some artists are not musicians!

Renowned high life musician,
George Darko has said that most
Ghanaian artistes today are only
singers who should not be called
musicians.
The man credited with the invention
of Burger-highlife expressed the
concern that it is vital for artistes of
today to learn to play at least one
musical instrument which he said
will be good for their chord
progression, and will eventually
qualify them as musicians.
The highlife great made this remarks
in an interview with Lexis Bill on Day
Break Hitz on Hitz FM Friday.
He urged upcoming and young
musicians to learn to play either the
guitar, which he is in love with, or
other musical instruments for their
own musical benefit.
“Musicians, the young guys
themselves are not making any
conscious effort to learn how to
play the guitar or maybe learn how
to play the keyboard so that it will
affect their chord progression whiles
composing. They ’ve left that
professional aspect of the music to
rather the sound engineers who are
now controlling the creativity itself
and that is dangerous, ” he
observed.
“Because when you listen to hip life,
you could tell from about ten songs
that it is the same bass line, the
same drum pattern because it is
created by one person. It is killing
our creativity a bit and it is also
killing our ingenuity.
“When you say you are a musician;
you should be able to control one or
two musical equipment...They have
to learn how to control the
equipment themselves so they can
change the chord progression, ” he
added.
George Darko was installed as the
Efutuhene of Akropong-Akuapim in
1991 under the stool name Nana
Yaw Ampem Darko. He will be
celebrating his 20th anniversary as
chief next year.
Since the inception of his Burger-
high life music, George Darko says
he still holds that title, a title he says
is undisputed.
“Undisputed…before this, nobody
played high life in that direction. We
can go through the archives of
Ghanaian high life music, before Ako
Te Brofo, there was nothing like this;
slow jazz fusion. ”
With over 30 years in music,
George Darko who had a dream of
being a lawyer had his major
breakthrough with the hit song, Ako
te brofo (Even Parrots speak English)
in 1982.
In the late 1970s, George Darko
played for a group, 4th Dimensions
of the 4th Battalion of the Ghana
Armed Forces based in Kumasi. He
was trained as a soldier and his
group played to entertain United
Nations military officers who were
on duty in the Middle East.
He served in the military for six
years and due to a curfew situation
in the country during the early
1980s, which saw the exodus of a
lot of musicians because they could
not perform live in the period where
musical concerts were evening and
night affairs; George left the shores
of Ghana to Germany.
George Darko is set to release a new
album in a week or two and he has
currently released a single, Lucky
Star from that album.
He is married with four children and
has several hits including Odo
Colour, Money Palava, High Life
Time, African Girl, Naomi and
Masem Yi to his credit.
Story by Ernest Dela Aglanu/
Myjoyonline.com/Ghana