Dance And Praises

A big gospel music concert brought together all the important gospel music singers, past and present, and a large audience of music lovers to the forecourt of the State House, Accra, on the evening of the Sunday, January 28, 2007, to join the myriad of activities lined up this year to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Ghana?s Independence from British colonial rule since March 6, 1957.

The concert was put together by the renowned gospel musician, Ms. Diana Akiwumi Botchway, who is the current Vice President of Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).

The Ghana @50 secretariat sponsored this free concert that was telecast live on GTV across the entire ten regions of Ghana.

I?d describe the concert as very successful best to be dubbed Dance and Praise 2007 in honour of Jesus for his blessings and guidance during this 50 years of Ghana?s sovereignty.

The whole amount of gospel music?s past and present musical styles and their exponents were represented in what appeared like gospel history deconstructed.

However, Mary Ghansah, Stella Dugan, Helena Rabbles and Tagoe Sisters were not present or did not try to steal the show. Otherwise every style was visible; gospel is far from monotonous, we heard highlife gospel, highlife gospel reggae which reigned for the greater part of that music?s career in Ghana until Diana Akuniumi made a detour to the University of Ghana School of Performing Arts for two years, and returned with the clave rhythm, an indigenous ?gong beat? which also, in fact, came from the popular music of the Caribbean.

Since then many non-traditional styles have been experimented including brass band music style, big band highlife music to the present "dzama" gospel or as I choose to call it, "jump and shout" gospel strain.

The "dzama" or "Lolo" innovations, seemingly coming from the fishing beaches of Accra, and closely identified with Grace Ashy and Josh Laryea have some bad dance skiffs unfitting for the convention grounds where the "queue" dance of handkerchief waving well-dressed Pentecostals go gay.

However, with "Ngyboo" of Josh what is clear is the message happiness in salvation, the new birth and the promise of eternal life. Many foreign musical strains have creeped into Ghanaian gospel sometimes very fleetingy.

They included mbaqu? anga of South Africa, "soukous" of D.R. Congo, calypso of Jamaica, the "rumba" of Cuba and, of course western "pop" or "rock" music identifiable with the electric guitar with the "tremolo" arm.

Importantly, the music is still hinged on the charismatic church ministry. Most of the artists began the performance with a "praise and worship" modal song. Infact, the concert was preluded with an hour of "praise and worship" from a choir made of all the major artists and their backers or choirs.

The audience response was overwhelming. If they were allowed on stage they would climb the stage.

The concert, in fact, created more room for the new stars to showcase themselves. Even though their songs were popular, some faces were especially new to me.

Hanna Marfo, Philipa Baafi, Kwabena Asante, Francis Adjei, Christiana Love, Mark Anim and a few others were popular on radio but not visible.

Surprises came from Akosua Agyepong, still untamed with her unusual youthful antics, thrilled fans with her "hot" gospel with some "triggered" bass lines, a salsa with a "rap" passage.

Ophelia Nyantakyi and her husband, Collins, who was rather a backer this time, were seemingly of an older generation, but incomprehensible and ahead of their time. They played the new wave of heavy metal British "pop" with a "triggered" bass line and a lead quitar solo impelled by the crying "tremolo" arm of the electric guitar.