Name: Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band
Brand: Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CD-STRUT-126

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2015-06-16

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Redeye

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

730003312625

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band

Genre US

African

Label US

Strut

Hailing from Kumasi, Thomas had lived with highlife legend King Onyina from a young age before working with Ebo Taylor in two of Ghana's great 1960s highlife big bands, Broadway Dance Band and Stargazers. They would collaborate regularly, Pat contributing vocals to Ebo's solo albums and Ebo arranging horns for Pat's songs. Both would become a mainstay of the '70s and '80s Ghanaian highlife, afrobeat and afro-pop scenes, hitting big with the Ghana Cocoa Board-sponsored Sweet Beans band. Fela Kuti's bandleader, drummer Tony Allen, would record a session with Sweet Beans in Kumasi in 1975 (as yet unreleased). "Highlife was our music," Pat remembers. "People like Ebo and I modernised it, made it more relevant to our day. We took the Kwa music of Kumasi and other local styles and added Western elements." With his distinctive flowing vocal style, sung in Fanti and Ashanti Twi dialect, Pat became established as one of Ghana's biggest musical draws.

Music US