Jazz Returns To Adisadel

Memories of good old times weighed on their minds as Dr. Sam Mensah, a financial analyst at the Ministry of Finance and Carl Ricky Telfer, a Canada-based Information Technology consultant, drove up Adisadel Hill last Saturday on a mission to help revive the Adisadel College Jazz Band. The first students jazz band in this country was started at Adisadel College in 1964. The school, which celebrates its centenary in 2010, maintained a vibrant jazz music tradition but has unfortunately waned over the years. Some old students, including Dr Mensah and Telfer, are keen to see the situation change and for Adisadel to rise again to its former glory in jazz music. Dr Mensah and Telfer, together with another old student John Dzokoto, who were all active musicians during their days on the hill, last year presented music equipment comprising a set of drums, lead and bass guitars, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, keyboards, amplifiers and a public address system worth $10,000 to the school. “We are doing what we can to see the school climb to the top in jazz music once more. Lack of equipment was the problem a while ago but that has been solved. We are now concentrating on playing skills for the students,” Dr Mensah told Showbiz at the school last Saturday. Telfer on piano, an American Peace Corps teacher called Dave Godfrey on trumpet and Glenn Warren on drums formed the nucleus of the Adisadel College Jazz Band in 1964. The trio jammed regularly in the school’s Canterbury Hall. A donation of equipment from England for the school orchestra and jazz band greatly facilitated the formation of a larger band which the then headmaster, ‘Paa Colo’ Orleans-Lindsay readily approved of. A novelty and a showpiece throughout the country, the Adisadel College Jazz Band was initially in demand at girls schools like Wesley Girls, Holy Child and Mfantsiman. The boys schools also started booking the band later for their Saturday entertainment programmes and the band travelled to Accra, Aburi and Kumasi to honour engagements on weekends. Apart from jazz pieces by giants like Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk, the band also played highlife by Nigerian and Ghanaian composers for the sake of audiences who wanted to dance. In 1965, it became the first student band to appear on Ghana Television’s popular Band Stand programme which before then had featured professional bands of the time like Uhuru, Ramblers and ET Mensah’s Tempos Band. At the session with the student musicians in the Canterbury Hall last Saturday, the two old boys took them through equipment tuning techniques, effective practice routines and how to develop skills for improvisation. They also presented guitar strings, books on jazz and recordings for practice to the school. The revamped Adisadel College Jazz Band is expected to be launched in Accra before the end of the year.