The date for the one-week observation has been set for August 22, 2022 by the family of the late veteran highlife musician A.B. Crentsil.
According to the family, the observation occurs at the Bethel Methodist Society in Tema’s Community 8 neighborhood.
A.B. Crentsil, a highlife legend, passed away at the age of 79. On July 13, 2022, ace recording engineer Fred Kyei Mensah, also known as Fredyma, posted on Facebook to share the terrible news.
Abraham Benjamin Crentsil, born in 1950, began his musical career in Takoradi with the Lantics and the El Dorados of the State Aboso Glass Factory.
He later joined the Sweet Talks, which also included Pope Flynn, Smart Kwaku Nkansah, and Eric Agyeman, in 1973.
This group was the resident band of the Talk of the Town Nightclub in Tema owned by Jonathan Abrahams, the brother of the highlife singer Joe Mensah.
Crentsil’s Sweet Talks (later re-named Super Sweet Talks) released albums such as ‘Adam and Eve’, ‘Mbesiafo Nto Nsa’, ‘Kusum Beat’, ‘Spiritual Ghana’ and also ‘Hollywood Highlife Party’ recorded in the United States.
The group disbanded in 1979. Crentsil established the Super Brains, whose lead guitarist Smart Nkansah later founded the Black Hustlers and later Sunsum, and who recorded the song “Atia,” which cautions against consuming too much local gin. Then, in 1982, Crentsil founded Ahenfo (Kings), which released “Tantie Alaba” and the contentious, pornographic song “Moses”.
Crentsil primarily recorded in Canada during the 1980s, and his band did a lot of touring abroad. His best albums from the 1980s are “Toronto by Night,” “Abrokyiri Abrabo,” “Kafo Mpo Dzidzi,” and “Party Time with the Stars.” Highlife in Canada and his 1991 World Circuit Records reissue of “Hollywood Highlife Party” are more recent recordings. Many of his successes have also been made available on CD during the 1990s thanks to the UK-based labels Sterns and World Circuit Records.
He collaborated on a highlife-hiplife record in the middle of the 2000s with the highlife performer Obour. Occasionally, Crentsil still performs, such as during the Highlife Festivals and Parties that Mark Okraku-Mantey of Slip Music hosts in Accra on a regular basis.
