Search - Ebo Taylor :: Love & Death

Strut link up with one of the true greats of Ghanaian music, Ebo Taylor, for his first internationally released new studio album in over 20 years. Following the wartime big band highlife pioneers like E.T. Mensah, Taylor became a major figure in Ghanaian highlife during the 1950s and ,60s as highlife exploded. Cutting his teeth with leading big bands like Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band, Ebo Taylor quickly rose through the ranks and became a prolific composer and frontman. "There weren't many composers in those days for the big bands," remembers Taylor. "The composers were in demand - the bands were large and the scores were very involved." Taylor moved to London in 1962. "Those were the days we were all into jazz, me and Nigerians like Peter King and Fela Kuti we wanted to play like Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. I had the Black Star Highlife Band sponsored by the Ghanaian High Commission, mainly comprising music students. We tried to incorporate jazz into highlife and progressed through talking and through jam sessions, trying to develop our skills and ideas. We'd sing about politics and situations - like how cold London's weather was!"

Interest in Ebo Taylor's music has grown in recent years with a series of Ghanaian compilations on Soundway Records and Analog Africa and an unexpected sample as Usher lifted a riff from ,Heaven' for his hit ,She Don't Know'. A new Ebo Taylor album was a natural progression. "For new album, I wanted to advance the cause of Afrobeat music. Fela started it and we shouldn't just abandon it. We should push it so it is a standard form of music. I selected a few old songs and composed 3 or 4 new ones." The "I am very happy with the results," Taylor reflects. "I hope this will help to bring Afrobeat to a whole new legion of fans."