One of the biggest pioneers of highlife music, Ebo Taylor, died last Saturday at the age of 90.
He was beloved by many, affectionately called "Uncle Ebo" by those captivated by the grooves of his guitar. Taylor's son announced his death on Sunday, writing, "Dad, your light will never fade." A specific cause was not mentioned.
Since the 1950s, he helped define highlife music in Ghana, blending West African rhythms with big band horns and guitars.
Highlife, a danceable, funky and soulful precursor to Afrobeat, originated in Ghana in the late 19th century. The genre got its name from people in Ghana seeing the bands play high-society parties, living the "high life." But by the 20th century, the music provided social commentary and gave voice to Ghana's national identity. Through bands like the Stargazers Dance Band, the Broadway Dance Band, and Black Star Band, perhaps Ebo Taylor's greatest contribution to highlife was how he changed the tone of the Ghanaian soundtrack.
"He went to London and studied jazz alongside Fela Kuti," Adrian Younge, a prolific multi-instrumental composer and founder of the Jazz is Dead record label, told NPR's All Things Considered. "They incorporated a lot of melodic phrases and rhythms from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis."
From the 1960s through the '80s, Taylor was widely known for his work as a producer. He shaped a large number of bands from Ghana — incorporating Black American jazz and funk with West African palm-wine music, a laid-back, tropical and groovy guitar-driven genre. And the sound took off all over the world. Artists like Usher, Ludacris and the Black Eyes Peas would eventually sample his music.
But as prolific as Taylor's music had become, Younge says he and his label were shocked to learn the musician had never done a show in the U.S.
In fact, it wasn't until 2022, when Taylor was 86 years old, that he played his first show in the U.S. after an invite from Jazz is Dead. After that, the label recorded an album with Taylor and his family. It was released in January of 2025 and became Ebo Taylor's last studio recording.
"We just wrote songs on the spot," Younge said. "The one thing that we really specified is that we got to make it raw, dirty and powerful. You know, I didn't want to record his vocals clean. I wanted it to be aggressive and in-your-face. I wanted the drums to be thick and nasty and in your face, the bass to be thumping. But I wanted it to sound the way it would sound as if we recorded this in Ghana, at the time."
Taylor was born in 1936, and started making music just as Ghana started grappling with its new reality: independence. Ghana, a trailblazer on the continent, was the first in Africa to liberate itself from British colonial rule in 1957. Many other countries soon followed – and while there was optimism in Ghana at the time, it quickly faded. The country saw economic decline and the fall of cocoa prices, the backbone of the country's economy. There was also political instability; Kwame Nkrumah was ousted as president in a coup in February 1966.
In many ways, highlife music was the soundtrack to the country's journey to claim its independence and define its identity. Taylor's songs talked about Pan-Africanism and African pride.
But while Ebo Taylor was a star across Africa, highlife and Afrobeat didn't really pick up in the U.S. until the early 2000s. His 2010 album Love and Death was his first internationally distributed project and broke his decades-long hiatus from releasing music. The release featured some of his classic songs from the 1970s, as well as new recordings. Many of his older studio albums were rereleased after that.
Taylor was glad to see the shift. In a 2013 interview at Afro-Latino Fest in Belgium, he said, "African music is now in focus" and people are more interested. Newer artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid helped.
Younge said it was magical to see Taylor in person – on stage and in the studio. Taylor suffered a stroke in 2018 and lost the ability to play the guitar, but he was still able to sing and compose. Younge said he didn't lose his essence.
"Physically, he wasn't as strong as he was at the beginning of the 2022 tour," Younge said. "But as soon as he hits the stage, man, it's like, 'Yo, how are you doing this?' – in the most beautiful way, though."
"All I think about is Ebo Taylor bobbing his head like a hip hop dude," he said. "He's sitting there, singing and just bobbing his head and kind of getting crazy with the music. … He's 90 years old and the music is making him feel like that."
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