The arts community suffered another blow last Monday when composer, arranger, producer and studio owner Khodjo Acquai died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

He had been admitted to the hospital on the previous Thursday.

His death follows closely that of Mufty Dabre, a radio presenter, actor and artiste manager and gospel musician, Bishop Osei Bonsu died recently.

According to the Graphic Showbiz, Acquai, who was around 60 years old, did not appear to be in good health over the last couple of months. Reliable sources indicate that he died of an acute heart failure induced by his lingering high blood pressure problem.

However, his close friends in the music industry are linking his death to the frustrations musicians face, especially in relation to copyright protection and payment of royalties.

Carlos Sakyi, a close pal, said Acquai did not benefit from his sweat and toil. To him, money that would have accrued to the late musician if there was an efficient royalty calculation and collection system here could have made a big difference in the way he managed his sickness.

"There are people who used his music for advertisements. I have been to several hotels and heard his instrumental music playing in the background. For all these, he didn't get paid and that deprived him of substantial sums of money. He was never accounted to and he complained about that always.

"The industry is dysfunctional and is not working the way it should. I believe Khodjo Acquai could have gone back to the US to take better care of himself if he had been receiving all the monies that should have rightfully gone into his pocket as a composer."

Charles Amoah, who had known Acquai since the mid-1980s, said Acquai's understanding of music was very deep but he never came to terms with the lopsided way the industry functions in this country.

"People like him who studied and worked abroad and understand how efficiently things can work, always feel discouraged, dejected and distressed at the system here. People should sit up and change things in the music industry."

Rex Omar also said: "He had invested so much in his studio and there are several completed albums he had not released. There's a very beautiful one called Khodjo On Kojo which is his own instrumental interpretation of some Kojo Antwi songs. He was very frustrated by the whole system and felt putting them out was a waste of time. He was not happy about things. I believe the exasperation played negatively on him."

Acquai was born Samuel Johnson and is from Cape Coast. He grew up in Kumasi and studied music at the University of Ghana. He was always proud that the late Dr Ephraim Amu taught him. He migrated to the United States in the late 1960s where he studied composition and arrangement at the famous Juilliard School of Music in New York.

According to Prof. Mark Duodu, former Director of Ghana Television who met and befriended Acquai in the US in the mid-1970s, Acquai was actually the best man at his wedding. Prof Duodu says classical music was Acquai's passion.

"The only thing you would hear whenever you visited him was music from the classical masters. I badgered him a lot to do African stuff and he later turned to highlife. It was very clear that the subdued and structured nature of his highlife was an influence from his classical background. He was not a singer but always made sure he used one who could capture the mood he wanted."

Acquai returned to settle here in the mid1990s and set up the Midi-Lab Studio at Dansoman. He is best known in Ghana for his songs Anadwofayi and Mese Saa Na Mente Saa. His collection of instrumentals, called Labady-Songs From My Youth, is well-loved.

Recalling how they teamed up to advocate for better copyright and royalty payment regimes in this country, Carlos Sakyi said:

"When it came to advocacy in the area of music, he was always forthright. He freely spoke his mind.”

He played active roles in the activities of the Ghana Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (GHASCAP) and the Coalition of Concerned Copyright Advocates (COCCA). I think he became a bit more conciliatory getting to the end of his life but he said that was a strategy he alone understood."

Acquai was not married but has a 28-year-old daughter, Modupe, in the US.

Source: Graphic Showbiz