Seun & Femi Kuti & Ebo Taylor concerts!

The Apagya Show Band - Unreleased LP 1973/74

 

Apagya Show Band – unreleased Essiebons LP of the No.1 “Afro Band” of the 1970s in Ghana, ft. Ebo Taylor, Gyedu Blay-Ambolley, Bob Pinodo, “the Showmaster of Ghana”, and Ebo Dadson on sax. Compulsory!

 

Tracklist

01. Kwaakwa (03:51)

02. Kusi Na Se Bo (03:65)

03. I'm Black (03:54)

04. Serwa Brakatu (04:03)

05. Wana Na Koko (04:10)

06. Ma Nesrew Me (04:03)

07. Abotare (04:01)

08. Kyekyer Pe Awa (05:01)

09. Peace and Love (04:34)

10. Mumude (03:13)

11. Dofo Nye Ekyir (04:10)

12. Nsamanfo BabyBaby (04:52)

13. Kweku Ananse (03:32)

essiebons.com 

Ghana-only published: Ebo Taylor - Abenkwan Puchaa

Ace guitarist and composer Ebo Taylor and his Bonze Konkoma Band. Original release EBCD 710, 2009 (available in Ghana only). Its the most ideal musical group on the stage now, exploiting the strength of the Fante-Akan Culture. Also striving on Jazz, the group, led by Ghana's Ace guitarist, composer, arranger, and singer, Ebo Taylor, has added a new dimension to the High-life, exposing the immense deposit of the music gold mine of Asafo, Adenkum, and Adzewa songs, as the basics of the music. "Abenkwan" provides humour and recipe for the palm soup, a favourite dish of the Akans... "Egya Edu". the second track is an ancestral Asafo song that sings praises to the war hero of the Ntsen Asafo of Cape Coast...

(Yaw Andoh, Music Department, University of Ghana)

Tracklist

01. Abenkwan
02. Egya Edu
03. Gyae Nas Nom
04. Amoa Ose
05. Beye Bu
06. Papa Kwame
07. Agyenkwan Christ 
08. Wombra 
09. Feel It 
10. Okusi Na Sebo 
11. Love and Death(feat. Pat Thomas on Vocals)
12. Ahorba

GET IT @ ESSIEBONS!

Unreleased EBO TAYLOR tracks ...

Yesterday I got some interesting comment from Amos Anyimadu on one of my Ebo Taylor posts:

"Ebo Taylor's legendary producer Essiebons is on Soundcloud with many unreleased Ebo Taylor tracks and more ... No shaking. Know your rich heritage."

Check it out ....

essiebons@soundcloud

Ebo Taylor - My Love And Music (get it)

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BIG THANX FOR THIS POST GOES TO: afrocubanlatinjazz

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Born in 1936, guitarist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and producer Ebo Taylor has been a vital figure on the Ghanaian music scene for over six decades. In the late '50s he was active in the influential highlife bands the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band, and in 1962 he took his own group, the Black Star Highlife Band, to London, which led to collaborations with Fela Kuti and other African musicians in Britain at the time. Returning to Ghana, he worked as a producer, crafting recordings for Pat Thomas, C.K. Mann, and others, as well as exploring his own projects, combining traditional Ghanaian material with Afro-beat, jazz, and funk rhythms to create his own recognizable sound in the '70s. Taylor's work became popular internationally with hip-hop producers in the 21st century, which led to the release of Love and Death on Strut Records in 2010, his first internationally distributed album.

Its success prompted Strut to issue the stellar retrospective Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980, in the spring of 2011. A year later, in 2012, a third Strut album, the deeply personal Appia Kwa Bridge, appeared, and showed that at 76, Taylor was still intensely creative and focused, mixing traditional Fante songs and chants with children's rhymes and personal matters into his own sharp vision of highlife.

by Steve Leggett











Tracklist

A1. Odofo Nnyi Ekyir
A2. Will You Promise
B1. Maye Omama
B2. My Love And Music

Ebo Taylor - Appia Kwa Bridge (coming soon)

“I wanted to go back to a highlife feeling with this album,” explains Ebo Taylor. “The songs are very personal and it is an important part of my music to keep alive many traditional Fante songs, war chants and children’s rhymes.”

‘Appia Kwa Bridge’, released this April, is a strident return from the Ghanaian highlife guitar legend. Featuring six new compositions, his sound is more dense and tightly locked than ever with Berlin-based musicians Afrobeat Academy, a rock solid unit since regular touring worldwide following his ‘Love And Death’ album in 2010, including a string of dates for WOMAD. Jochen Stroh works his analogue magic once more from his base at Berlin’s Lovelite Studios.

