When I was in Nigeria from 1974 - 1977, I was lucky enough to be in West African during a golden age of music. The West African music scene during the Seventies rivaled San Fransisco during the 1960's, Kingston, Jamaica during Seventies, Detroit during the 1960's, New Orleans during the 50's and early Sixties, the UK during the Sixties and so. The amount and variety of music was staggering. In a Nigerian city you could walk down the street and hear Afrobeat, reggae, juju, highlife, Congo sounds, funk, R & B, Indian film music, and myriad traditional styles blaring out of open shop doors. Unknown to many outside Africa, there were thriving rock and funk scenes in West Africa as local musicians created music influenced by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Motown and a host of funk bands such as The Meters, War, Mandrill and of course James Brown. In eastern Nigeria they had a number of bands operating under the "Eastern rock" banner. But the sound of "African rock" bands was different than American or British rock bands because these bands were using indigenous rhythms as a base. So there might be a screaming, distorted electric guitar solo or a Western melody line but it was incorporated in an African context. In Nigeria, there were bands such as BLO, The Funkees, Joni Haastrup Experience, The Strangers, Elcados, and many, many more. At the time I was far more interested in artists such as Fela, Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Victor Uwaifo, and Sonny Okosun who were playing what was to me a far more interesting progressive African music. Though I recognized the musicianship of the rock and funk bands and appreciated the grooves, what they were doing was derivative to my ears plus the songwriting and singing was not always up to the bands back home. Nonetheless they were part of an incredibly fertile scene.
At that time, Fela was a towering figure. He may not have been the sole inventor of Afrobeat (Orlando "OJ" Ekemode certainly had a hand in it) but he dominated the genre. Other artists presented their own brands of Afrobeat but they often sound insubstantial in comparison to Fela's powerful, fully-realized version which was fueled by Fela's outsize personality and confrontational political stance. Still musicians across West Africa and even into other parts of Africa heard Fela and incorporated elements of Afrobeat into their music.
In Ghana, meanwhile, the scene was vibrant. Ghana was the land of highlife; the style emerged most strongly there and had dominated the country's popular music scene from the late Forties on. Though Nigeria had a very vibrant highlife scene, with many popular bands in both Western Nigeria and Eastern Nigeria, by the Seventies Nigerian highlife had been eclipsed by Afrobeat, juju and funk/rock, and was considered to be the music of the older generation and the elite. But in Ghana, highlife still ruled and in the Seventies a number of progressive bands such as Bunzu Sounds, Hedzolleh Soundz, Sweet Talks, Basa Basa Soundz, Pat Thomas and others had revitalized highlife by incorporating elements of Afrobeat and funk. The Afrobeat injection was only fitting since highlife was one element in the formation of Afrobeat. Indeed Fela had started out playing his own style of highlife jazz.
Ebo Taylor was born in a small town on Ghana's Cape coast in 1936 and therefore came of age during highlife's golden era in the Fifties. His professional musical career began as a guitarist with the noted highlife bands the Broadway Dance Band and the Stargazers. When he started his own band, the Black Star Highlife Band, sponsored by the Ghanian government, he made a point of incorporating jazz into highlife. In the Sixties he found himself in London, where he hung out with Fela, who was studying music there and gigging on the fertile pan-African music scene in that city. When Ebo returned to Ghana, he produced recordings and composed for Pat Thomas, C.K. Mann and others and began creating his own recordings which brought together elements of Afrobeat, jazz, funk and various traditional Ghanian musics. Unlike others, he wasn't imitating Fela but creating his own unique mix.
As so often has been the case for veteran artists in the hip-hop era, Ebo Taylor's career was re-energized with the R & B singer Usher's hit "She Don't Know", featuring the rapper Ludacris, sampled one of Ebo Taylor's Seventies classics, "Heaven." As a result, he was invited to record a new album, backed by members of a multi-national Berlin-based Afrobeat collective. The resulting album, LOVE AND DEATH came out two years ago and is one of the best post-Fela Afrobeat albums. Ebo has been quoted as saying he deliberately set out to make a mainly Afrobeat album in order to perpetuate the style. The title track is a strong re-make of one of his Ghanian hits from forty years ago. Soon after a collection of some of his best vintage recordings from the Seventies, LIFE STORIES: HIGHLIFE AND AFROBEAT CLASSICS, was released by UK label Strut Records. This collections gives a more well-rounded overview of Ebo Taylor's artistry, a shifting mix of highlife, funk, and Afrobeat which showcases his versatility.
Hot off the presses is a brand new Ebo Taylor collection, APPIA KWA BRIDGE, which is a nuanced, deeply rooted expression by Taylor. The compositions are very much informed by traditional songs, folk tales, proverbs and Ghanian history. At least one track is pure Afrobeat and one is pure highlife, rooted in the clasic highlife hit "Miss January", but most of the tracks are Ebo Taylor's organic fusion of highlife, funk and Afrobeat, all beautifully recorded. What stands out is the quality fo the compositions. So at the age of 76, it may be that Ebo Taylor has released his ultimate artistic statement. Far from sounding retro, it comes off as vital and fresh, and ultimately, thoroughly enjoyable. So it is one of those wonderful stories of a pioneering musician being rediscovered, revitalized and celebrated in the sunset of his years. We must give thanks that Ebo Taylor is still around to grace us with new music!
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