Trumpet/flugelhorn player, Peter Somuah
ACT Music, a recording label in Berlin, Germany has officially released Ghanaian trumpet/flugelhorn player, Peter Somuah’s new 10-track album titled ‘Highlife’.
Recorded in Germany and Ghana, the album which celebrates the music generally regarded as Ghana’s gift to the world, features prominent acts like Agya Koo Nimo, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Pat Thomas and Lamisi Akuka, formerly of the Patchbay Band.
The Netherlands-based Somuah grew up in Jamestown in Accra and has always felt great affection for Ghanaian rhythms.
He is well-traveled and has absorbed a wide range of styles into his playing.
Highlife, however, still has a strong pull on him and he decided to pay homage to the genre with his new album.
Aware that Highlife has been open to a mixture of influences over the years, he worked out songs that reflect some of the stages the music has navigated.
He, for instance, squeezed in his own take on things like big band arrangements, home-grown rhythm section approaches and vocal themes that resonate with his compatriots.
“Highlife is ours and it can be played to retain its essence while incorporating elements that help widen its acceptance. Popular music styles don’t stand still. They keep evolving,” Somuah says. “What I have done is simply to bring the old and new generations together for new Highlife renditions.”
Ambolley is on a track about corruption called ‘Chop Chop’ on the album. He knew Somuah in Ghana before the trumpet/flugelhorn player went to settle in the Netherlands.
In Ambolley’s view, Somuah exhibits a high level of musicianship and that is why he is able to hold out his own in a terrain of first-rate players.
“It is a beautiful album he has out now and we need more of that genre because we need to sell our culture and all the fine things about us to the whole world. I like what he is doing,” Ambolley stated.
Other tracks on the album include ‘We Give Thanks’ which features Pat Thomas, ‘African Continent’ which has Lamisi Akuka on lead vocals,‘Mental Slavery’ on which Somuah himself sings and ‘Bruce Road’ which paints a sound picture of the area Somuah grew up in Jamestown.
Somuah already has two albums under his name: ‘Outer Space’ which came out in 2022 and ‘Letter to the Universe’ which he brought out in 2023.