The album covers a variety of themes dear to Taylor. The title track references a small bridge in Ebo’s hometown of Saltpond on the Cape Coast: “it is a tiny bridge but a place known in the town where people meet, where lovers get together.” The firing, rousing ‘Ayesama’, first demo-ed during the ‘Love And Death’ sessions, is a Fante war cry, a taunt – “what’s your mother’s name?”; ‘Nsu Na Kwan’, based on a Fante proverb, asks “Which is older – the river or the old road” with the sub-text to respect your elders and the brilliant ‘Abonsam’ carries the message that Abonsam (The Devil) is responsible for evil in the world and that we should follow the Christian message.

Elsewhere, the album features a new version of highlife anthem, ‘Yaa Amponsah’, first recorded during the ‘20s by Jacob Sam’s Sam’s Trio before becoming a popular standard in Ghana, and a cover of an original track from Taylor’s time with Apagya Show Band during the ’70s, ‘Serwa Brakatu’, re-titled here as ‘Kruman Dey’. The closer, the acoustic ‘Barrima’, is a poignant tribute to Taylor’s first wife and one true love who sadly passed away during Summer 2011. “Ebo wrote the song following her passing and recorded this in one take during our last day in the studio,” reflects bandleader Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. “He was very emotional.”

The album features a number of special guests within the credits including incomparable drummer Tony Allen, original Africa 70 guitarist Oghene Kologbo and conga maestro Addo Nettey a.k.a. Pax Nicholas. Representing the younger players, keyboard genius Kwame Yeboah, son of Ghanaian legend S.K. Yeboah, makes full use of Lovelite’s famed collection of Farfisa and Wurlitzer organs.

Ebo Taylor’s ‘Appia Kwa Bridge’ is released on Strut as a 1CD, 2LP and digitally . He will be touring worldwide from May 2012.

Strut Records




Tracklist

01. Ayesama
02. Abonsam
03. Nsu Na Kwan
04. Yaa Amponsah
05. Assom Dwee
06. Kruman Dey
07. Appia Kwa Bridge
08. Barrima

Ebo Taylor - Conflict (download)

Recently I discovered the amazing page of Gold Mining in Ghana, diggin' records in Africa. As he offers some great tunes, I thought I have to share it with all of you as well, therefore, here we go with one of the most wanted record: Ebo Taylor - Conflict.


Here's the orginal story from "Gold Mining in Ghana":

It took me ten long months to track down one of Ghana’s premier producer/arrangers, Ebo Taylor. In the end it was all worth it, for in the process I not only found a heap of recordings but also gathered a more substantive perspective on his contribution to the music scene via interviews with some of his fellow musicians.

Now, with the help of the label Strut and Miles from Soundway, he’s gained global recognition and is experiencing a musical resurgence both in Ghana and abroad. When I caught up with him he was preparing to embark on his second European tour and was talking about performing in Brazil before the end of the year.

All of this attention is due to his magnificent album, Love and Death, released in 2010. The Album is in fact a partial remake of his 1980 album, Conflict, which includes the song “Love and Death” as well as a vocal version of “Victory.” The album is by far one of my favorites by Ebo Taylor, partly due to the monstrous apocalyptic jam, “Christ Will Come.”

For those who aren’t as familiar with Ebo’s career, I present a quick run down.

Ebo Taylor had a hand in a good portion of the afro-funk created in Ghana during the 70s. He worked alongside, or produced, some of the most prominent Ghanaian musicians including Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, C.K. Mann and Pat Thomas. He’s credited for producing C.K. Mann’s Funky Highlife LP, the Apagya Show Band and several solo LPs, all of which are sought after by collectors worldwide.

Ebo was born in Cape Coast, and completed most of his education, including college, in and around there. He got his first musical breaks playing with the Star Gazers and then the Broadway dance band in the early 60s. He eventually left Broadway and moved to the UK to study at the Eric Guilder School of Music. According to him, it’s his formal training that’s allowed his music to finally transcend internationally, albeit 30 years later.

EBO: “In his [Nkrumah’s] era, we were given grants to educate ourselves in a music school. There you find George Lee, Eddie Quansah, Oscarmore [Ofori], Teddy Osei, Sol Amarfio… all at Eric Guilder [School of Music]. The result is: they were able to come out with Osibisa. Since Osibisa, we hadn’t had any good group to tour internationally. I think that maybe I’m filling the vacuum and others will follow.”

