Boxing Day thrill at Gold Coast
There was excitement in the air and patrons’ smiles seemed to add more glow to the already cheery atmosphere at the Gold Coast Restaurant at the Airport Residential Area in Accra on Boxing Day.
Advertisement
Management of the venue put on a special night of highlife for lovers of the genre and it went down well with everyone present. Bessa Simons and his band, Kari Bannerman, Smart Nkansah, Gyedu Blay Ambolley and Ben Brako all took turns to offer enjoyable variations of the music.
The Yuletide usually brightens up moods so patrons only needed to hear the Bessa Band strike up the first tune for them to start moving toward the dance floor.
With his commanding presence behind the keyboard, Bessa Simons pulled his young charges along to render a masterly mix of songs.
They pleasantly swung from rejuvenated old highlife pieces to splashy interpretations of Bessa’s own compositions like ‘Belembe’ and ‘Awoyi.’
The England-based Kari Bannerman is widely known for his affinity for rock but he put that inclination aside for delightful takes on some carefully selected highlife classics. His presentation was soothing and revealed a man truly proficient on his guitar.
Smart Nkansah of Sumsum Band fame doesn’t perform regularly these days. So it was a treat to hear the man so well-steeped in highlife do a few of his well-loved tunes like ‘Mpena Twi’ and ‘Odo.’
Ambolley always rises to the occasion with his crowd-pleasing antics and he enticed more people to the dance floor when he came on. They sang along with him and clapped hard when he finished his set.
Ben Brako then stepped in with some of his 30-year-old songs that got people dancing with more glee to round off the amusing Boxing Day event.
