Gyedu Blay Ambolley is a musical luminary hailing from Ghana, West Africa, with a staggering 29 albums under his belt. Known affectionately as the "Simigwa Do Man,” Ambolley’s musical journey began in the vibrant port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. His early fascination with music blossomed into a lifelong passion. From mastering his father’s flute at the tender age of eight, to honing his guitar skills under the mentorship of “Uncle Bonku”, Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, Ambolley’s musical odyssey has been nothing short of extraordinary. This all led to Ambolley becoming a musical life force and exploding on the scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called 'SIMIGWA-DO'. His name has become synonymous with Simigwa music and dance.
Ambolley comes to the US for his first legit tour hosted by JAZZ IS DEAD, the music label and tour series founded by Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Adrian Younge. He brings his eight-piece band from Ghana to perform the iconic 1975 album Simigwa in its entirety — his magnum opus and a cornerstone of Ghanaian music history. It was written and produced together with the legend Ebo Taylor, expressing a pioneering fusion of Ghanaian highlife with soul and funk — and immediately evokes a musical outline of what an African James Brown might have sounded like. The rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs, and percussion all point to Mr. Brown as the main inspiration.
presented by secret planet, thump capsule and the drake
(thump capsule no. 17 + secret planet season 2 launch)