Bassa Bassa

Fresh Afro-Soul Music – Ghana’s Highlife going by the heartbeat of 70s Soul Music

Jembaa Groove is a multicultural band founded in late 2020 by bass player and composer Yannick Nolting, and singer-percussionist Eric Owusu. Speaking the same musical language, they quickly realized the fruitful outcome of their musical encounter and decided to spend a couple of months composing their original music. Digging deep into both their backgrounds and musical identities, they came up with an organic result both like to label as Afro-Soul. After seeking for the right companions for the upcoming journey and stumbling on a few of Berlin’s finest musicians, they finally formed Jembaa Groove, a 7-piece band that combines fresh sounds from Berlin’s underground music scene with traditional West-African sounds from Ghana and Mali, such as Highlife, Adowa and Wassoulou. Their aesthetic vision is inspired by soul music from the ‘60s and ‘70s and avoids overly-produced commercial arrangements while merging driving bass grooves and steady drum patterns with fresh horn lines and catchy melodies.

Produced by Yannick Nolting. Composed and arranged by Yannick Nolting. Vocal arrangements and lyrics by Eric Owusu.

Recorded by Marian Hafenstein and Thomas Schöttl . Mixed by Jim Bertini at „The Other Room“, Brooklyn,NY. Mastered by Kelly Hibbert at Almachrome Studios