When the genre Afrobeat is thrown around in conversation, the first name to always pop up is the late great Fela Kuti. Kuti, who was a pioneer of Afrobeat music and a voice for political change in Nigeria and around the world, created a global fervor for the music’s poly rhythms, bombastic horns and ardent ability to make people dance. At the core of Kuti’s music was a cross-global “conversation” of sounds where American funk, jazz, and rhythm and blues talked with traditional highlife sounds to create something new, a new musical conversation.
Old Afrobeat records are full of incredible life and spirit. The music sounds as stunningly fresh now as it did in the 70s. As is often the case with any musical genre that captures the imagination of the global masses, certain names come to the forefront and others fade into the shadows of a dusty musical history. Ghanian guitarist Ebo Taylor, although a legend in Ghana, did not become a known part of the story of Afrobeat and highlife until recently.
Download Ebo Taylor’s “Atwer Abroba” here:
Ebo Taylor – Atwer Abroba by noraritchie
Taylor was born into a musical family in Ghana where his father taught all the children to play the organ. Nearly from the jump, Taylor was drawn to the guitar playing that he was exposed to by local “palm wine” musicians and the electric guitar of E.T. Mensah & The Tempos and Tricky Johnson. “I was attracted to it, so like a bee I always fly to a guitar when I had the chance.”
While only 19, Taylor left school to tour with the Havana Dance Band. During the 1950′s, Taylor played and arranged for the popular highlife groups Broadway Dance Band and Stargazers where he was instrumental in changing the traditional structure of highlife to include an introductory phrase and coda, a musical choice often seen in jazz standards . In the early 60′s Taylor moved to London to continue his musical studies at school and play in the clubs there. At a highlife session at the Alabbi club in West London in 1963, Taylor met a number of Nigerians on the “London scene” including Mike Falana, Peter King and in particular, Fela Kuti. Kuti had a strong influence on Taylor and they both wanted to mix jazz and highlife. Taylor later returned to Ghana to bring his new-found musical understanding back to his culture and record some of his great highlife classics. In 2010, Strut Records released his first-ever recording outside of Africa and slowly but surely Ebo Taylor’s name began to inch into the conversations and history of Afrobeat, a place he was meant to be all along.
The Revivalist recently had the opportunity to chat with Ebo Taylor about his incredible musical journey.
His time in London with Fela Kuti & Peter King and jazz:
We met at jazz clubs and we were all trying to play jazz like American jazz music. We had discretions but our minds were switched on to play and improvise African music in the “stream of jazz. ” My music is highly influenced by jazz and highlife.
The difference between Afrobeat and highlife:
The difference is afrobeat has an emphasis on the bass drum and the first and the third beat. Highlife has an emphasis on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th beat but we have similar dancing attitude and the Nigerian style is more based on the Yoruba. The Yorubas have all their songs in minor mood, similarly in Ghana we have most of our traditional music in a minor mood. There’s a similarity but the rhythmic impact, the rhythmic propulsion is a bit different because I’m playing directly highlife but with jazz influence, for example on songs like “Love and Death.” Being a very close friend of Fela at that time we discussed using our traditional music but still keeping our jazz.
Jazz’s influence on his music:
Arranging is like, when I was going to school in London I was taking jazz composition arrangement. It’s all for the development of our local music. I studied to get back home and develop our music. Whatever style that I’m using is conventional, and much of it was from the jazz idioms. Miles Davis, Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and all this. Locally, people appreciate the music because of its rhythmic propulsion and because it sounds like the highlife music. My music is basically based on Fante Akan music from the west side of Ghana. My music is mainly within Fante. I derive a lot of material from my local Adowa, it’s like country and western if I would say in Africa in my territory, It’s country and western but it’s African.
Whatever phrases I play in my music comes from either classics or jazz. (Sings horn lines) It’s all jazz. I feel like I’m still playing jazz but with the local beat and so the youth and the young people also get interested because they here a lot of Western influences but still have the traditional beat behind it. I want everyone to know I’m a jazz musician but I have to go back to my roots and play my roots music and also get into jazz, that’s the nexus of my music.
His Musical Inspirations:
Miles Davs, Archie Shepp, Coltrane, Charlie Parker. I learned a lot from Wes Montgomery, Chuck Wayne who I named my son after. A lot of American musicians, especially jazz guitarist George Benson. Kenny Burrell, I respect him. He has a lot of soul, like a black man. He plays a lot of blues. I liked him the first day I heard him play.
For more info on Ebo Taylor: http://www.ebotaylor-loveanddeath.com/
Words and Interview by Nora Ritchie
