When the time comes to vote in the Ghana Music Awards nominations, I will cast my vote for someone the public doesn’t know.
He is my idea of either the Gospel Artist of the Year (indeed, even the 2014 Overall Artist of the Year- why not!).
I can’t find on the market any song that even attempts to match up to his popularly and critically acclaimed work as Song of the Year.
This artist is James Varrick Armaah. The name rings no bells? Of course, I am not surprised. He is the young man whose brainchild has not made him richer or more famous but which has fattened the bank accounts of some choral groups in this country and gifted Christians with a great danceable song of praise.
That song is Oye, the one gospel song (a concoction with choral ingredients) that dominated the airwaves this year, reigned in churches and dominated street play for upwards of eight months.
In many mainline orthodox and pentecostal churches, “silver collection”/offering time is never complete without Oye.
It is the song with which the congregants dance their way from the pews to the altars waving their offerings and handkerchiefs.
So much for Oye.
I have extra news for aficionados, devotees and plain lovers of choral music. At age 30, James Varrick Armaah is out with a CD of 11 songs.
Odo Ben Nie was launched on his 30th birthday anniversary and is one of a kind. Featuring the silky voice of Nii Okine, a master crooner who has confirmed the human voice as a distinct instrument, this CD is double-edged.
On the one edge, it propels the Christian listener into the various postures of deep devotion and worship as well as exciting, handkerchief-waving, get-on-the-floor praises.
Indeed, I do not need the title of prophet to predict that the second track, Menim Nea Menya, will be the much expected sequel to Oye, in terms of what it is bound to do in churches at collection/offering time.
The silk – call it velvet – in Nii Okine’s falsetto combines so beautifully with the masterfully harmonised and controlled voices of the Harmonious Chorale.
On the other edge, this CD will be used in music schools to document the culmination of a long period of experimentations with and evolution of choral music: merging the freestyle paradigm of popular-music with the typical structured four-part singing of art music practice, creating a synergy that even the cursory listener cannot fail to appreciate.
Working with S.K. Attah of the Winneba-based Royal Soundz Studio, Armaah laces a number of tracks with the latest influence i.e. symphonic treatment which was pioneered in Pastor Kwabena Donkor’s 2013 head-turner, Tete Nyame .
Odo Ben Nie is as rich in voices as it is in instrumentation. A powerfully driving bass-line, a grinding lead and persistent percussion stand it out.
To prove his ownership of Oye as a song, Armaah decides to do with it as he pleases. It is the last track of this CD, but with a re-arrangement that is refreshing.
I love Armaah; at least, his fertile brains.
