as Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) and Latitude Festival (UK).

Highlife Music – A Journey Though the Genre will start with Collins presenting archival photography as part of his presentation and Kyekyeku complementing the talk with audio references.

View the full ACCES 2019 programme here. 

Registration is mandatory and African delegates register for free.

Source: netbuzzafrica.com