Music journey from Africa to Europe

Concert in Pratteln, Feuerwehrmagazin: January 2016

Just arriving from Ghana around 10 a.m. and teaching from 1 - 6p.m. at the musicschool Frick, I went to perform on the concert in Pratteln in the evening. The event was for the firemen organisation of the City of Pratteln.

I was still full of music from Ghana, where we had the christmas and new year celebrations. We played there from traditional to all kinds of modern music and we played for many hours nonstop. So this was still in me and inspired me to get the strength and energy to make this nonstop music journey.

At the concert I joined in the group of Heiri and his friends as a percussionist. The style we played took me back to Africa. I enjoyed it and really gave them the groove of a collection of rhythms.It was a very dynamic concert, swiss and african musicians mixed.

It confirmed my motto: music gives energy, energy brings happyness 

Missing your hero: Prof. Francis Nii-Yartey

Entering January 2016 with the lost of a very big icon of Ghana, was a sad moment for a lot of artists.

Prof. Francis Nii-Yartey was a big inspiration of my intire life.

Where I always remember him was, when he choreographed a program for our president J.J. Rawlings.

He invited some groups of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, of which he selected the artists to perform at the Accra sportsstadion for the president.

We started the rehearsal at trade fair in Accra and continued in Accra Sportsstadion, where we then supposed to perform.

As everybody knows, when joung people meet, there is a certain kind of competition specially among the boys to show  yoursself and feel big infront of the girls.

This behavour became a bad luck to me. We decided to run infront of the crowd on the sportstrack of the stadion. I was about to win the race, missed my step and fell, slided over the pavement and part of my skin on my shoulder was rubbed off. I was send to the stadion clinic for treatment. On my way going I felt so sorry for myself to do such a foolish mistake, because I like to watch Prof Nii-Yartey when he was teaching the dance ensemble in Legon and I thought in that moment I blowed the chance to work among in his project.

After my treatment they brought me back to him.  I was so scarred, because I thought now he is going to be annoyed with me and tell me off. But he just watched me, shaked his head and said: „ hmm! Go and join your group.“

At this moment I was confused. I don’t know if I should feel happy or what is coming next.

On the next day coming to the rehearsal, I didn’t know what I shall expect. I am a drummer, so I was among the drummgroup. We were playing a piece on the Fontomfrom drum, which  Big Boy was teaching us. I felt so difficult, because the wound has been dried. The Fontomfrom drum has been carried and we were playing it, so the hands are always rised up in the air. I felt a lot of pain, but I didn’t want to give up, because I wanted to play in that program.

After the rehearsal days, they started to share the costume to those, who are going to be among the program. We had different coulors of costumes. I was very tensed, I thought because of my wound I will not get a costume and therefore I will not be among the performance.

The sad part will be, the program will be on the TV, which everybody is looking forward to see us. Specially the people in Nima, who always saw us joining the bus to the reahearsal.

We stand in line to get the costumes and when it was my turn, Prof. Nii Yartey asked me to step aside. I could’t show my tears, I swallow it and said to myself: „ You see how stupid you are to get such a chance an blow it up.“ I don’t know what to do to myself as I was standing aside. I gave a lot of advice to myself while I was standing there and a lot of artist passed by and get their costumes.

But Professor is a Professor. I would have been so happy, if he would have shouted on me on the first day and really put me off and send me home, than let me rehearsal till the end and let me stand here now.

At the end those who were selected got their costumes and we have to stand by groups. I was still without costume so I cannot join my group. He watched me and said: „Hey Red, which group do you belong to?“ I responded : « Kusum Gboo dance ensemble »

He then shaked his head the same again and made : „hmm!“

He started to speak to the groups about the performance. Then he said good bye to all the participants and wishing them all the best for the performance.

The groups started to go and wait for their buses. I was still there discussing with my group how disappointed I am, but it is my own fault. I will learn from this.

