Music
Landmark
Ebo Taylor
1936 – 2026
Six decades of highlife, and the guitar behind Ghanaian afrobeat
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Ghana Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He took the Black Star Highlife Band to London in 1962 and fell in with Fela Kuti. Half a century later Berlin found him, and the world finally heard the records.
Ebo Taylor, born Deroy Taylor at Cape Coast on 6 January 1936, was a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, arranger and producer working in highlife and afrobeat. He started on piano at six.
In the late 1950s he played in the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band, and in 1962 took his Black Star Highlife Band to London, where he worked alongside Fela Kuti and other African musicians. His 1970s records set traditional Ghanaian material against afrobeat, jazz and funk. A meeting with Berlin's Afrobeat Academy in 2008 led to Love and Death on Strut in 2010, his first internationally distributed album, at seventy-four. He died on 7 February 2026, aged ninety.
In the late 1950s he played in the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band, and in 1962 took his Black Star Highlife Band to London, where he worked alongside Fela Kuti and other African musicians. His 1970s records set traditional Ghanaian material against afrobeat, jazz and funk. A meeting with Berlin's Afrobeat Academy in 2008 led to Love and Death on Strut in 2010, his first internationally distributed album, at seventy-four. He died on 7 February 2026, aged ninety.
- Wikipedia — Ebo Taylor
- World Music Central — Ebo Taylor, Ghanaian highlife and afrobeat pioneer, dies at 90
- The Vinyl Factory — The story of highlife and afrobeat legend Ebo Taylor
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