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Whas up fellas
This site is dedicated to all Ghanaian stars who are shining.
We say ayekoo and continue to shine. It is quite simple if your shinning u will be on this page. Best of luck.
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Latest NEWs
 Veteran highlife musician, Joe Mensah, admired in music circles as The Bosueman, immediate past president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and also former President of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) died last week Friday. Joe Mensah died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra where he had been on admission following a short illness. Family sources say arrangements for the funeral of the veteran musician will be announced by this weekend.
Since news of Joe Mensahs death broke, the MUSIGA Head office in Accra has been a beehive of activity with musicians calling to express their shock at the death of the man who had been an activist on the musicians front for many years.
When the Graphic Showbiz called at the MUSIGA Office, the executive of the Union were in a closed meeting discussing the unexpected death of their colleague and other arrangements. Later, MUSIGA President, Alhaji Sidiku Buari told Showbiz Were all very sad at this development. We have lost someone with so much experience.
It has been an unusual six months in Ghanas showbiz circles this year as prominent and active artistes in music and theatre have been dying in quick succession.
First it was S.K. Oppong leader of the Osofo Dadzie company who died at the beginning of this year. In February, another veteran, Joe Eyison, died curiously on the same day that Oppong was buried.
Only last month, popular actor, Bob Santo died in Kumasi after touring Europe with his stage partner Abusuapanyin Judas. Santo is yet to be buried.
On the Ghanaian highlife music landscape, the image of Joe Mensah looms large. He began singing big time in the 1960s with the Broadway Band in Takoradi. Joe Mensahs song, Bosue, was a big hit when it was released and has been the biggest selling record of his eleven albums.
His latest collection was released in 2000 when he was the Technical Consultant for Megastar Company. Mr Joe Mensah is the tenth of a family of 12 made up of five boys and seven girls.
He was born to Mr Peter Lawrence Mensah, a lay preacher at the Takoradi Anglican Church and Madam Regina Husdon. He received his early education at the Anglican Primary School and continued at the Methodist Middle School before moving to Adiembra State School.
Joe Mensah later attended the Takoradi Polytechnic where he read Carpentry and Joinery, Physics, Chemistry, English and Maths to fulfil his cherished ambition of becoming a civil engineer which never was.
When he sojourned to the US he entered the Juilliard Music School which is acclaimed one of the best in the world. Joe Mensah is single but has five children. As his hobby Joe liked playing lawn tennis, reading/writing and soccer. by joyFM
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(20-06-2002) |
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Rex Omar |
By Nanabanyin Dadson
REX Omar is charting a new course. Well, nothing really new if by new one expects something unusual and dramatic. Basically he is doing two things that are both in the Sankofa vein.
First, Rex Omar is going back to root highlife and then build on from there. Second major thing is that he is leaving the bank of computers and going back to playing real live music.
Not new as both moves by Rex Omar may seem, his new course is bold and significant in ways that would certainly earn the approval of many Ghanaians who, like him, are fed up with what he calls synthetic music.
Rex Omars vision for his own music and Ghanaian music generally is clear. As he writes in the in-lay brochure, of his newest album Who Am I? I believe in the rich musical resource of Africa. Its influence pervades the popular musical culture of the world. International pop music is essentially the result of a synthesization of African rhythms, scales and feeling, with western harmony and musical instruments.
From blues, jazz, rock, funk to reggae and hip-hop, the African root can be traced. I feel proud at the thought that this African contribution to world culture is universally acknowledged.
Yet I think there is so much love that we can share with the world. Many more rhythmic expressions and a good number of musical instruments exist in our traditional music that can further enrich the pop musical expression of the world. This is the reason why I am happy at the popularization of the sound of the kora thanks to Salif Keita, Youssou NDour, Mary Kante and others. They have put countries like Mali, Senegal and Guinea on the map of the World Music category of pop music.
My lament is that my own country is yet to make strides in this direction. Synthetic music is the order of the day in Ghana. The rich percussive African sounds have given way to the cold mechanical sounds of the computer. I do love technological advancement, it can be used to enhance production and sound quality. But when it comes to rendering the sounds of Africa I prefer the real thing. Manually played sounds, captured through state of the art hi-tech equipment, is incomparable.
So deeply is Rex involved in his vision that if one left him, he would go on and on. But Rex knows what he talks about because he can prove it as he did last week when he launched his album at the National Theatre in Accra.
To the select number of patrons who were invited to the launch, this was a good evening of great live music. Such a great feeling it was to see that there are young men and women in Ghana today, who can still play musical instruments and sing to a live audience as they did.
Watch out for a review of Rex Omars Who Am I? in Showbiz next week.
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