While there, he met fellow West African, Fela Ransome Kuti. They played in a band together and, on several occasions, discussed their mutual dissatisfaction with Highlife music. When we spoke, Ebo proclaimed Highlife music has often sounded like an African version of the foxtrot or waltz, a lasting effect of colonial influence on African rhythms.

EBO: “We were, all the time, discussing ways to develop our African music to enable us to get global attention. The only way to do it was to get into funk or jazz… that’s what we were… we were, primarily, jazz musicians. In London, we use play jazz clubs. I used to jam with Fela. He used Jam with me at various jazz clubs… Any time we got together, the black musicians in London, we were thinking of home and how to develop our own things instead of playing jazz or instead of playing Highlife, which we thought was foxtrot or like quickstep.”



Upon his return, he joined the Uhuru dance band in the early 70s and began working with singer/composer Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. Ambolley himself recalls Ebo’s eagerness to step out of the fold early on:

GYEDU: “…around 74-75 we formed another band. - that was Apagya Show band - Ebo Taylor left Uhuru, I left Uhuru because we started experimenting. Doing our own styles of music… our own creative music… Because we knew what people wanted. Though it was our style, it still had some groovy beats. The music would motivate you.”

Along with Bob Pinodo, inventor of the Sonbote rhythm, they produced a series of singles for Essiebons, including “Ma Nserew Me,” “Mumunde,” “Kwaku Ananse,””Nsamanfo,” and “Tamfo Nyi Ekyir.” These singles have since been re-released on Soundway compilations Ghana Soundz 1 & 2 as well as on last year’s Afrobeat Airways, which was put out by Analog Africa.

Ebo would leave the band shortly after and begin working as a producer for various musicians. He worked with C.K. Mann for the Essiebons label, before eventually releasing his on solo LP, My Love and Music featuring Pat Thomas on vocals, for George Prah at Gapophone records. The opening track, “Odofo yi Akyiri Biara,” was also featured on the Afrobeat Airways compilation. The song opens with a full horn section intro before leading into some Fela-esque keyboard arrangements. From the start, it was a distinct departure from the traditional Highlife sound of the time. The track’s placement was seemingly calculated. Ebo saw no reason why funkier numbers should take a backseat to highlife songs, which was in stark contrast to the normal protocol of the time.

EBO: ”Most of the recording I did later were major, or highlife, on the A side… on the flipside I wrote funkier highlife. I think that was a step forward. The research didn’t prove that, but I thought that many progressive listeners bought this album because it had this kind of stuff on it…”

It seems that by the time Conflict was recorded, he had all but given up on trying to hide the funk in the mist of highlife tunes. Judge for yourself.



Tracklist:

01. You Need Love
02. Love And Death
03. What Is Life?
04. Christ Will Come
05. Victory

Ebo Taylor - An interview from 2010

The translation was technically supported. Due to this there may be some mistakes in the english version, whereby the orginal version was in German. Everyone interested in the German version, check out the links. But still the english version seems to interesting to hide. Enjoy!!!

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These days the first internationally distributed album of Highlife and Afrobeat luminary Ebo Taylor is published.

That titling this as one of the founding fathers of West African musical culture is by no means too high, shows an impressive CV of the Ghanaian. "I've had six years of the first instruments on the slopes. Since my father was a good piano player, I learned quickly, "recalls Taylor. With 20 years Ebo stands as a leader of the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band on the stage, before it pulls him out of the 1962 fishing town on the Ghanaian coast Saltpond to Europe. In London he studied at the School of Music Eric Guilder. During his studies, he keeps meeting the man considered the father of Afrobeat: Fela Kuti. While driving the Kuti Afrobeat, celebrating Ebo new ways and begin to enrich the traditional highlife to western jazz elements and the playful use of guitars - his status as a signpost for the high life is still undisputed. Back in Ghana, Taylor worked as in-house producer for local labels like Gapophone Essiebons and shapes and decide the African music scene continues - also, because he is taking risks. "Over the years I've noticed that I started looking more and more to other genres such as Rock the interest," recalls Ebo Taylor, and from then on be incorporated more and more guitar riffs and funk licks in the traditional Ghanaian music. The result: a very special blend of highlife, afrobeat, jazz and rock.

