The Black Album

Artist: K. Frimpong & Cubano Fiestas

Released: 1977

Alhaji K Frimpong’s 1977 Highlife masterpiece, melding traditional Ghanaian musical forms with experimental instrumentation and innovative arrangements. The Black Album expands the electronic elements and features the visionary Hwehwe Mu Na Yi Wo Mpena, although the real gem is hiding on the B side: the extended groove of “Adam Nana”. Sinuously evolving guitar lines, clavinet vamps, harmonised vocal snatches and otherworldly percussion expand and contract over a full quarter of an hour - a Ghanaian repost to the Afro Jazz experiments going on at the same time on the other side of the Atlantic.