About
This documentary distills three years of video conversations with Nii Noi Nortey, the Ghanaian sculptor, instrument inventor, and avant-garde instrumentalist. Nortey discusses the African legacy of John Coltrane, and how it inspired invention of his "afrifone" instruments, and a series of twenty Accra Trane Station sculptures and four CD recordings.
The recordings and film also feature his longtime percussionist Nii Otoo Annan, "the Elvin Jones of West Africa." Included are scenes of Nortey creating sculptures live at two Accra art exhibits, and performing with Accra Trane Station in recording studios and in concert in Ghana and the USA.
This film is part of the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series. Alone or joined by the companion book and CD series of the same title, the films convey a sense of diasporic intimacy and musical cosmopolitanism in Ghana.
The series includes the following titles:
Hallelujah! (60 min, 2009)
Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey (60 min, 2009)
Includes the short film From Accra to Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)
A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie (60 min, 2009)
The Story of Por-Por (60 min, 2013)
Includes the short film M.V. Labadi (20 min, 2013)
J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer (55 min, 2016)