E.T. Mensah & His Tempos Band – King of Highlife
Album
The starting point. Trumpeter E.T. Mensah, called the King of Highlife, led the Accra dance band that defined the urban sound of the 1950s, mixing local melodies with swing and calypso. Here the melody lives in the horns rather than the guitar, with bright, singable brass lines over a light rhythm. Choose it to hear the big-band highlife that every later style on this list grew away from.