Der legendäre Gyedu Blay Ambolley aus Ghana, West Afrika hat mit seiner Sekondi Band bereits sage und schreibe 29 Alben veröffentlicht und veröffentlicht nach dem "Hit"-Album "The African Soul" (2015) nun sein neuestes Werk auf Agogo Records. Sein einzigartiger, tanzbarer Sound mit humorvollen Texten, deckt unzählige Genres ab. Seit 2016 wird ihm auch der erste jemals auf Platte veröffentlichte Rap aus dem Jahr 1973 zugesprochen, und nicht mehr der Sugarhill Gang!

[ENG] Ambolley was born in the city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana, in West Africa. The multi-talented, International, Ghanaian Musician celebrated his "Silver Jubilee" in music in 1998. He taught himself to play the flute as a first instrument in his early years of musical interest dating back to the age of eight, when he began playing with his father's flute. The young music enthusiast continued to learn the rudiments of music from the late' Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor. During the sixties, the young aspiring
musician was impressed with the music he heard on the popular radio show, "Voice of America Jazz Hour." That sixties show featured such jazz giants as Jimmy Smith, Max Roach, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella
Fitzgerald and Billie Eckstie... all of whom became part of Ambolley's early musical experience. This versatile, irrepressible singer, songwriter, producer and "musical- life-force" exploded on the music scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called 'SIMIGWA-DO'.
He has toured throughout West Africa, Europe, Canada, and the United States and has performed on the same stage with some of the world’s most celebrated artistes such as; Miriam Makeba of South Afrika, the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of Nigeria, the late George
Howard, Angela Bofill, Norman Connors, Manu Dibango, Lakeside, Chikuzan Takahashi of Japan, Ricardo Estrada of Cuba, Mayuto Correa of Brazil and toured Ghana with Oscar Brashear and Michael Session. The celebrated musician has received numerous prestigious awards, for example a lifetime achievement award and Inducted into the music hall of fame by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California and an award from the Board of Supervisors and the City Council of the State of California for bridging the gap between Africa and African American music. He also received a lifetime achievement award at the Ghana Music Awards in 2013.
Very interesting: in June 2016 the Embassy in Washington DC awarded BLAY AMBOLLEY for introducing the first ever commercially recorded rap style of music in 1973 and not the Sugar Hill Gang as the Guinness book of record says.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley has crafted the ability to combine a unique sound and melody with funny lyrics and dancing to his music as is well documented that "the genre of his music is entertainingly elevating and spiritually inescapable”, such that its uniqueness transcends all musical categories.