Were it possible, the late famous American jazz pianist, songwriter and
singer Nat King Cole would have cupped his ears and peeped from his
grave last Friday night to hear and see the mature interpretations
being given to some of his compositions at the British Council Hall in
Accra by folks not even born when he died in 1965.

When I Fall In Love and I Love You For Sentimental Reasons were some of the Cole songs that featured in the Classical Soul: A Golden Night of Passionate Music programme put together by a collection of young music lovers to entertain guests here for the 26th MTN Cup of Africa Nations (CAN) Ghana 2008 soccer tournament.

Lack of sponsorship prevented the organisers from executing the requisite publicity for the event and attendance was below expectation but the quality of the performances were extremely high.

It was an evening of music from a wide range of composers selected to meet the assorted tastes of the expected international audience.
 
The brains behind the show, Kwaku Anane-Appiah and Laud Allotey, both Level 400 students of the University of Ghana, said the idea to stage the programme occurred to them at the beginning of last month and they had to quickly rally around other students on campus and a few recent graduates to start rehearsals for last Friday.

“We were targetting the football fans and that accounted for the broadness of material. We wanted something of good quality and world appeal, something people are already well aware of. Unfortunately sponsorship was hard to come by and we had to borrow from our parents to make the programme come on,” said Kwaku Anane-Appiah.

Apart from Nat King Cole, the young performers ably rendered material from other well-known artistes such as Franz Schubert, Bob Marley, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kojo Antwi, Mary J Blige, George Frideric Handel, Miriam Makeba, Paapa Yankson, Dionne Warwick and James Brown.

There were also excerpts from the Sound of Music, the famous 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and Dreamgirls, the award-winning Broadway musical which opened in 1981 and which formed the basis for a 2006 movie of the same title featuring Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover and Eddie Murphy.

The hall was not filled but the audience that turned up amply showed that they were expressly there to enjoy the music and appreciate the worthy efforts of the young people.

From the straight classical through to the soul, R&B, reggae and highlife, the various instrumentalists and singers paraded more than enough abilities to signify the enormous amount of music talent in this country.

Two of the singers, Mary Jane Unamka and Afi Dzakpasu, came off very well. A Level 400 Performing Arts student at Legon, Mary Jane is also a backing singer for Becca and hopes to explore singing much more seriouly after school. She is however, is not sure if the Ghanaian listening public would be interested enough in the jazz and blues stuff that she loves so much.

She did the Nat King Cole songs show and told Showbiz that Cole is one of her favourite singers. “I listen to him everyday and I can sing many of his songs. I was asked to do his songs because I’m already familiar with them. I did not have to go out of my way to learn them for the show. I love jazz and I’m always on the lookout for jazz CDs to buy in town.”

Afi Dzakasu just came out of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) with a degree in Communication Studies and is currently doing National Service.

She told Showbiz that she has been listening to soul and blues since she was very young and generally loves to express herself through words. “ I have been singing since childhood. It is my dream to get better and probably record an album or two of my own.”

Emeritus Prof J. H. Nketia, the renowned musicologist has often commented on Ghanaian's lack of passion for certain types of music. He has rightly observed the small numbers of people that patronise excellent concerts with ‘classical’, ‘choral’ or ‘experimental’ content.