Album Notes

Por Por (paw paw) music is named for the sound of the antique brass squeeze-bulb car horns, ubiquitous on the wooden trucks of Ghana's early road history. When electric horns arrived in West Africa, drivers from the Accra township of La kept their old squeeze-bulb horns and with them invented a music that is only performed for funerals of transport workers. It's the Accra equivalent of the "Rejoice When You Die" New Orleans Jazz Funeral. On KLEBO! you'll hear the honk horns together with bells, drums, voices and flute as the La drivers infuse familiar traditional Ghanaian dance rhythms with resonances of brass band, jazz, and gospel music. This Cd is the follow to the group 2007 debut recording POR POR: HONK HORN MUSIC OF GHANA on Smithsonian Folkways. Song translations and annotations are at www.voxlox.net