HIGHLIFE- rhythm and feeling

The band has 12-14 members and has always been very international with musicians from various African countries, Mexico, U.S.A. and Scandinavia. The group is usually divided into a brass section (up to four persons), a rhythm section (five persons), guitar, bass and several singers.

Part of the performance revolves around a musical depiction of West African village life, using authentic African instruments. All the tunes are original compositions, and most of the lyrics are in distinctive English Creole of Sierra Leone and other Sierra Leonian languages. All of this combines to produce a very genuine African music, which at the same time is a very special dance music in the West African highlife style.

The Highlife Orchestra has played at most of the large music festivals in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia: Skeppsholmen (Sweden), Kungsborg (Norway), Bergen (Norway), Tampere (Finland), Umeå (Sweden), Strömsö (Norway) and Lakselv (Norway) to name a few. The band are popular guests at many of the carnivals which have lately become a tradition in places such as Gothenburg, Copenhagen and Åhus.

A concert with Ahmadu Jarr and The Highlife Orchestra is divided into two parts: the first is devoted to original West African music using traditional instruments as "Kay Layng" and "Condi", after which the band plays highlife music with modern instruments.

The traditional part

The original music from Sierra Leone is built around a claves-rhythm "tok-tok-tok-tack-tack" which is a common element in the many types of music played by special groups in society.

The Highlife Orchestra´s musical sources include Adikali (music for boys who have reached ten years of age), Ojeh (the adult man´s music at its most sophisticated level), Bondo (woman´s music), Ka Botho (working music), Poro (music played by the Timne tribe) and music which is played in connection with male initiation rites. All of these are dance music and blend easily with the modern West African highlife music, which is itself influenced by a variety of musical traditions.

The modern part

The modern highlife music of West Africa developed after the second world war, when western music - especially American - began to make its influence felt upon an already multi-cultural musical tradition. This blending of musical traditions began in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in the early nineteenth-century when the country became a sanctuary for freed and runaway slaves, mainly from Ghana, Nigeria and the West Indies, and the musical influence of these countries is still felt today.

The Highlife Orchestra

After the war western instruments, such as the guitar, trumpet and saxophone began to be used, and they helped to shape the present form of highlife music. Perhaps the most important of these was the guitar music of the palm - wine bars, for that gave highlife music its name. It is that happy, spontaneous music and that combination of old and new that Ahmadu Jarr and The Highlife Orchestra conveys to its audience.

And at last... something from the press:

"What rhythm and feeling, what extraordinary happiness there is in this music...An ecstatic feeling spreads from the music to the audience...The contact between the musicians and the audience is immediate, warm and intimate!"
LÄNSTIDNINGEN

"Joyful music! Music that charms in the chilly autumn air... Popular African music, loving and warm music that makes room for all imaginable sorts of inputs from both the audience and the musicians.."
GOTLANDS ALLEHANDA