Mixed old and new

Has taken the old master, 'Love & Death "in Berlin with the Afrobeat Academy - stuck behind several musicians from the Kabu Kabu collective, the Ghanaian legend Marijata and the Afrobeat combo Poets of Rhythm. Together they took the album in a few days in the capital. Was to go "with the Afrobeat Academy into the studio for me a very conscious decision," said Ebo Taylor. "When I was last year for a gig in Germany, we had the first sessions. We played around a bit and the guys really had a great mind. The energy was so good that we are directly on the spot if still wrote some songs. "The intensive recording sessions, you realize, 'Love & Death" certainly on. Due to the coherent sound image sounds the whole album as a unified whole - and this despite or perhaps because he has Ebo Taylor decided some of his earlier compositions, such as the title track "Love & Death" or the jazzy "Victory", with the taking album. The amazing thing: Even the compositions, which already have a few more years under his belt, differ in any way by the sound of the new arrangements. A phenomenon which was observed already at least companions such as Mulatu Astatke, Arthur Verocai or Tony Allen: Musical timelessness that in the fast-moving Internet age, often too short. On "Love and Death" unfolds the magic of this music away from the zeitgeist in an impressive way - and is manifested above bargain Ebo Taylor's importance for the history of African music in recent decades.

Originally published in the German magazine hhv-mag.com, written by Jan Wehn, Pictures by Tilman Junge



The interview

"It was a great time"

From his school days in Ghana, through his friendship with Fela Kuti, to Usher and Ludacris: The interview with the 74-year-old Afro-beat luminary Ebo Taylor spans a broad range.

No question: Afrobeat is booming. Indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend to celebrate the traditional African rhythms Ranschmeiße just like the samplewütige hip hop and R & B producers. Ebo Taylor, Fela Kuti, in addition to probably one of the fathers of Afrobeat and highlife music. With Love and Death was published late 2010, the first internationally distributed album of the 74-year-old and once again clearly reinforces its status as highlife and Afrobeat Koriphäe. A discussion about the transformation of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, his friendship with the sampling of his songs and of course the new album Love & Death, which he recorded together with the Afrobeat Academy in Berlin.

You are a musician since your are six years old. How did everything start?

Exactly. I started really early to play keyboard. At school I have pursued further and then I switched to the piano. At some point, someone brought out of the top vintages a guitar to class and I accompanied him on piano. But the instrument made ​​me immediately curious. Since I had to learn a lot and have not had enough free time, I practiced every day to play the guitar. That said, gets around and make friends band asked me if I wanted to play a concert with them. So I played the first time on a big stage in front of people. It was great and I got mad a lot of applause - which has then felt like I was a star. (laughs) Then I was accepted into the band (the Stargazers, author's note). At the end of the year we were playing one of the most popular highlife bands and at many schools for girls and boys. - It was a great time.

How you came to be a professional musician?

A little later we played concerts in the Ivory Coast, Liberia and South Africa. Again and again came up to me and said promoter at me if I wanted to play concerts. Until then, I could always put the performances on the holiday season, but eventually it went just do not - and so I decided, to be on tour and professional musician. Since I was just 19 years old. In 1959 I had my first real studio session and was nationally known.

This component had professional influence to play in their own way?

I think I was motivated by. I wanted to be a star, just like my American counterparts. Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall, they were my heroes! In addition to the actual guitar playing, I also learned arranging and composing and took over the job in the Broadway strip. That made me pretty nervous. (laughs) Eventually, it was also not particularly good and I was thrown for a few things from the band. I went to England ...

... Where you could study through a grant from the Government of Ghana Music ...

... and there is not only concentrated on the music. (laughs) I also began to write television scripts. Eventually, a piece about Ghanaian student bands will be filmed. So I came in contact with a few good musicians and founded the Black Star High Life Band. Among others I met there, Peter Keen and Fela Kuti. I was particularly thrilled by Fela. He had ideas from the jazz flow into his music and was always two or three steps ahead. I also began to listen to a lot of the time Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. I think that you could listen to my highlife music very quickly.

At some point, but you turned back to Ghana.

Ebo Taylor: Exactly. I was a freelance musician and songwriter, or arranged for the likes of Pat Thomas or "PopAgee" Johnson and played in various bands and founded among others, the Assassins. But the music was not very good. It seemed to me that would be as interested in people just not for old and traditional music. I think people are missing something. I was by this time many bands from abroad. Blood, Sweat & Tears and Deep Purple. James Brown was very successful and I liked that he did indeed rock, but the African influences were not to hear. So I sat down and brought the traditional songs with modern rock influences - so I created my own version of Afrobeat. Conflict on the album, which I recorded with Uhuru Yenzu, I used as many structures of jazz and highlife. At this time, Fela Kuti came home again and formed his band, Koola Lobitos and we played together a lot. I had enough exposure and was doing alright - but there was simply not much to do in Ghana. The nightlife at the time was as good as dead Just like the Afro Beat.

