Ebo Taylor

Ebo Taylor was a colossus of African music, a guitarist, composer and bandleader whose six-decade career helped shape both highlife and Afrobeat. By the time of his death in 2026 at the age of 90, he was revered as one of the most influential figures the continent's music has produced.

Early life

He was born Deroy Taylor on 6 January 1936 in Cape Coast, and began playing piano at the age of six. He grew up immersed in the musical culture of the coast, the cradle of Ghanaian highlife.

A pioneering career

In the late 1950s and 1960s he was central to influential highlife bands including the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band. In 1962 he took the Black Star Highlife Band to London, where he crossed paths with Nigerian legend Fela Kuti, an encounter that helped shape the emerging sound of Afrobeat. Through the 1970s his own projects fused traditional Ghanaian music with funk and jazz, producing landmark albums such as Twer Nyame.

Late-career rediscovery

A new generation discovered him in the 2010s. His 2010 album Love and Death brought his music to a global audience, and his back catalogue was sampled by international stars including Usher, whose She Don't Know built on Taylor's Heaven, as well as the Black Eyed Peas and others.

Legacy

He died on 7 February 2026. Ebo Taylor leaves a monumental body of work and an influence that runs through highlife, Afrobeat and the many artists who sampled and studied him, a true giant of African music.

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