November 09, 2008

Tempos

Once you get hooked onto highlife music, you will inevitably come across E.T. Mensah and his Tempos Band. There used to be a very useful small book by John Collins about this Ghanian master, but I suspect it is out of print. But there is plenty to read about him, here or here*.

Here are two 45s on Decca West-Africa. The first (an EP titled "Mensah Melodies") is from the early 1960s and features a song about Kwame Nkrumah, which as far I can ascertain has not been released on CD.
Well there's another man you might want to read up about. Here's a good point to start.

The second is a 'normal' 45, from a later date (note the Essiebons sleeve).

Decca Wax 104
Decca GWA 4212





*I am slightly irritated by the photo on this page though. E.T. doesn't need Louis Armstrong to boost his standing.

3 comments:

avocado kid said...

yes!

Akwaboa said...

Thanks Worldservice!
Great stuff

blottière said...

thank you for your work and your help: http://lhistgeobox.blogspot.com/2009/05/158-et-mensah-kwame-nkrumah.html

Great stuff!!

J.B.