Ghanaian supergroup revives Burger Highlife classics
Almost half a century ago, Ghanaian migrants forged a form of music that's grown into a thriving cultural scene both in Ghana and in Germany. Mixing jazz, funk, reggae, soul and Afrobeat, Burger Highlife fuses Western and African sounds.
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00:00Living the high life in Berlin, Ghana style, multiple generations of performers coming
00:17together in celebration of the West African country's culture and music.
00:26And we've been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of their distinctive Ghanaian sound
00:31at the band's rehearsal studio.
00:36Pat Thomas is one of the most well-known faces of the high life scene.
00:41Or put another way, he's a Ghanaian high life legend.
00:43High life is supposed to be the original because of the clips.
00:53It gives everything, jazz, funk and everything.
01:02This genre of music originated in coastal Ghana in the late 19th century, but was brought
01:08to Germany in the 1970s and 80s by musicians fleeing political instability and the country's
01:15military regime.
01:19And now with access to new music and the latest instruments, they let their creative
01:23juices flow.
01:27Being in Berlin, being abroad, do you think that added anything to your sound compared
01:31to being in Ghana?
01:35Well, definitely.
01:39Because of the equipments in the first place, I had a different sound.
01:44Because by then, that was when all these new equipments have come out, like synthesizers
01:51and, you know, heavy keyboards, you know, and so it gave a different kind of sound.
02:00And that sound evolution soon got a new name, Burger High Life, a style of music associated
02:06with the many migrants who would travel between Ghana and Germany, with the latter at the
02:12heart of the so-called burger movement, a nod to the German word for citizen.
02:23But singer Charles Amoha found that putting a band together wasn't always easy.
02:29Most of the German guitarists were, it was something new to them.
02:35So trying to find them to get it was a problem.
02:39So I kept thinking and was wondering how it was going to work out.
02:42And what did that translate to with your audiences, both here and back home in Ghana?
02:49Surprisingly, any time we play in Germany, you know, Ghanaians have friends, they have
02:55German friends and all that, some of them are also my friends and all that.
02:58When they come, they can relate to the music easily.
03:01But when the music was first dropped in Ghana, oh lord, people would say, no, they've messed
03:06up High Life.
03:07There is no more High Life again.
03:11But over the years, Burger High Life only became more popular with its experimental
03:16cross-border approach seen as playing a part in the evolution of African music today.
03:25The music went from one border to the other.
03:27And then when it came back, it changed.
03:30And this is how we ended up with Afrobeats today.
03:33So I think we try to stay original, but we also make it exciting and use today's tools
03:38to make it sound a bit more kick-ass, I would say.
03:43The band is now preparing to play gigs here in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, hoping
03:50to delight fans old and new with a modern twist on the classic Burger High Life blend
03:56of sounds.