Jama Night with The Jama Ensemble

This video contains the Jama ensemble's maiden 'Jama Night' performance during the 1st End of Semester Music Festival held at the E.S.T Drama Studio, University of Ghana.
Jama Ensemble is the latest addition to the ensembles established in the 2021/2022 academic year in the Department of Music. It is mostly made up of Level 100 BA and BFA students. Although Jama performance has gained popularity and acceptance in Ghanaian society, its performance has found little expression and relevance in formal academic engagements. Jama Ensemble in the Department of Music serves as a laboratory to interrogate the concepts surrounding Jama in order to understand its essence within Ghanaian communities and institutions. The Ensemble also exposes students to the different forms of Jama as performed in different parts of Ghana, and also learn to perform and analyze them. The ensemble is under the directorship of Dr. Eyram Fiagbedzi.

The performances are in three parts:
Presentation I (Presentational Jama) - mimics spontaneous Jama group performances, where singing in more than one pitch is a common phenomenon. The students perform renditions of songs by popular Ghanaian musicians including Shata Wale, Stonebwoy, and Ebony Reigns and many more.

Presentation II (Presentational Jama) - takes you on a musical journey beginning with gospel tunes through chants and popular secular folk tunes from Ghana.

Presentation III (Participatory Jama) - provides the avenue for communal performance. the is session is led by the guest group Akwei Drum Jama Group.

MC: Piconia Ibrahim