The Big 4 Concert Series Set To Take America By Storm

The current music scene is dominated by hiplife, one hit wonders; the Tupac, 50 cent, Snoop Dogg and Jay Z ?wannabees?, Gospel music and innovative sounds/production.  But as the old saying goes, experience is the best teacher.

The music of yesteryear is classic and includes songs that anyone can attribute to their experiences. They are never forgotten and are always valuable and timeless. The artistes behind the music are called heroes, mentors, role models, statesmen or any good thing you can associate with them. 

In a nutshell; it is said that most youngsters are perfectly happy with music which lays emphasis with good arrangement and production while the matured generation pay attention to all the meaningful words. 

This is an event for all ages; it has been a long time that the Ghanaians around the world have seen some of the celebrated Ghanaians who fall within this category of the Big 4 namely; A.B Crentsil, Jewel Ackah, Pat Thomas and Paapa Yankson.  Imagine these greats performing on the same stage, it is going to be a blockbuster evening.  Mark The Dates On Your Calendar And Do Not Miss It.

They are coming to a city near you. Take this opportunity of a lifetime and see the best of the best in Ghanaian music. The event would be exclusively featured on Ghanaweb's entertainment segment and Ghana Music.Com. The dates and cities are as follows;

March 5th - Washington, DC

March 12th - Minisink, Harlem, NY

March 19th - Chicago, IL

March 26th - Atlanta, GA

April 2nd ? Dallas, Texas

Below are biographies of the Great 4

A.B Crentsil

A. B. Crentsil With 15-20 years of experience in the music business Mr. Crentsil has won numerous Ghanaian Music Awards including the Fontomfrom Evergreen Award which is a special honor bestowed upon a musician with 15-20 years of continuous music experience. 

AB Crentsil is a musician of substance, his career has been a smooth one with the public always appreciating in totality the numerous albums that he has released and continues to release over the years.

AB Crentsil's music has always been considered controversial but always makes the highest sales once it hits the market. Mr. Crentsil resorts to various themes and antics to convey his message with appropriate proverbs where necessary and that always strikes a listener to appreciate his music.

Alfred Benjamin Crentsil Jnr. was born to the late Alfred Benjamin Crentsil Snr. and Esi Yaaba at Posten in the 1940's. He was always known as AB Jnr until his father died in 1984 and then he assumed the AB Crentsil name without the junior. His primary and middle school education was the Takoradi Methodist Primary and Rev. Cleveland Middle School respectively.  After his middle school examination his father who was the Works Superintendent of the Technical branch of Ghana Railways at Takoradi, AB worked under his father as an electrical apprentice.

Whiles in the middle school, AB was introduced to the guitar by a Mr. Thedoh. AB became proficient in the playing of the guitar and started singing along when playing the guitar. AB was simultaneously working as an electrician and playing with the Strollers Band owned by one Kwesi Donkor. AB has played with the El Dorado's, Sweet Talks and then finally the Ahenfo Band.

AB continues to release new albums and he continues to win all the top accolades that are awarded to top musicians in Ghana. As he always says "When burger highlife came and everybody loved it, we all joined the train because we also wanted to make some money, but one that I realized is that, highlife will always be the original form of music for Ghanaians and we will always come back to it" AB is married to Elizabeth Crenstil and has seven children.

Jewel Kofi Ackah

Jewel Ackah Jewel Ackah was born in the 1945 at Axim in the Western Region of Ghana to Mr. Emmanuel Ackah and Ms. Cecilia Dye.  He started his education at the Axim Roman Catholic primary and completed in Takoradi in the 1963.

Jewel had a career as a footballer and later joined the shipping company called Palm Line.  He realized shipping was not his field so he was introduced into a traditional drumming group and within a short time he became the best in the group. Jewel was picked up by a renowned musician named Ebo Tailor. He started playing live dance band and played with guys like Elgrand Kwofie, C.K. Mann and Jos Akins as the master of the band. 

In 1974 Jewel recorded his first album 'Gyaki Me" in the Nzema dialect which was a hit and won him several awards. He also sang with Pat Thomas to record the song "False Lover" the same year. Still as a drummer, he joined the famous Sweet Beans Band and through hard work was called to lead the Sweet Talks in Tema. From there he made his trip to the US with C.K. Mann.  After his trip he also made some single trips to Canada, back to the US and then to Europe. Jewel Ackah has 27 albums to his credit and he is married with six children.

 
Patrick Thomas

Pat Thomas Pat Thomas, a native of Agona, in the Ashanti Region with a father who was a music teacher and a mother who was a band leader.  Pat has always been in love with music from an early age, and he learned a lot of band organization and music writing from his uncle Onyina who played with Nat King Cole, Miriam Makeba, Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald.  It was during his stay with his uncle that he learned how to play the guitar and drums.

In the early 70's he came to Accra to join a band known as the Blue Monks under the leadership of Ebo Taylor. This was the resident band of Tip Toe Nite Club. It was during one of his shows that one Caucasian lady who was in attendance fell in love with his voice and signed him up to go to Ivory Coast to form a group called The Satellites. He later came to Ghana to form the Sweat Beans Band and that became the band of choice during the Kutu Acheampong Era.

Pat was crowned Mr. Golden Voice of Africa in 1978 and at the same time won the ECRAC award of the year. In 1991 he also won the Album of the year with his "Sika Ye Mogya" song. Pat moved to Europe and played in almost every city in Europe with his band the Anabos. Pat moved to London, then to Canada where he lived for ten years. Pat is now residing in Ghana and can proudly boast of 15 albums to his credit.

 
Paapa Yankson

Papa Yankson Some thirty years ago, a gentleman went to a funeral, begged his way to the microphone and was discovered that night. Paapa Yankson who was then a stenographer joined the Carousel 7 band which was then managed by C.K. Mann. He performed with C.K. Mann for many years until he went out on his own to produce and sing "Abam Kofi".

Paapa Yankson 'hit' or 're-hit' the music scene with the Western Diamond Band which brought the group out from the unknown to the known which is quite an achievement to him.  Paapa continues to come out with solo hits like "Wiadze Ye Mu Sum" and is working on some more solo hits.

Stay tuned or watch this space for more information.