One Album up and knotted

Sometimes it’s very easy to forgive certain people for keeping you waiting, no matter how long. They make up for those flaws in the most pleasant ways , and if they do it with good music- all the better.

Picture the scene: it’s a little after 9:30 pm on a humid November Friday. A hardcore contingent of Highlife aficionados are gearing up for a short but satisfying gig from one of the genre’s most gifted artistes.

By 11:00 it’ll all be over and we’ll go our separate ways, content until we meet again job done. For what really happened; enter the world of Kwabena Kwabena.

ometime in 2001, George Kwabena Adu found his way to Hush Hush Studios and got himself a recording deal. Six months into the year he had an album ready with two videos set for release.

The production wasn’t anything you’d hear on radio, DJs had just found a perfect way to get rich by indirect extortion. After several payola trips, the label gave up on Kwabena and what would have been a phenomenal contemporary Highlife album got shelved. One song off the album made it onto a movie that was released in the states.

That’s all he got at the time-but that didn’t break him. In Kwabena’s world there are no worries about how to make the long journey home when the streets choke. No, in Kwabena’s world he is the pied piper and we are his followers.

So on his second album time stood still while he takes his listeners on a tour of his outstanding colletion of finely-crafted material. But all this happen after the guest had settled in enough to allow KKD to be his usual smart talking self. Nobody mentioned he was opening for Kwabena, but when he did- Color Me Bad’s ‘wanna sex you up’ bass line guided him through one of his 12 year old rap songs.

It was fun to watch, it was as if he was relaunching his rap career all over again however old school he sounded.

Did any notice Adez? Well she was the real opening act and her performance confirmed that ‘Mentor’ isn’t a show for artistes who go against the norm. She sounded so good you could tell Becca was paying attention from where she sat.

Later on Kwesi Kyei Darkwa will take a good five minutes to diss DJ’s for playing the same songs on for two years.

“It’s as if there is nothing else to play- I mean I love Ofori Amponsah but I’m tired of hearing his songs on the radio ten times a day. Most of these people who call themselves DJ’s shouldn’t have jobs on radio because they don’t know anything”.

Someone probably signaled him about his lecture becoming a bit occupying and soon the lights went dim-, the smoke machine came on and Kwabena Kwabena walked in cuddling the mic and crooning an introductory piece from his latest offering; “Dabi”. The audience were consumed by the sheer force of his talent, locked in transcendence for one-and- a-half hours of pure musical ecstasy.

If heaven were a sonic construct, his would be it. Kwabena’s voice was the central tool in the superiot eight-piece band that featured two fine backing vocalists(Adez and her side kick) and a saxophonist who’s notable (Steve Baiden), not as the dude with the stud in his ear, but as a brilliant instrumentalist with undertones of Kenny G.

At a time when it’s the norm for artists to race through a set with little regard for their audience, Kwabena was an utterly unselfish performer who clearly saw the launch as another way of paying his dues to his loyal fan base and this time for mentally challenged folk in society. ‘Dabi’ raises the bar for Kwabena’s peers and it’s more or less a lesson for wannabes. He did extented renditions of songs off his previous album but the new songs were particular peaks in an evening full of highs. This is a man on top of his game. There is Kwabena Kwabena, then there’s everybody else.

After copies of the album had been auctioned and Kwabena had exhausted his songs, most people were dissappointed to be leaving the Kama Conference Center; forced back into the real world. But they also knew that for a time they were in the presence of greatness, treated to a very special listening session from a consumate artist who’s truly out of this world.