Accra Quartet announces debut album Gbɛfalɔi

The project, a six-track collection, explores the edges of contemporary African music. It features ‘Ablɔɖe’ (Freedom), ‘Batobe’ (They Are Right), ‘Ampe’ (A Children’s Game), ‘Abɔmmɔfo’ (Hunters), ‘Korle Gonno’ and ‘Gbɛfalɔi’ (Travellers)

The idea of the group and the record came about when Ghanaian trombonist Elikplim Kofi Amewode, aka Eli, and American guitarist Nathaniel Braddock, met at a concert at Accra’s Alliance Française in 2017 where they both performed on another musical project. A few years later, Eli heard that Braddock was returning to Ghana in 2019. He reached out to Braddock suggesting a collaboration, sharing a sketch of a song and asking him to produce a record. That August, they set up a session in Accra on Braddock’s arrival, joined by two percussionists, known as Black and Brown. That session is the product of that night.

Contemporary music in Ghana, Braddock observes, is dominated by a mix of Afrobeats, electric gospel, and an emergent revival of highlife stars from the 1970s.

“This set of improvised music sits on a different axis  –  at once traditional and avant-garde, ancient and futuristic, extremely local and thoroughly cosmopolitan, anchored on folkloric instruments and free improvisation,’ he says about Gbɛfalɔi. “The music is more like the Art Ensemble of Chicago than the court drummers of the Ashanti king.”

The Ghanaian musicians all live in Accra. Nii Addotey Brown, aka Asalasu, specialises in environmental sounds and traditional ancestral instruments. According to Brown, “music is every part of my being. I believe that this is my mission here”.

Black grew up within the Ga drumming tradition of Gome, Kpanlogo, and Kojonku, and became an in-demand kit drummer in both highlife and jazz bands, performing with Hugh Masekela, Stevie Wonder and Kofi Ghanaba, among others.

Amewode hails from the Volta Region in the east of the country. He has worked extensively with numerous highlife and brass bands in the east and in Accra and has toured internationally with Ebo Taylor and other artists. He leads his own project – Brass Democrat – where he travels to rural schools to offer instruction on all brass instruments, impacting thousands of Ghanaian children.

Of the project, Eli says: “I believe in just making the music happen. Any time I’m doing such music with the kids, I’m in a different spirit… I’m always searching for improvisation… I have a lot of things on my mind.”

Braddock lives in the US, but travels to Africa frequently, working with musicians from Ghana, Congo, Mali, Uganda, Zambia, and elsewhere. He leads the US-based groups Occidental Brothers Dance Bant Int’l and the Trio Mokili.