lit a candle 3h ago90 years old. that's a full life well played.
Their story
Ebo Taylor was a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger whose work helped define highlife and afrobeat for more than six decades. Born Deroy Taylor in Cape Coast, then part of the Gold Coast colony, on 6 January 1936, he grew up amid the rise of highlife and…
Ebo Taylor was a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger whose work helped define highlife and afrobeat for more than six decades. Born Deroy Taylor in Cape Coast, then part of the Gold Coast colony, on 6 January 1936, he grew up amid the rise of highlife and later became known affectionately as Uncle Ebo in Saltpond, the coastal town where he spent much of his later life.
He began on piano as a child, switched to guitar at college, and joined leading Ghanaian bands including the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band. In the early 1960s he studied at the Eric Gilder School of Music in London, where he befriended Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. The two shared a passion for jazz and for reshaping African popular music. With the Black Star Highlife Band he began fusing highlife with jazz and funk, work that paralleled Kuti's innovations in Nigeria.
Returning to Ghana in the mid-1960s, Taylor became a central figure as bandleader, arranger and producer. As in-house guitarist and producer for Essiebons he shaped records by artists including Pat Thomas and C. K. Mann, while releasing his own albums such as Ebo Taylor (1977) and Twer Nyame (1978). Songs including Heaven and Love and Death later reached global audiences through reissues, compilations and samples by artists such as Usher, the Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Rowland, Jidenna and Vic Mensa.
International recognition arrived late. Love and Death (2010) on Strut Records was his first widely distributed album abroad, followed by Appia Kwa Bridge (2012), Yen Ara (2018) and, in 2025, Ebo Taylor JID022 with Jazz Is Dead. He taught at the University of Ghana, received lifetime achievement awards in Ghana, and continued performing into advanced age despite a stroke in 2018 that limited his speech and guitar playing.
Taylor died on 7 February 2026 in Saltpond, aged 90, a day after the launch of a festival held in his honour and a month after his birthday. His son Kweku Taylor announced the death, and Ghanaian officials and musicians paid tribute to a figure who had carried Ghanaian music onto the world stage. He was survived by his wife, Elina, and fifteen children.
Biography adapted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), The Guardian. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Ebo Taylor at Festival 7eme Vague, 2013
by People Forever
