Ebo Taylor, Ghanaian highlife pioneer, dies aged 90 

Ebo Taylor, a pioneering force in Ghanaian highlife music, has died aged 90.

The news was confirmed through Taylor’s Instagram in a post shared yesterday (8th February). “The world has lost a giant. A colossus of African music”, read the post. The post also revealed that Taylor had died exactly a month after his 90th birthday and just a day after the launch of the Ebo Taylor Music Festival.

Born in Cape Coast in 1936, the Ghanaian guitarist, composer and bandleader became a prominent presence on Ghana’s highlife scene during the late ’50s and went on to study music in London with Fela Kuti in the ’60s.

After his stint in London, he moved back to Ghana and began releasing music, logging his self-titled debut in 1975 and putting out records during the ’70s and ’80s – including Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge and Yen Arathat – that drew praise for blending styles such as funk, jazz and soul with Ghanaian rhythms.

In recent years, his music has been reappraised by labels such as Strut, BBE, Mr Bongo and Comet Records and remixed by the likes of Ron Trent and Henrik Schwarz.