Hitsville Re-Visited
Mr Bongo (28 mins)
The cavalcade of 70s and 80s African album reissues shows no signs of slowing. This one, originally released in 1982, is the work of two pioneers of Ghanaian music, guitarist Ebo Taylor and singer Pat Thomas. It wasn’t the first time they’d worked together; by the time this album came about, they’d already made several albums together which really solidified the genre of highlife funk, a harder-hitting, often minor key take on the lighter highlife style.
Hitsville Re-Visited isn’t that, though. Here, together with Taylor’s band Uhuru Yenzu, they go back to an earlier style from the beginnings of highlife. As such, there’s much less funk and disco here. In fact, the overriding sound that jumps out is that of classic calypso, topped with Thomas’s easy vocals and Taylor’s palmwine-style guitar. A particular highlight throughout are the solos from saxophonists George Amissah and George Abunyewa, who inject an element Caribbean-inspired jazz à la Sonny Rollins’ ‘St Thomas’.
The end result is feel-good and fun but not mind-blowing, and only four tracks leave us with less than half an hour of music. A pleasant listen, but perhaps best as a short diversion among the rest of these artists’ funkier back catalogues.