Ebo Taylor, born in Saltpond, Ghana in 1936, is a foundational figure in Ghanaian highlife and Afrobeat — a guitarist, composer, and arranger who studied in London alongside Fela Kuti. Strut-era albums like Love and Death (2010) sparked a late-career renaissance, and the Life Stories compilation is the ideal way in. Explore Ebo Taylor vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Ebo Taylor was born in Saltpond, Ghana in 1936. He began his musical career in the early 1950s and became a central figure in Ghanaian highlife music. He studied at the Eric Gilder School of Music in London in the 1960s, where he met Fela Kuti and other West African musicians who would shape the development of Afrobeat. He returned to Ghana and led various ensembles including the Stargazers Band and worked with the Uhuru Dance Band. His original Ghanaian catalog from the 1960s and 1970s gained international attention through reissue programs in the 2000s and 2010s, leading to a sustained late-career renaissance with releases on Strut Records.
Ebo Taylor's sound combines highlife, Afrobeat, Afro-funk, and Afro-jazz with distinctive guitar work, horn arrangements, and Akan-language vocals. His work has been a defining contribution to Ghanaian highlife and a significant influence on Afrobeat alongside Fela Kuti's foundational work in Nigeria.
Original Ghanaian pressings of the early Ebo Taylor catalog are highly sought after. Multiple compilation programs through Strut Records (Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980), Soundway Records, and Mr Bongo have made the catalog more accessible.
Listeners new to Ebo Taylor typically start with the Life Stories compilation or Love and Death (2010).
