World-renowned Palm Wine musician, guitarist Daniel Amponsah, best known by his stage name Koo Nimo is often referred to as the “National Treasure†of Ghana. Thought of as a “living legendâ€by many Ghanaians, Koo Nimo's music has been a very relevant source of musical inspiration and continues to be after 40 years of performance. He was president of the Ghana Musicians Union for 10 years, received the Grand Metal for Lifetime Service to Ghana from the head of state and received the Konkoma Award for being one of the originators and main contributors to Ghanaian Highlife music. Koo’s contributions and efforts to preserve Ghanaian culture with his traditional Palm Wine guitar music, sung mostly in the Twi language makes him truly one of Ghana’s most celebrated members who has helped to shape what Ghanaian music and culture is today. In the summer of 2006, singer/ percussionist/ guitarist Alissa Klug of the Toronto reggae duo RudeBoy RudeGirl met Koo Nimo at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he was a professor in the music department and she was completing a brief course in digital media and percussion. Klug recorded some jazz tunes with some people at the university before leaving to travel the country and upon her return to Kumasi, was flattered to hear that Koo had enjoyed going to the music lab every morning before class to listen to the recording. Although time was running short before Klug’s return to Canada, the two decided to make a recording of traditional Palm Wine music. The project came together very quickly. There was one rehearsal where Klug learned the choruses and responses of each song in the matter of a few hours. After the rehearsal, she started to feel unwell and to her dismay was diagnosed with Malaria at a local hospital. Nonetheless, the album was recorded a few days later in the sound lab at the university. Audio and video recordings were made of both the rehearsal and the actual recording of this album.
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