(also known as Maringa in Sierra Leone)
The notes for life are the same as spices for food.
How it sounds
Like ice cubes in a strange cocktail of an even stranger rum combined with the sound of relaxing wave splash on a sunny beach.
It is a musical genre of West Africa.
It evolved into the Kru peoples of Liberia and Sierra Leone, who used Portuguese guitars brought by sailors.
Combining, at the same time, local melodies and rhythms of Trinidadian calypso.
It was played in working-class bars on the docks and in wine bars made of palm trees.
Includes subspecies such as:
- Osibisaaba and Annkadaamu by local Fanti fishermen,
- Asiko music by Sierra Leone and Dagomba,
- The “fireman” (ie ship coal) and “mainline” style of guitar sailors from Kru, Liberia.
Why listen to it
Because it is a very interesting coexistence of African sounds with Portuguese musical influences and why it matches rum.
Why not
IT IS NOT Metal !!!!!
Where we meet it
Sierra Leone and Liberia
When did it start
The early 1900s
Who are the pioneers
Agya Koo Nimo (a.k.a. Daniel Amponsah) is widely referred to as the “king of Palm-wine” and the “grandfather of highlife”.
You have to listen
S. E. Rogie, Abdul Tee-Jay, Super Combo, Osita Osadebe, Oliver de Coque, Oriental Brothers, Victor Uwaifo, Nana Ampadu, Pat Thomas, Morocco Maduka.
Days of glory
It gained popularity after the musician Ebenezer Calendar recorded songs in the ’50s and ’60s.
Basically, I have no idea if it is still heard in places like West Africa or nearby islands.
Red card
Its highly local character rather limits it to areas where there is intense civil unrest and can hardly be related to the broader meaning of the music industry.
What is it confused with
With Kaiso, African music, Calypso, Ragtime.
How do you describe it to an irrelevant
Imagine being at a local bar in the interwar period in West Africa, eh this would play.
What do you mean by saying: “What is interwar ????”!!!