You have just mentioned Fela Kuti, you already met in England. Can you talk a little bit about your relationship?

We met at the weekend and played together in the small jazz clubs in town. But he was also a bit stubborn and independent, so I did not want to hang out with him constantly. (Laughs) He sometimes came unannounced on stage and stuff. Apart from that Fela took me really a lot of things and when I called him, for example, when our trumpet player was prevented. - (Thinks) But, we really liked. But we had many heated discussions about African music. I also have no problem when people play the Afrobeat as it has made him popular - but I think that legacy is there to develop it. The best example is probably the Afrobeat Academy here from Berlin.

How did it help with the Afrobeat Academy record an album?

I was in July 2009 at a festival in Germany and met a few of the musicians of the Afrobeat Academy. We were about three weeks together in the rehearsal room. A great time - the musicians went hot! The guys were really interested and had a great desire on the project. The special was that the guys from my old songs like Love and Dead or What Is Life a very different and have given new twist. The atmosphere between us was so good that some of the new songs on the record actually came right in the rehearsal room.

Was the mixture of old and new songs a conscious decision? You hear virtually no difference between old and new.

Definitely. The old songs serve as the pillars underpinning for the new songs. And it is with the old and the new material now have to visit the same composer at work. (Laughs)

Do you have any expectations, hopes, wishes of the album?

Oh, definitely. I mentioned already told them that my approach, Afro Beat and Rock music to connect with one another, were never very successful. My wish is that Afro Beat is rocking the whole world. Of course there are such things as Hiplife - many young musicians from Ghana to use the high life as the foundation and associate it with hip-hop elements. That will not survive long, however.

A very popular example of this is probably She Do not Know by Usher and Ludacris. The two have sampled your song Heaven. What do you think?

(laughs) That's very interesting. Through this song I got the two shows in a wonderful way of what you can do anything with my music. I'm very surprised, like Usher and his producers have dealt with the original. Apart from that I got it of course also a bit of money. (Laughs)

In addition, there are these days many indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend, afro-beat bonds in their songs have.

I do not know about Vampire Weekend. But the trend that Afrobeat influence on other genres, is in sight - I think it's great.

Afrobeat has changed over the decades?

Yes, definitely - each comes with its own style around the corner. The great thing is that the basic essence is still recognizable. What I want more, however, is the Afro Beat, who also works away from its use as dance music. Just as a jazz record you all to hang up in his room and enjoys.


Originally published in the German magazine hhv-mag.com, written by Jan Wehn, Pictures by Tilman Junge

New album: Ebo Taylor - Life Stories

Information by Strut Records

ollowing his recent studio album with Afrobeat Academy, ’Love And Death’, his first international release, Ghanaian highlife guitar legend Ebo Taylor teams up again with Strut for a long overdue definitive compilation of his seminal 1970s recordings, ‘Life Stories’.

During Ghana’s highlife explosion during the 1950s and ‘60s following wartime highlife pioneers like E.T. Mensah, Ebo Taylor made his name as a prolific composer, arranger and frontman leading two of Ghana’s greatest big bands - Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band. Moving to London to study music in 1962 alongside West African luminaries like Fela Kuti and Peter King, Taylor formed the Black Star Highlife Band and began incorporating jazz elements into traditional highlife forms.

Returning to Ghana, Taylor became an in-house arranger and producer for Dick Essilfie-Bondzie’s Essiebons label, working with other major Ghanaian stars like C.K. Mann and Pat Thomas. Through the ’70s, he then recorded a number of solo projects, exploring unique fusions and borrowing elements from regional Ghanaian folk music, Afrobeat, jazz, soul and funk.

This compilation revisits this heyday of Taylor’s work, focusing on his solo albums and some of his lesser known side projects including the dynamite Apagya Show Band and short-lived Taylor-led combos Assase Ase, Super Sounds Namba and The Pelikans. The selection also touches on his writing and production work for C.K. Mann and a collaboration recording with fellow member of early ‘70s nightclub band Blue Monks, Pat Thomas.

