About John Collins
JOHN COLLINS SHORT BIOGRAPHY/CV : John Collins came to Ghana in 1952 and has been involved in the West African music scene since 1969. He is a guitarist, harmonica player and percussionist and has worked, recorded and played with numerous Ghanaian and Nigerian bands; the Jaguar Jokers, Francis Kenya, E.T. Mensah, Abladei, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Koo Nimo, Kwaa Mensah, Victor Uwaifo, Bob Pinodo, the Bunzus, the Black Berets, T.O.Jazz, S.K. Oppong and Atongo Zimba. In the 1970’s he ran his own Bokoor highlife guitar band which released 20 songs and since 1982 has been running Bokoor Recording Studio 8 miles north of Accra: which released 9 records and 60 commercial cassettes and has recently released four highlife/Afrobeat cd’s: ‘Electric Highlife’ (Naxos label Hong Kong/USA), ‘Vintage Palmwine’ and ‘Bokoor Beats’ (Otrabanda, Holland) and the ‘Guitar and Gun” (Sterns/Earthworks UK).
Collins is also a music journalist and writer with over 100 journalistic and academic publications (including seven books published in the UK, USA and Ghana) on African popular and neo-traditional music. He has given many radio and television broadcasts, including over 40 for the British BBC. In 1978 he wrote And presented the BBC’s first-ever (five-part) series of radio programs on African popular music called ‘In The African Groove’.
Collins has been a film consultant/facilitator: the BBC’s ‘Repercussions’, ‘Brass Unbound’ by IDTV of Amsterdam, ‘The Highlife Story’ for Ghana Broadcasting, ‘Highlife’ for German Huschert Realfilm, ‘African Cross Rhythms’ by the Danish Loki Films (re-released 1996 as ‘Listen to the Silence’ by Films for the Humanities & Sciences, New Jersey, USA), ‘When the Moment Sings’ by the Norwegian Visions company, ‘Ghanaian Art Music’ by Bavarian TV and ‘One Giant Leap/Astronaut’ music-video for Palm Pictures/Island Records.
Collins obtained his first degree (sociology and archaeology) from the University of Ghana in 1972 and his Doctorate in Ethnomusicology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has given lectures/workshop in Canada, the USA, the UK, Scandinavia, Holland, Germany, France, the Caribbean, Ghana and the Cote-D’Ivoire. He has been a resident research-fellow at the North-western University African Studies Department at Evanston in the US and Dartmouth Art College in the West of England
Collins was on the Executive of the Ghana Musicians Union (MUSIGA) in the 1970’s and, together with Professor J.H.K. Nketia and the Ghanaian folk-guitarist Koo Nimo, was in 1987 made an honorary life-member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). During the 1990’s Collins was Technical Director of the three-year joint University of Ghana African Studies Department/Mainz African Music Re-documentation Project, and for seven years was with the Ghana National Folklore Board of Trustees/Copyright Administration. In the summer of 2000 Collins teamed up with fellow guitarist Koo Nimo and went on a performance tour of the US eastern sea-board with him.
Currently Collins is running his Bokoor Studio as a mobile one. He is the Acting Chairman of the Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF). He is PRO for the Old Ghanaian Musicians Welfare Association (GOMAWA), patron of the Musicians Union of Ghana MUSIGA, patron of the Afrika Obonu music therapy drum group and consultant for a World Bank project to assist the African music industry. He is also a Full Professor at the Music Department of the University of Ghana, Legon from where he runs (with Aaron Bebe Sukura) the Local Dimension palmwine highlife band that toured Europe in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and released a CD in 2003 entitled N’Yong on the French Disques Arion label.
Address Bokoor House,Box 391,
Achimota - Accra,
Ghana.
Professional Summary: Musician,musicologist, lecturer at University of Ghana , writer and archivist .
Professional Experience: Band leader, recording engineer, university lecturer and copyright expert.
Education: BA University of Ghana, Ph.D SUNY Buffalo USA andFull Professor at the University of Ghana
Interests: Music and performing arts, playing guitar,reading and history.
John Collins Links
Bapmaf Website
The Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF) is a Ghanaian NGO established in 1990 by Professor John Collins,concerned with the lack of research and information on local Ghanaian highlife music and the demise of the 'classical' styles of this genre.
