Highlife is not his first record. Peter Somuah has already released two albums in 2022 and 2023 which have outlined the contours of his multicolored universe. However, he seems to want to get closer to African idioms. This natural progression demonstrates, certainly, an attachment to the heritage of his ancestors, but also a real and precocious artistic maturity when other influences could have diverted him from the source of his expressiveness.
Since living in Europe, his ears have picked up other tones. The recordings of Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard aroused his enthusiasm and inclined his fiery trumpet playing towards an already well-documented American swing. This is the reason why Peter Somuah, supported by his Dutch cronies and instrumentalists, chose to return to the fundamentals without betraying his fierce desire to cross styles.
To achieve this feat, he traveled to Accra where he spoke to his mentors, now in their seventies. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley (77 years old) and Pat Thomas (78 years old) added their voices to the instrumental versions of his compositions and, suddenly, the original essence of highlife emerged.
And to drive the point home, Peter Somuah asked Koo Nimo. This honorable nonagenarian guitarist and singer is the memory of ancestral highlife. It seemed legitimate that his memories opened Peter Somuah’s album. His tired voice recounts the genesis of traditional Music born under British rule.
At that distant time, African musicians subject to the rules of European colonists had to perform tunes inspired by waltz or samba in private clubs reserved for the white upper middle class who enjoyed a good, wealthy life. The word “highlife” would also come from this privileged social status to which the black population could not claim.
So, outside these posh establishments, behind closed doors, an alternative listening system has developed. Local instrumentalists adapted what they heard through the walls and gave a new rhythm to this hybrid repertoire. The African soil of “Palm Wine Music”, mixed with Western refrains, gave rise to highlife.
Mental Imprisonment
By emphasizing the tormented history of his identity, Peter Somuah inscribes his compositions in a surge of historical reappropriation which pushes him to denounce the terrible psychological conditioning from which his contemporaries still suffer in the 21st century. The song Mental Slaverywhich he performs himself, evokes this cerebral imprisonment imposed by decades of colonial oppression
Formulating an absolute truth is not a rebellious act, it is an attempt to open debate and heal wounds. In this album, driven by a fierce desire to celebrate the rites and codes of a mistreated people, Peter Somuah also makes his trumpet sing so that the lively accents of his virtuosity invite hope for a peaceful present.
From Rotterdam, where he now lives, Peter Somuah flourishes fully, combines his talent in the plural, tames this creative freedom which brings together, if he wishes, all the intimate components of his being. He knows that jazz has brought him invaluable harmonic richness, but he does not want to escape the rhythms, tempos and cadences of highlife that the young Ghanaian generation seems to forget or ignore.
Didn’t President Kwame Nkrumah elevate highlife to the rank of national treasure in the 1960s? Its mission is therefore to rehabilitate this intangible heritage of humanity soon to be recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, as announced by Ama Serwah Nerquaye-Tetteh, the secretary general of the commission. Ghanaian at UNESCO.
Recorded in Berlin, Highlife transports us to the 1950s and 60s, but these scents of another time are not outdated, they embrace the melodic freshness of a young trumpeter whose fine and tonic playing reminds us of the vigor of his counterpart Roy Hargrove. It must be said that Peter Somuah has long admired this late American jazzman who died on November 2, 2018 at the age of 49. Peter Somuah also paid tribute to him on his album Outer Space. The transatlantic link is therefore still not broken and this preservation effort can only be praised.
Peter Somuah Highlife (Act Records) 2024
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