A ‘One Week’ traditional memorial ceremony will be held for deceased highlife artiste Charles Kofi Amankwah Mann, popularly known as C. K. Mann, today in Takoradi.
It is expected that by the end of the ceremony the family would come out with the date for the burial and final funeral rites of the highlife legend.
The Citi FM Music of Ghanaian Origin Lifetime Achiever died on Tuesday March 20, 2018 at the GHAPOHA hospital in Takoradi after being taken ill for some time. He was 83.
CK Mann is the producer of great highlife songs such as ‘Adwoa Yankey,’ ‘Mber Papa,’ ‘Medo Wo,’ ‘Araba Lucy,’ ‘Wode a Ne Me,’ among others.
About CK Mann
C.K. Mann (Charles Kofi Amankwaa Mann) was born in 1936 in Cape Coast. A former seaman and a member of Kakaiku’s Guitar Band for some time, he joined the Ocean Strings’ which he led until 1965.
The band folded up and the owner of Princess Cinema in Takoradi invited C.K. to lead the Carousel 7, a newly formed resident band of the Princess night club. He then came to prominence with a single hit record Edina Benya in 1969.
C.K. has leaped to fame with his captivating revival and modernization of ‘Osode,’ the traditional music of the fishermen of Ghana. C.K. Mann explains:
The raw and pure Osode vocal ensemble is unique and can’t be equaled by anyone other than the fishermen folks. He also wanted to play Osode and make it appealing to a wider audience so he changed the instrumentation a bit and to the Ashowa, the hand piano or rhythm box that is used to perform Osode, he added two guitars, organ, bass, etc.
But he managed to maintain some of the original ingredients such as the hand-claps, and the call and response style of singing.
The outcome of this combination was a mildly melancholic sound which was quite popular on the Ghanaian West Coast market.
After the success of Osode, C.K. introduced wind instruments: the saxophone and trumpet, into his band, The Carousel 7.
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By: Kwame Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
