At the point when you mention Ghana music, one thing that strikes you is High-Life music. The country has that permanent imprint on its name as the pioneers of High-Life music, harking back to the 70’s. During that time, the speed at which the genre was moving over the African continent was incomprehensible.
The likes of George Darko, Rex Gyamfi, Daddy Lumba, Kojo Antwi, Lee Doudoo AB Crenstil, Thomas Frimpong, Alex Konadu and numerous other artists who conveyed the High-Life music to the world were exceptional. One of these projectors is Pat Thomas.
The 74 year old singer and songwriter has been of enormous help to the High-Life music since its beginning. Starting with a celebrated band of Ebo Taylor, who is a grand guitarist and the Kwashibu Area Band, Thomas has performed far and wide including Slovenia, Germany, Canada and many other countries around the globe, with his sparkling and cunning performance.
Pat Thomas’ voice which is incredibly extraordinary and combined with his composing aptitudes, made him truly outstanding among his companions. In 1978, he was named as ‘Mr. Golden Voice of Africa’.
He recorded three Afrobeat-cum-Afro-pop records entitled In Action, Vols. 1, 2 and 3 (somewhere in the range of 1978 and 1979). For the collection 1980, he moved his melodic vision to include Afro-Latin sounds and reggae merged to out of control African disco.
In fact, that is the reason he is referred to by the crowd as “The Golden Voice Of Africa”. Born Nana Kwabena Amo Mensah in the Asante region, his dad was a music hypothesis teacher, his uncle was as a matter of fact, an amazing Ghanaian guitarist for King Onyina, who was prestigious for his own chronicles.
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However, his spearheading work with Nat King Cole, and his mom a bandleader has helped him. Thomas went to live with his uncle for a period and learned melodic documentation. Apparently, that legitimizes why he is a super-gifted performer. It is without a doubt generational!
Pat Thomas began his music career in the 1960s, where he teamed up with Ebo Taylor, back In 1974. He formed the band “Sweet Beans” and with them, he recorded his first album ‘False Lover’. He also played in two other incredible bands from the period: the Broadway Dance Band and Stargazers.
Thomas recorded his subsequent album “Pat Thomas Introduces Marijata” with the band Marijata. After the overthrow in Ghana in 1979, he moved to Berlin, Germany and later settled in Canada.
He has toured worldwide with his Kwashibu Area Band. In June 2015 they released the album ‘Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band’ to mark 50 years of his music career. That same year, Thomas and his Band’s album was named by AllMusic as one of the “Most loved Latin and World Albums.
Somewhere in 1974 and 1996, he gave in excess of twelve independent chronicles of his own, for example, Stay There (1976), Asawa Do (1978), and Hitsville Revisited with Taylor and Uhuru-Yenzu, offering an interesting interpretation of highlife and Afro-pop.
His list has been reissued more than once by an assortment of names. Thomas despite everything, still stays relevant and dynamic in the 21st century. In the last decade, he has recorded and performed with the Kwashibu Area Band.
Thomas left Taylor’s band and moved to the Ivory Coast in 1973, where he formed the Satellites. This band was fleeting and they cut a couple of singles. Thomas’ initially hit outside Africa was Asanteman in 1985, the first of two collections cut for JAP. He tailed it with Highlife Greats Mbrepa a year later.
Thomas was fretful, as he moved and played all over Europe for the next five years, recording for a progression of names including Kopatko and Nakasi. “Sika Ye Mogya“, which is most people’s favourite was recorded in 1991 and won the Album of the Year Award in Ghana.
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Thomas concentrated on his teaching from there onwards for the following decade, but played summer celebrations in Europe. His solo other recording during the ’90s was “Nkae” on Sikafutro Productions in 1996.
In June of 2015, the U.K. name Strut released his first records in longer than 10 years. Entitled “Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band”, it was recorded in Accra, Ghana.
It put the singer in the midst of a band formed by multi-instrumentalist Kwame Yeboah and saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. Other artists included drummer Tony Allen, Noble Kings’ bassist Ralph Karikari, and a large group of more youthful players including Thomas’ daughter Nana Yaa, a celebrated vocalist in her own right.
Melodies By Pat Thomas:
Uhuru Special feat. Ebo Taylor
Gyae Su feat. Ebo Taylor
Onfa Nkosi Hwee feat. Kwashibu Area Band / Kwame Yeboah
Okomfe Bone feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Odo Ankasa feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Obinim feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Obi Nfreno feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Ntobuase feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Bubu feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Atesem feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Ben Abarbanel-Wolff / Kwame Yeboah
Wiase Ahonya feat. Ebo Taylor / Uhuru-Yenzu
Wompe ‘A’ Obi Pe Me feat. Ebo Taylor
Ma Huno feat. Ebo Taylor
Hiani Sui Efiri ‘A’ Oyi Aberesse feat. Ebo Taylor
Ene Nyame Nam A, Mensuro feat. Ebo Taylor
Yamona feat. Kwashibu Area Band
Pat Thomas
Yaa Amponsah feat. The Ogyatanaa Show Band / Kwadwo Donkoh
We Are Coming Home feat. Marijata
Set Me Free feat. The Sweet Beans
Revolution feat. The Sweet Beans
Obra E Yebo Yi feat. The Black Berets
Mpaebo feat. Pat Thomas
Mewo Akoma feat. Pat Thomas
Albums:
Sweeter Than Honey, Calypso “Mahuno” and High Lifes Celebration
1980
Sweeter Than Honey, Calypso “Mahuno” and High Lifes Celebration
1982
Mr. Bongo
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band
2015
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band
Strut
Obiaa! And Coming Home
2019