Tracks include the anthemic ’Heaven’, sampled by Usher on his hit with Ludacris, ’She Don’t Know’, the original version of the poignant ’Love And Death’ and the rare 15-minute nugget, ’Aba Yaa’. The package features rare photos, original album artwork and sleeve notes by Soundway Records’ Miles Cleret.

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An introduction by Marc Gabriel Amigone (afrobeatblog.blogspot.com)

As I've said before, Ebo Taylor is one of the funkiest people to ever walk the earth. Life Stories, his second collaboration with Strut Records set to be released April 11, 2011, is a retrospective compilation showcasing his work with several ensembles throughout his career. Any lover of African funk has to take notice of Ebo Taylor. His ability as a composer and arranger put him in an elite class of musicians and allowed for him to collaborate with some of the best musicians in West Africa throughout the 1960's and 70's.

Taylor released his first internationally distributed studio album, Love and Death, on Strut late last year. Life Stories represents his songwriting and arranging work with several different artists and ensembles. Taylor's ability to combine African rhythmic elements with the American funk aesthetic set him apart from other musicians of his generation. Talylor's signature wah-pedal infused guitar lines combined with inventive horn lines distinguished him as an arranger. Life Stories captures that signature style on several tracks throughout.

If you're serious about African funk or you simply have a passing interest, you should def check out this comp. To amass this much music in one place would have taken years of crate digging and several trips to Africa. Strut has done all the work, so take full advantage.

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Review for "Love and death" from Marc Gabriel Amigone

Ebo Taylor is one of the funkiest people to ever walk the earth. Love and Death, his first internationally released studio album out October 24th on Strut Records, is a continuation of Taylor's already legendary legacy as a composer and performer of African music.

Starting in the late 1950's, Taylor was an extremely influential figure in the Ghanaian music scene. He composed, arranged and performed in several leading highlife bands such as the Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band. He traveled to London with his own ensemble in 1962, The Black Star Highlife Band sponsored by the Ghanaian High Commission. It was in London that he collaborated and experimented with other African musicians such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, "I knew Fela very well. He was my friend.

Upon returning to Ghana, Taylor further cemented himself in the Accra music scene working as an in-house producer for the major record labels of the time such as Essiebons and Gapophone. He wrote for and recorded with other burgeoning stars like C.K. Mann and Pat Thomas. As his career continued to unfold, Taylor recorded several solo projects creating his own new sound. He melded elements of traditional Ghanaian music with afrobeat, jazz and funk, and recorded some of the most highly regarded Ghanaian funk music of the era.

As African funk music from the 1970's has become increasingly in demand over the last 5-10 years, Ebo Taylor's music has seen a resurgence in popularity appearing on compilations from Soundway Records and Analog Africa. His music has been sampled by contemporary hip-hop producers both in Africa and The United States. Taylor has always had an innate sense of how to emphasize certain Western elements in his music such as the wah-wah guitar pedal and JB's influenced horn lines to compliment the more pronounced African elements such as traditional African percussion and Ghanaian lyrics. Similar to Fela's afrobeat, his music was extremely funky while at the same time carrying a strong African persona.

Recorded with Berlin-based collective Afrobeat Academy, Love and Death is a conscious effort on the part of Taylor to advance the afrobeat movement: "For the 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." Taylor accomplishes his goal and then some. Love and Death is an incredibly fluid album composed of eight tracks that attack from the first note and don't let up throughout. Tracks like "african woman," "victory," and "mizin" are all aggressive uptempo songs that use interlocking guitars parts, punchy horn lines, hard-driving drums and percussion to push the song forward.

Taylor's voice reveals the character and history of a 74-year old man. You can hear the experience and age as it cuts through the aggressive afrobeat soundscape. It's amazing to think that in a career filled with as much amazing music and as many prominent collaborations as Taylor's, Love and Death will be his first internationally distributed album.




Tracklist


01. Heaven - 6:06
02. Atwer Abroba - 8:12
03. Victory - 4:19
04. Ohiani Sua Efir - 4:02
05. Kwaku Ananse - 3:12
06. Peace On Earth - 7:44
07. Aba Yaa - 14:58
08. Ene Nyame 'A' Mensuro - 6:17
09. Tamfo Nyi Ekyir - 3:57
10. Love And Death - 8:18
11. Ohye Atar Gyan - 6:05
12. Yes Indeed - 4:54
13. Mumude - 3:03
14. What Is Life - 4:38
15. Etuei - 6:27
16. Egya Edu - 6:52