I just finished speaking this and turned my self to walk to the bus and I saw Prof. Nii-Yartey throw a costume to me. I hold the costume as if I should run with it. I hold it an stand there like a statue, because I thought it is a mistake. He then said: „you are a drummer, join the yellow costumes!“ In this moment I want to hold my screeming until  I will reach inside the bus, but I could not make it. I screemed and I think all the artists could hear it.

Till now everything I do, I always remember him. I used a lot of what I learned form him in my teaching in schools.

May Prof. Nii-Yartey’s soul rest in peace.

We will never forget your beautyful and charming choreographing.

Music on christmas took all my pain away

A report from Eguafo, near Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana in West Africa

Since I was born and grew up in Accra. I often visit my village Eguafo in the Central region of Ghana. I never got a chance to spent the christmas in Eguafo till this christmas 2015 together with friends from Germany.

On the 24th night it looked like nobody nows what to do in the village, so we the artists invited our Sankofa group, who based in Eguafo, to come and play. In the end it became very dynamic and interesting. A lot of people joined in and we decided then to make a little parade with traditional music and dance through the village. Every street we reached, we got more people. Before we reached our starting point again, it was about three o`clock in the morning. The German friends got tired and went to sleep a bit.

The nice part about it was, I thought everybody will also go home and sleep, but the youngsters among wanted the music to continue. So I really used that opportunity to sing some old songs of the village, which I have heard since I was ten years old.

It happened that most of them never heard those songs. I have to teach them the songs and we performed it. After  a few hours they knew a lot of olden time songs. They decided to parade throught the village again, because they felt proud to demonstrate those old songs. Sometimes the elder people passed by and joined in. And many people started to remember traditional musicians from the village, who passed away. They started to appreciate them. They said: « You boys remind us of the bosue group. » And as an artist I felt so happy, to perform in my village and wake up almost forgotten music and its musicians. That gave me strength to continue playing the leading drum with devotion.

Those who are good in percussion instruments of the Sankofa group, asked a permission to go home around 4.30 in the morning. Which I was then happy about, because my hands were really hurting. Playing from 10 pm til 4.30 am… that is long.

The music entered some of the youngsters so much, although the Sankofa drumers have left, that they always told me:“ Bra Kofi, let`s continue!“ There we started again. They sang some songs, which were also new to me and I have to learn it from them. One of the village boys is calling himself after „Shatta Wale“. This name is known in Ghana for a Rap musician, who is based in Accra. This guy who named himself after Shatta used the old songs he just learned from me a few hours ago and transformed it into Rap. We were then only few people and I am the only percussionist left. I have to form the rhythm and create some to fit into the Rap music. It was so beautiful.

Around 6 am we were done. My hands were pumping as if somebody would messure my blood pressure.

As everybody left, I couldn`t get up from the chair anymore, I was so tired and dozed on the chair. Those who got up in the morning, started to laugh about me, that made me wake up.

I then had to orginize the afternoon of 25th, the big day. Quickly showerd and hit the road.

The food was ready and we all were eating as usual on christmas day. Then we visited family members.

Funny was, every family house I enterd asked me:“ Who were those people, who played music till day break? Are they your people from Accra? Where did they learn those songs?“

So I called the names of the people who took part from Eguafo and they were all surprised. And I revealed myself to be to one leading the group through the village with those songs.

That of course spread in the village like a rumor. I arrived in the house and found myself in the middle of youngsters, who also learned the songs we sang yesterday. They tought it to others and they wanted us to performe. I just didn’t want to think about my hands.

They brought the drums and the music started. We played till 5 pm. Then I couldn`t continue anymore. So I told them just to parade by themselves to enjoy the 25th.

That is the first time I enjoyed my village since I have been visiting the village as a child. I heard a lot of traditional music in Accra, Nima, but in the village Eguafo it was were I, at the age of 10, joined a group of elders, known as « bosue ». Through this experience I always return to Eguafo, where my parents came from.

