Paa Takyi around with vibrant highlife

Very few contemporary highlife albums provide listeners with a broad sweep of the styles within the genre like Samuel Paa Takyi’s newly-released eight-track collection titled Suo Mu Yie does.

Recorded at drummer Francis Osei’s Groove House Studio in Accra and edited, mixed and mastered in Denmark where singer, percussionist and guitarist Paa Takyi, is based, the songs embody all that is pleasant about highlife.

The Cape Coast-born Paa Takyi took to music early in life. He studied the subject at the University College of Winneba in the Central Region before teaching it at the primary and secondary school levels in the Cape Coast area and later in Spain and Denmark.

His complete grasp of the history and playing techniques in highlife has obviously helped him to create an album of real value with very meaningful lyrics.

The opening track, Suro Nyimpa is highlife in the big band vein and the arrangements remind one of Ebo Taylor whom Paa Takyi cites as one of his role models in music. Other songs like Asomdwee, Anamon Esia, Ato, My Dear and Buronya see the musician coasting between various shades of highlife.

On My Dear, for instance, an approach similar to what one would hear Kwaa Mensah or Koo Nima adopt, is employed to render a medley of love songs in Ga. W’afa Hon Tsir Asoa is a typical ‘osode’ piece with CK Man influence while   Buronya is simply a feel-good Christmas song rendered with many happy-sounding voices.

“I grew up listening to all the great highlife stars so it was natural for me to infuse different feels of the music into what I do,” says the well-travelled Paa  Takyi who is currently on a short holiday in Cape Coast.

“I perform and teach African music across Europe and the only way I can make people appreciate what I impart  to them even more, is to record some of it under my own name.”

Instrumentalists that helped bring out all the good things in the Suo Mu Yie album included Francis Kweku Osei.(drums), Paa Kofi ‘Shabo’ Koomson (bass), Carl Amoah (keyboards), Kakra Bart-Addison and Akablay Anthony (guitar), Henry ‘Tsakle’ Walker (trumpet) and Seth Ofori (trombone).

Some of the issues  Paa Takyi tackles in his songs have obviously been already talked about in highlife but he manages to bring his own freshness to the subjects and raises hope that highlife still has a bright future we can all look forward to.