One of the many talented musicians who Ghana has loaned to the world is Paa Joe, a 46-year-old guitarist who also plays bass, keyboards and percussion.

Paa Joe’s virtuosity on the guitar has impacted on the work of some of Ghana’s most respected musicians. They include Jewel Ackah whose Butterfly Six band took Paa Joe to Europe for the first time. Soon, C. K. Mann followed and took Paa Joe to the US for a performance tour in the 90s.

Paa Joe contributed to the arrangement of Pat Thomas’ Sika Ye Mogya and played the guitar on Francis Adjei’s gospel hit, God You’re So Good.

Currently he is a member of the Canada based band, African Guitar Summit, a star-studded collaborative project uniting the talents of Canada’s best guitarists of African origin.

One artswriter said of the album: “While a subtler version of the fret-shredding dominated the sessions that led to the recently released CD, African Guitar Summit, egos were thankfully kept in check when six outstanding African-Canadian guitarists from across the country converged in a studio in the CBC Broadcast Centre earlier this year.

What’s also noteworthy about the project is that the group came together over three days, played together on the fourth day, and spent the following three days recording 19 songs.

This is impressive when you consider that only a couple of these guitar slingers had collaborated before this meeting.

The disc features Alpha YaYa Diallo from Guinea, Paa Joe from Ghana, Adam Solomon from Kenya, Mighty Popo from Burundi and Rwanda, and Donne Roberts and Madagascar Slim from Madagascar.

Balafon player Naby Camara, singer Theo Boakye and drummer Kofi Ackah round out the group.