 That is were my motto was confirmed : « Music brings energy, energy brings happyness ! »

African week in ISB Aesch Basel, Switzerland

Percussions, dance, drama, storytelling, african village and  market scene. For many years we are working with ISB grade 5. We really work with them on the african field. We teach them traditional songs and its dances. This year we were four teachers working with 85 children.

As we do it every year in the beginning we take away the shyness and bring them the motiviation to participate. You will see them realizing their improve and every day it goes further and further. The reason why we like to work with ISB grade 5 is, the children always knew the group of last year grade 5 and make a competition out of it to perform better and show it to the grade 4 and the whole school. That’s how we do the workshop every year. This give us, the teachers also the possibility to work with them without hesitating.

This year I was teaching them a story about a boy from Eguafo, who has difficulties in his family. But he always tries to solve the problem by himself and support the family additional. Their farm was not functioning well and the parents have problems to feed their children. He always went to the city to shine shoes and bring the money to the parents. Additional he had to go to school. He did that for many years with the help of the teachers. He studied good in the school and that helped him not to do much homework, so he had enough time to go and work. He always gave appreciation and thanks to his teachers.

I saw that this story touched the teachers in the ISB very much. Additional they performed a drama about elders in Eguafo. How they take care of the community, how to solve problems and how to organize them to do the community work. They have the youth, who voted themselves to help the children for homework and other activities.

All these dramas is to show that everything you do in this life, you need a support and help and then you can work as a team and achieve it. And this is where our motto came in: no stress, no panic, freedom but concentration. Music brings energy, energy brings happyness.

This year the teachers of ISB wanted to take part of the show. We worked with them for 90 minutes and you can see that they are looking forward to stand infront of their pupils to show them how much interest and talent they also have in music and dance. We tried to push them a bit harder and they did their best and we had a nice dance together. The pupils didn’t know about the teachers show. So it was a big surprise. It was thrilling and with our support they gave all.

Every year we the teachers performed, but only the grade 5 teachers and sometimes the director of the school as well. This year almost all the teachers took part in the workshop and the performance. It was so beautyful and we are looking forward to meet them next year.

This is unit work.

Benefit concert  with Aaron Bebe: August 2015 

A great performance was the concert with Ghanaian musicans and swiss musicians combined. We used bell, Kpanlogo drums, gome, seprewa, imbira, guitar, saxophon and bass. The atmosphere was very good, both from the musicians and the audience. The concert was a benefit for supporting Aarons son for his operation in Zürich. The mood of the little boy was making everybody additional happy. Coinsidently it was also his birthday. Chris got 5 years old. The concert was really dynamic and the music travelled with the audience. The whole concert hall sounded like we are in Ghana, but we were in Untersiggenthal in Switzerland. Additional there were balafon players using the Ghanian traditional xylofon who also increased the mood with their energetic playing.  In the end all of us came together and we had a very nice jam session.

 Just a few weeks later in the same month I was playing with another percussion group, known as kobolo drummers. It was an open air festival. As we arrived I saw a lot of people watching me with a big smile and friendlyness. I thought it was because I was wearing a Ghanain T-shirt. A group of young people came to me and they said we were watching you playing recently. I asked them where this was and they said it was in Untersiggenthal on the benefit concert. Not knowing most of the audience which watched the concert with Aaron, was at the festival. So I found out that this village we were playing belonged to Obersiggenthal. This time the style we were going to play was more traditional with different sorts of percussion instruments as Sogo, Kidi, Kaganu, Kpanlogo, Marakash, bell and Kroboto. It was a great audience which gave us a lot of energy and cheering. The concert kept going on good and good and good. Our energy kept on increasing.

Music brings energy, energy brings happyness and happyness can lead you inbetween two villages like Obersiggenthal and Untersiggenthal.

Experiences in music with children and youngsters

Music can travel with you and you will not realize with whom you are with.

