AMAMERE Band
AMAMERE BAND is a new soulful and energetic music project that fuses traditional guitar highlife music from Ghana with an Afro funky vintage style. The music takes its source in the deep highlife tradition of Ghana particularly the guitar band style of the 1960s and 70s.
AMAMERE BAND was formed in 2022 in Cape Coast in Ghana and is led by the drummer and composer Rim Akandoh Jnr. The first album (MAN SHALL BE FREE) consists of remixed songs from his father’s band (Prince Sparrows Band), songs from the Osoode medley tradition of Western Ghana and Rim Akandoh Jnr.’s own new compositions.
Besides the rhythmic musical tradition of highlife, the songs draw on a lyrical heritage of proverbial wisdom, and touches on the struggles of everyday life, love and political themes. The ambition of the AMAMERE BAND is to take the best from their musical heritage, and to share it with the rest of the world in an updated energetic and danceable highlife fusion style. It is a way to share the richness of the past with our contemporary world in a way that brings us all together.
AMAMERE BAND led by Rim Akandoh Jnr. wishes to bring new life to the tradition of highlife music that has since the 1990s been influenced by afro-beats and hip life.
He lifts the musical heritage of his renowned dad Rim Akandoh who performed with his Prince Sparrows band, Kakaiku's Band and KK's No. 2 in Ghana and Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s as well as other famous highlife artist of that generation including the still active Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, CK Mann, ET Mensah and the Uhuru Dance Band. Rim Akandoh Jnr. himself is a highly acclaimed drummer of several of Ghana's highlife legends such as the Western Diamond Band, Ebo Taylor, Papa Yankson, Jewel Ackah, AB Crentsil, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Pat Thomas and Amakye Dede.
Rim Akandoh Jnr. has now formed his own band (AMAMERE BAND), which consists of eight experienced musicians including lead vocal, keyboard, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, trumpet and sax. The first album titled MAN SHALL BE FREE also features top Ghanaian highlife artists such as the golden voice of Africa Pat Thomas, Akablay, and Kweku Mensah.
Rim Akandoh Junior - University of Ebo Taylor
There is a case to be made for a conceptual University of Ebo Taylor. The first time I heard Ebo Taylor play was in 1980 at the Sunrise Hotel in Accra. The Sunrise Hotel is now the Alisa Hotel. It was operated by Mr Mike Eghan in a building owned by Mr Kojo Botsio, Nkrumah's politician. The building was believed to have been built with Israeli technical support. Botsio was Israel's man in Nkrumah's government. There was a constant struggle between Israel and Egypt in Nkrumah's government.
Mr Mike Eghan, The Emperor, had advertised a Jazz concert by Ebo Taylor at the Sunrise. We, the putative Jazz lovers of Legon, were there in our numbers. The concert was billed for about 2pm, a kind of Afternoon Jump. Ebo Taylor did not turn up until about 5pm, to the chagrin of The Emperor. I do not recall many people leaving. The word was that the expected primary artiste was a 'teacher', a 'master', and so on. He did not disappoint when he mounted the stage. Ebo Taylor has long been seen as a teacher. When he arrived in London in the 1960s he formed the Black Star Band and was regularly advertised as 'West Africa's leading guitarist'. When he returned to Ghana in about 1965 he reformed the famous Broadway Band and went on to briefly lead the new big band which lead to the collapse of the Broadway Band - Uhuru Band. Ebo Taylor's leadership of Uhuru Band was brief. He was a difficult professor. Band members Mac Tontoh and Kofi Dadzie told me that the band members of too rebelled because the chord progressions and general arrangements Ebo Taylor introduced were too complex. This is the essence of what Ebo Taylor's grandson Kobby Taylor calls Highlife 2.0 on his remarkable tribute album The Torch.
Since I became professionally involved with Ebo Taylor about thirty years ago I have met scores of his bandsmen. The first I clearly outstandingly remember is the bassist Fish who now teaches at the University of Education Winneba. He was the leader of Ebo Taylor's University of Ghana band.
One of the most unforgettable of Ebo Taylor's bandsmen I have encountered is the drummer Rim Akandoh Junior. His confident, paced style of drumming immediately impressed me. It reminded me of the drumming of the legendary C. K. Mann drummer Rim. It is very different from the frenetic style of Tony Allen and his Ghanaian protege C. C. Bruce. Rim Akandoh's drumming is on focal exhibition on Ebo Taylor's album Yen Ara. Rim Akandoh is a memorable name in Ghanaian music. The senior Akandoh led the Prince Sparrows band which recorded many collectable albums. The junior Akandoh is seriously collecting his father's now difficult to find music. He has gone further. He has recorded an album reworking his father's music to be released early next year. I have been served early copy of the music. Immediately I listened to a few tracks I fired off a query whether the music was first recorded in analog format. That gives a much richer feel. All of Ebo Taylor's albums are recorded that way. Unlike many of the Ebo Taylor albums all of Akandoh junior's album was expertlye recorded in Ghana, in Cape Coast. It is very impressive. We need this kind of orientation as an intentional good quality job creating project in Ghana. The struggle over streaming in the current political manifestoes is misguided and inadequate. Above all this album must be considered a department of the University of Ebo Taylor.
