Ghana - Ancient Ceremonies. Songs & Dance Music (1979)

" Field recordings made in the 1970s of traditional music from various locations in Ghana. The musicians are accomplished non-professionals. The repertoire is traditional. In these senses is the music is much closer to what one would hear at traditional gatherings (such as the installation of a new chief) than say that produced by professional folk musicians.The audio quality of these recordings is quite high, though on a number of tracks considerable incidental crowd noise is also audible - in some sense adding to documentation of the social context of these performances. Instruments played in these recordings include the axatse (a gourd rattle), dzil and chohun (similar to a xylophone or marimba), donno (talking drum), gonje (single stringed bowed lute), gyamadudu (bass drum), mpintintoa (single headed gourd drum), namuma (animal horn trumpet), wiik (flute). Number of tracks also feature vocals in local languages." (M. Noland)