Biography
Hi-Life emerged in 1982 when Ghanaian guitarist Kwabena Oduro Kwarteng assembled the group in London, establishing one of the leading acts amid the city’s mid-80s surge of African music. Their sound blended core highlife traditions with elements of Zairois and Congolese soukous. Line-up shifts continued for several months until late 1982, when membership settled around fellow Ghanaians Sam Ashalley Ashley on percussion, Herman Asafo-Agyei on bass guitar and Kofi Adu on drums, joined by South African Frank Williams on tenor saxophone and Liverpudlian Stu Hamer on trumpet. Prior to this, the Ghanaian players had performed with nearly all major highlife ensembles active in Ghana from 1965 to 1975; each had arrived separately in Britain during the mid-70s intent on building international careers. Those ambitions briefly appeared within reach once the band issued two albums on the London specialist imprint Sterns—the first being Travel And See, whose subtitle Music To Wake The Dead proved apt, followed by Na Wa For You. From 1983 to 1985 the musicians maintained an almost unbroken schedule of dates across Britain and Europe, while the 1984 American release of Travel And See extended their reach. Despite strong approval within critical and niche markets, broader commercial recognition remained elusive, and mounting personnel turnover precipitated the group’s dissolution in 1986, mirroring the fate of several other African ensembles then based in the UK.
Albums
