Pat Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Pat Thomas, performing live in May 2016 in Ljubljana, Slovenia | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nana Kwabena Amo Mensah |
| Also known as | Paa Thomas, Nana Amoo-Mensah I |
| Born | August 14, 1946 Agona, Gold Coast |
| Genres | Highlife |
Pat Thomas (born Nana Kwabena Amo Mensah; [1] August 14, 1946) is a Ghanaian vocalist and songwriter. He is widely known for his work in highlife bands of Ebo Taylor. [2]
Pat Thomas was born in Agona, Gold Coast (now in the Central Region of Ghana). His father was a music theory instructor and his mother a bandleader.
He started his musical career in the 1960s when he collaborated with Ebo Taylor. [3] In 1974, he formed the band "Sweet Beans" and with them, he recorded his first album False lover. He recorded his second album "Pat Thomas Introduces Marijata" with the band Marijata. [4] After the coup in Ghana in 1979, he relocated to Berlin and later settled in Canada. He is now touring worldwide with his Kwashibu Area Band. In June 2015 they released the album Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band [5] to mark 50 years of his musical career. [6] Thomas is known as "The Golden Voice Of Africa".[ by whom? ] Thomas sings in Fante Language.[ citation needed ]
In the year 2015, the Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band self-titled album was listed by AllMusic as one of the "Favorite Latin and World Albums". [7]
Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasses multiple local fusions of African metre and western jazz melodies. It uses the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional African music, but is typically played with Western instruments. Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and guitars which lead the band and its use of the two-finger plucking guitar style that is typical of African music. Recently it has acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound.
There are many styles of traditional and modern music of Ghana, due to Ghana's worldwide geographic position on the African continent.
George Darko was a Ghanaian burger-highlife musician, guitarist, vocalist, composer and songwriter, who was on the music scene from the late 1960s. A native of Akropong, Ghana, Darko was popular in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and his songs are some of the most timeless and enduring highlife tracks in Ghana's music circles. Some of his contemporaries include Ben Brako, C.K. Mann, Daddy Lumba, Ernest Nana Acheampong, Nana Kwame Ampadu and Pat Thomas, among others. He was widely considered to be one of the pioneers of burger-highlife with his first hit "Ako Te Brofo" which was released in 1983. The song remains popular among Ghanaians both at home and abroad, and is still played at funerals and parties.
Osibisa is a British-Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro-rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians.
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style that fuses Ghanaian culture and hip hop. Recorded predominantly in the Ghanaian Akan language, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity in the 2010s throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany.
Afro rock is a style of rock music with African influences. Afro rock is a dynamic interplay between Western rock music and African musical elements such as rhythm, melodies and instrumentation. Afro rock bands and artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Osibisa, Assagai and Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
John Collins is a UK-born guitarist, harmonica player and percussionist who first went to Ghana as a child in 1952 for a brief period and later became involved in the West African music scene after returning to Ghana in 1969. He is a naturalised Ghanaian.
St. Augustine’s College is an all-male boarding academic institution in Cape Coast, Ghana. As the first catholic school established in Ghana, the school started at Amissano, a village near Elmina, in 1930. The Roman Catholic institution was established to serve as a training college and seminary. The school was named after St. Augustine of Hippo. The motto of the college is Omnia Vincit Labor, meaning "Perseverance conquers All". The school has a total of 12 houses.
Emmanuel Tettey Mensah, was a Ghanaian musician who was regarded as the "King of Highlife" music. He led The Tempos, a band that toured widely in West Africa.
Nana Richard Abiona, better known by his stage name Fuse ODG, is a Ghanaian-English singer, songwriter and rapper. He is best known for his singles "Antenna" and "Dangerous Love", and for featuring on Major Lazer's "Light It Up (Remix)".
Ebo Taylor is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music.
Kojo Antwi, also known as "Mr. Music Man", is a Ghanaian Afro pop, highlife, reggae musical artist and a former Ghamro chairman. Born Julius Kojo Antwi into a family of 13 siblings, he grew up in Darkuman a suburb of Accra. He has 22 albums to his name, with "Tom & Jerry" became one of his most popular songs in West Africa Ghana.
Ernest "Owoahene" Nana Acheampong, popularly known as Nana Acheampong, is a Ghanaian Highlife musician. He is also the other half of the famous Lumba brothers who popularized Burger-highlife in Ghana.
Soundway Records is a British, London-based independent record label, founded and run by English DJ and music producer Miles Cleret. Since its initial release of a collection of Ghanaian music in 2002, it has released compilation albums of African, Caribbean, Latin, and Asian music from the 1950s to 1980s.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian highlife musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. The first musician from Ghana and the world to formally incorporate rap forms into local highlife rhythms, Ambolley created the musical genre Simigwa.
Benjamin Paapa Kofi Yankson, known as Paapa Yankson was a Ghanaian highlife singer, songwriter, and producer. He recorded two dozen albums during his career; his hit songs included "Wiase Mu Nsem", "Show Your Love", "Wo Yere Anaa Wo Maame", and "Tena Menkyen". He won multiple awards, including Best Composition for his song "Yaaba" at the 1997 Konkomba Awards. He was a recipient of the Grand Medal of Ghana for his contribution to Ghanaian music.
Jewel Ackah was a Ghanaian highlife and gospel musician. He composed the lyrics of "Arise Arise," the party anthem of the centre-left Ghanaian political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), popularly sung to the tune of the Christian hymn, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus". He was dubbed by media pundits as the "Prince of Highlife".
Kwaku Agyapong Danemah popularly known as Dr. Paa Bobo was a Ghanaian highlife musician, known as highlife music legend. He is also known for the popular and nationwide hit song Osobro kyee. In January 2020, Stonebwoy with his Bhim Band remixed Osobro kyee titled Sobolo.
Dick Essilfie Bondzie was a Ghanaian musician, producer and founder of Essiebons label.
Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds in the Diaspora, 1980–93 is a compilation album released by Soundway Records on 10 May 2024. The compilation collects highlife, a style of music from Ghana, which underwent a shift to more electronic styles in the 1980s.
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