Highlife hero

Guitar star

Kumi Guitar has taken one of Ghana’s oldest and most-loved musical genres, highlife, and given it a modern makeover. Here he reveals to Mark Edwards how he found his voice and how musical inspiration for his songs can come at any time.

Ghanaian highlife artist Kumi Guitar is rarely without his namesake instrument. He turns up to our interview carrying a beautiful maroon six-string (he describes it as the “side-chick” to the black guitar he normally records with) and, strumming it wistfully, he proceeds to sing a song about me he has made up on the spot. Chances are slim this improvised track that welcomes me to Ghana and hopes our interview will be a “beautiful experience” will make his new album due out later this year, but I think it has got hit written all over it.

He goes on to tell me the guitar even comes with him on car journeys and he’ll start playing whenever he’s stuck in traffic – which in carcrammed Accra is a regular occurrence – and even takes it with him into the bathroom, where he can disappear for hours if inspiration hits.

“My kids know if they can’t find me, I’ll be in the bathroom working on a new song,” he says. “All the props to Jehovah. I take inspiration from the things around me and before you know it’s flowing.”

New album

The artist, who was born Nana Yaw Kumi in Accra’s Ablekuma district, is certainly in a musical flow state right now. He tells me he has enough material for two albums and is in the middle of choosing the best of them for his debut long player for label Zylofon Media, the creative arts company at whose headquarters in East Legon we hold the interview.

I had a friend who was recording in a studio and he wanted a singer but he didn’t turn up. Out of frustration he asked me to step up

Kumi, whose music is melodious mixture of highlife young and old with added elements of Afro-fusion, was Zylofon’s first signing – a fiveyear deal that handed the artist a new Hyundai Sonata saloon car, a house in East Legon and US$ 100,000. The partnership has proved a commercial success, spawning hits such as ‘Brown Sugar’ and last year’s ‘Betweener’, a lilting love song in which Kumi acts as a kind of highlife Cyrano de Bergerac to a friend, advising him on how to win back his girl. Critical approval has also followed with Kumi nominated as Highlife Artist of the Year at the 2018 Greater Accra Music Awards and named Urban Highlife Music of the Year at last year’s Highlife Awards.

Kumi sees these achievements as groundwork for even greater success with Zylofon and he is keen to continue to pay back the faith the company has showed in him.

Collaborations

“Zylofon has been good to me,” he says. “Music is not just about singing. It’s a package. Your branding counts. I love to be around creativity and there are lots of beautiful musicians to collaborate with here [‘Brown Sugar’ features the rapping talents of labelmate Obibini] that I can introduce to highlife. There is much more to be done with Zylofon and me. I know I need to work hard and make the investment worth it.”

The key upcoming project is the new album. Fans of Kumi will recognise some of the tracks when it is released from his recent live shows. Not surprising for a man who needs little excuse to break into song, Kumi loves playing live and sees it as one of the truest expressions of his talent. “Live performance brings out the best of me,” he says. “You need to make sure you are on point. It puts me on my toes. It makes me feel like I’m working.” Kumi has been working on his music from an early age. While he was a 16-year-old student at Adisadel, an Anglican boys’ boarding school in Cape Coast, he formed a rap group – the less-than-streetwise-sounding Chamber Hall – with three of his friends.

Finding a voice

Though he could rap he found that he also had a singular singing voice when he asked to provide vocals during a recording session at aged 19.

Kumi says: “I had a friend who was recording in a studio and he wanted a singer but he didn’t turn up. Out of frustration he asked me to step up. I did it and it came out nice. I did the tenor and lower vocal parts and when I listened back to it, I thought ‘did I do this?’ I had no idea I could sing.”

While hip hop was an early love, as he got older he began to move towards music that spoke more about his own origins. He chose highlife, which retains the melodies and rhythms of traditional Akan music melded with more contemporary sounds.

“My father was friends to many highlife musicians,” Kumi tells me. “He would play the music of acts such as Paa Boateng in the car.

Highlife calling

“I thought to myself if I want to make music it should be something that showed my identity. I wanted a genre of music that belonged to me as a Ghanaian. I went back to my dad’s old highlife CDs and tried to get into them.

“What drew me close from the start was the rhythms. They sounded beautiful and I felt immediately relaxed when I listened to them.”

Most of these rhythms were produced by guitars and Kumi knew that rare is the highlife star who doesn’t play the instrument so he took to learning.

“I knew I had to learn the rudiments of the guitar,” he says. “In 2011 I got a guitar coach, Daniel Daku, who taught me everything I know. He’s a beautiful player. It did not come by magic and I am still learning.”

Kumi Guitar with Mark Edwards at Zylofon Studios

Soon the guitar became so synonymous with Kumi it became part of his “showbiz name” given to him by the boss of Sugar Tone, his first label. Kumi Guitar’s first release was on a Sugar Tome compilation and it was an immediate hit. “My track came out flying,” Kumi says.

The Zylofon era continues to raise Kumi’s profile. Along with the new album there are plans for a European tour and a string of festival dates. These plans may be affected by the international Covid-19 restrictions, but nothing can stop the song machine that is Kumi Guitar once inspiration hits. Whether it’s in the bathroom, in his car or meeting someone new, his irrepressibly joyful songs are always being written.

The stars of Highlife

E.T Mensah

Emmanuel Tettey Mensah was known as the “King of Highlife” music. He led the band The Tempos, a group that toured widely in West Africa and had hits with ‘Donkey Calypso’ and School Girl’.

Paapa Yankson

Benjamin Paapa Kofi Yankson 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

Nana Acheampong

Also known as Champion Lover Boy or Ernest ‘Owoahene’ Nana Acheampong (to his mum) he popularised Burger highlife (created by Ghanaians immigrants to Germany) along with Charles Kojo Fosu, aka Daddy Lumba

Rex Omar

A Ghanaian afro-jazz and highlife singer, composer, arranger, producer and culture advocate who did much to raise the profile of highlife overseas.

C.K Mann

Highlife musician and producer with a career spanning four decades. He was awarded the Grand Medal of Ghana in 2006.