Ghana: Ebo Taylor releases new album ahead of North America tour

The project titled, Ebo Taylor JID022, his first in seven years, features some of the following songs ‘Kusi Na Sibo’, ‘Obi Do Woa’ and '‘Nsa a W’oanye Edwuma’.

The album was recorded in Young’s Linear Lab Studio during Ebo Taylor’s maiden US tour last year. It will be available in LP, CD and digital formats. The record is a collaboration with Jazz Is Dead founders Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest and Adrian Young, a songwriter and producer, who has worked with Kendrick Lamar, The Wu-Tang Clan and The Delfonics.

“The swirling horns and gritty guitars heard on Ebo Taylor JID022, are reminiscent of seminal recordings that made him one of Africa’s most prolific and revolutionary artists of all time,” Young and Ali Shaheed said. “This album captures polyrhythmic and twangy, fuzzed out guitars that prove that rhythm is key. The ensemble of Ghanaian backing vocalists emanates a uniquely spiritual sound that takes the listener to Ebo’s prime.”

In a remark about the upcoming tour, dubbed Farewell To The Americas, the Jazz Is Dead organisers said: “Ebo Taylor and his Family Band, which includes his two sons Henry Taylor (keys) and Roy X Taylor (guitar), have decided to make this tour his official farewell to the Americas. This will be our final opportunity to honour the legendary maestro, the pioneer of highlife and father of Afrobeat, and give him his flowers.”

The tour, which will feature Ghanaian highlife legend Pat Thomas, kicks-off on 4 April in Chicago through Minneapolis, Toronto and Boston, among other cities. It will round up in Sao Paulo, Brazil.