Five of Ghana’s contemporary live musicians discussed the future of country’s iconic Highlife sound and gave exclusive performances on the final series of Highlife Music Deconstructed (HMD) Series.
In the second of five posts, we give you a bit of background of each of the artists. They include producer Kwame Yeboah, BiQo and Nee Mantse of Lala Sessions, Kyekyeku of the Opong Super Stars band, and Nyornuwofia Agorsor of the Agorsor Band.
Nee Mantse is a bass guitar player, producer and one half of the founding members of LaLa Sessions - a music platform that embraces the authentic Highlife vibes in a modern way.
Nee Mantse’s love of music started as a child in the church when he first started playing the kongas and later became a drummer at his church in 2007.
It was a couple of years later that he started playing the bass guitar after his pastor bought one for him. He turned professional in 2017 and has been playing ever since.
He cites producer Kwame Yeboah, musician Kojo Antwi, Highlife band member Emmanuel Ofori of Santrofi and the Patchbay Band as being instrumental in helping him in his career.
He has performed with Bisa K'dei in Cote d’Ivoire, Stonebwoy in Nigeria and in 2019 was part of a European tour on the Pat Thomas and the Kwashibu Area Band.
Nee Mantse produced the single Sei Nkoaa with BiQo and featuring Fameye and played at Shop Accra where he played a cover of the Uhuru Band’s Biribi with singer BiQo and their band.