The following
arpeggiated highlife guitar part is modeled after an Afro-Cuban
guajeo. The pattern of attack-points is nearly identical to the
3-2 clave motif guajeo as shown below. The
bell pattern known in
Cuba as
clave is indigenous to Ghana, and is used in highlife. The origins of Highlife stem from colonialism and trading in West Africa through regional styles of music.
Palm wine music Palm-wine music, also known as maringa in Sierra Leone, was one style that originated on coastal locations when local musicians began using portable instruments brought by traders and fused it with local string and percussion instruments. It was usually played in a syncopated
4/4 metre. This music was played in low class palm-wine bars at ports where sailors, dock workers, and working class locals would drink and listen to the music. Palm-wine music eventually worked its way inland and a more Africanized version came containing 12/8
polyrhythms; this subgenre would be known as the "Native Blues". This style would gain popularity up until
World War II when production of the records was stopped.
Brass-band highlife A style of highlife that resembled western
brass bands in European forts across West Africa. The military would use local musicians in their brass band regiments and taught them linear
marching music. After these musicians saw how the West Indian regimental bandsmen practiced traditional music in their spare time it inspired them to do the same. The fusion of linear marching music with polyrhythmic local music created a danceable style called
adaha, as well as a style with cheaper, local instruments called konkoma. This fusion was similar to the birth of jazz in New Orleans. Highlife was associated with the local African aristocracy during the colonial period, and was played by numerous bands including the
Jazz Kings,
Cape Coast Sugar Babies, and
Accra Orchestra along the country's coast.
Jacob Asare (also known as Kwame Asare or Jacob Sam) is credited as the first Ghanaian musician to record a song in the highlife genre. In June 1928, he and his group, the Kumasi Trio, recorded "Yaa Amponsah" (Amponsah Parts I & II) in London for the Zonophone label. These recordings are widely regarded as the earliest examples of Ghanaian guitar-band highlife. From the 1930s, highlife spread via Ghanaian workers to
Sierra Leone,
Liberia,
Nigeria and
Gambia among other West African countries, where the music quickly gained popularity. In the 1940s, the music diverged into two distinct streams: dance band highlife and guitar band highlife. Guitar band highlife featured smaller bands and, at least initially, was most common in rural areas. Because of the history of stringed instruments like the
seprewa in the region, musicians were happy to incorporate the guitar. They also used the
dagomba style, borrowed from
Kru sailors from Liberia, to create highlife's two-finger picking style. and would release over 400 records during Nyame's lifetime.
Burger highlife Ghanaians in Germany created a secular style of highlife that combined the genre with funk, disco, and synth-pop. It is believed it was called burger highlife because the largest communities of Ghanaians resided in
Hamburg. The music became associated with migrants who would travel between Germany and Ghana. It also would become defined by its use of modern technologies; by the late 1990s, productions used solely electronic instruments.
Gospel highlife Considered one of the most popular music genres to both Ghanaians and its diaspora, gospel highlife has outlived burger highlife because of its success in blurring the lines between religion and pop culture. This genre is similar to burger highlife but its inspiration comes from
Charismatic Christianity and
Pentecostalism. Its significance within the communities stems from the religious institution's ability to provide social and cultural infrastructure for the Ghanaian diaspora in Germany. ==Jazz in Ghana==