Ebo Taylor - Love And Death
(CD/2xLP/Digital) Strut/K7 Strut073CD/LP, 2010-10-25
Ebo Taylor's Love And Death will be released in CD / 2LP / digital formats. He will be touring with Afrobeat Academy beginning in December 2010. Interest in Ebo Taylor's music has grown in recent years with some incredible live shows in Paris and Berlin in 2009, a series of Ghanaian compilations on Soundway Records and Analog Africa and an unexpected sample as Usher lifted a riff from Heaven for his hit with Ludacris, She Don't Know. A new Ebo Taylor album was a natural progression. For new album, I wanted to advance the cause of Afrobeat music. Fela started it and we shouldn't just abandon it. We should push it so it is a standard form of music. The result is a firing new set backed by Afrobeat Academy, a Berlin-based collective featuring members of Poets Of Rhythm, Kabu Kabu (Jimi Tenor collaborators) and Ghanaian legends Marijata. Tracks include new versions of Taylor classics Victory and Love And Death and a selection of new compositions including Kwame, celebrating Ghana's late, lamented leader Kwame Nkrumah.
Ebo Taylor & Afrobeat Academy - Love Is Not Too Far
(Exclusive YouTube video from ParisDjs.com) 2009-08-23
Ebo Taylor, the legendary composer, arranger and musician from Ghana took the stage for the first time in Europe, together with artists of the internationally assigned Afrobeat Academy (featuring musicians from the Poets Of Rhythm, Karl Hector & the Malcouns, Kabu Kabu and Fela's Afrika 70's guitarist Oghene Kologobo), in Paris on July 17th, 2009 (organized by Rockers International & Paris DJs) and in Frankfurt on July 18th, 2009 (organized by Africadelay & Analog Africa).
The exceptional guitar player is considered as one of the most distinguished Highlife, Afro beat and jazz composers of Ghana. Between 1962 and 1965 he studied together with his friend Fela Kuti at the renowned Eric Guilder School of Music in London. As early as the 50th and 60th he caused quite a sensation as the head of the Stargazers Dance Band as well as the Broadway Band. In the early 70th he headed the best known Big Band of Ghana, the 'Uhuru Band' (later called Uhurus) and so formed the Highlife.
Photo by Damien Darricarrere
Since the 70th Taylor produced different albums as solo artist and developed more and more his own, innovative and distinctive style - recognisable for instance on his albums "Ebo Taylor and the Pelicans" or "Twer Nyame". Ebo has been very active in numerous projects as session musician. Besides his solo works, he contributed significantly to the development of music in Ghana, as arranger and producer to the big labels in Ghana, like Essiebons and Gapophone. For these labels, being their musical director, he produced i.e. well known musicians such as C.K. Mann of the Apagya Show Band, a legendary All-Star-Highlife-Funk-Band, or artists like Pat Thomas, Jewel Ackah and Papa Yankson.
Lovers of Afro beat, Highlife and Afro jazz may now wait for the new album Ebo Taylor recorded this summer in Berlin for the Analog Africa label with the same Afrobeat Academy crew of musicians. Thankfully here's an extract from the Paris concert. We should podcast the highlights of this fantastic show quite soon on ParisDJs.com, and might upload some more live videos in the future so stay connected...
The Musicians :
- EBO TAYLOR - guitar, vocals (Ghana)
- EKOW ALABI - drums (Ghana / Kabu Kabu/Jimi Tenor Band, Afrobeat Academy)
- PATRICK FRANKOWSKI - bass (Germany / Kabu Kabu/Jimi Tenor Band)
- J.J. WHITEFIELD - guitar (Germany / Poets of Rhythm, Karl Hector & the Malcouns, Afrobeat Academy)
- THOMAS MYLAND - clavinet, organ, etc (Germany / Poets of Rhythm, Karl Hector & the Malcouns)
- BEN ABARBANEL-WOLFF - tenor & bariton sax (USA / Poets of Rhythm, Karl Hector & the Malcouns, Afrobeat Academy)
- STU KRAUSE - trumpet (Canada / Poets of Rhythm, Karl Hector & the Malcouns)
- OGHENE KOLOGBO - guitar (Nigeria / Fela's Afrika 70, Afrobeat Academy)