Some traditional music from Africa is very difficult to understand. Specially combined with bell and marakash. Polyrhythms are giving the difficulties. Some of the pupils don't undestand and hear the connection inbetween the bell, marakash and the drum rhythms.
After working with them for one week, suddenly I can hear them trying to communicate with me on the drum. I immediatly adopt what they try to do and support them for them to understand it better.
All this communication is through rhythms, not with words.
Slowly they start to understand the way of communication without words and respond to it.
After the workshop we have a very wonderful show one Saturday and Sunday in May, which the audience was thrilled about.
A Ghanain musician was also in the audience, who then joined us on the stage. We did some 6/8 rhythms and combined it with bamboo flute. We also played 4/4 rhythms and sang some songs from all over the world towards it.
I do work in schools for many years now and I take part in music school camps for many times. This year I was very impressed about the camp.

For many years I am teaching at the music school Frick in Switzerland. Every year we do a different programm for the music school concerts all around the region. What I like from my pupils is, that they always have a confidence. They are from kindergarden till primary school.
They look so small if we have a concert with other students from the musicschool, but they always surprise everybody with their energy and their ability to concentrate. That gives me a possibility to change our programm any time. Or even create somthing new on the stage. They love to take part and you can see and feel that they also enjoy it. That gives me that possibilty to create new rhythms on the stage and the audience will not even recognize it. The pupils are flexible and have  a good understanding. To work with them is so easy going for me, so everytime we are on stage performing for the musicschool I introduce them as my music colleagues to the audience. I saw, that they like this very much and appreciate it. And you can see a big smile from their faces.
Some teachers who understand our African music and know how difficult it can be, they are surprised how these children can go far. Because I can do every rhythm with them on stage.
Our best concert this year was the opening of the Red Cross meeting in Aargau.

I am looking forward to meet them after holidays again and also the new pupils which are joining.
My motto will always be the same: no stress no panik - music gives energy - energy gives happyness.
Everytime I play music it gives me happyness. And I know it is the same to a lot of people.

African week

African week in Widen Primary school. 

The primary school Widen offered to all their Students workshops about Africa. The programm was about the Ashanti and Northern Kingdom of Ghana.

We begann the workshop with songs of Africa. There already they get prepared and dived into the African Art.

In this workshops we had three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. Every day the student got more into the mood of the African week and the program get successful every day. On Friday we presented  a show to the entire village of Widen. 

These are one of the most wonderful workshops I used to give. 

Worldmusic in Icon club Zürich

The event company rumdum invited us to perform together with them in the Icon club in the heart of Zürich. The performance was a workshop with drumming, dancing and singing. The members of the rundum company are from all over the world and they are organizing traditional music from various countries in Africa, Europe, America, Asia and Australia. It was very interesting to work with them and they also brought a very good motivation to learn African music and dance. In the end they asked us if we can combine our African music with the DJ-work. A lot of songs were played, some familiar ones and some were unknown to us. But we used the skills of African Ghanaian traditional rhythms and melodies and made a nice jam session. Once more I saw, Ghana music, percussion and bell fits to every style.

We use the name wings of a dove percussion power to travel with you all over the continent.

Lets party together.

We are at yout service. 

African music and dance from Ghana and Westafrica: Music Gymnasium (art highschool) Münchenstein, Switzerland

During three days, we worked with three different levels of the Highschool of art in Münchenstein. The subject was African music, singing, dancing, drumming, rhythmicity and also concentration, coordination and communication in music and movements. 

We used elements from all over Africa, texts in Haussa language from Northern region of Nigeria, which is actually a used as an international trade language in Africa. Additional we used the language Ewe from Westafrica, which is also spoken in Togo, Ghana, Benin. Some songs were in Akan language from the Ashanti region of Ghana, Kumasi, and Fanti from the Central region of Ghana, Cape Coast, Elmina, Winneba. Many dances, rhythms and songs were new to the students. they put all their efforts in theses days and in the end we got a very good performance as a result. The audience was also taking part and we sang with them. The cheering and the applaus was immense. I always feel very happy in this school.

Invite our workshop in your school and let your students profit from the richness of African music, dance and rhythms with different percussion instruments.