Prior to Ebo Fest Ghana, the Ebo Fest London Activation celebrated the life of the legendary bandleader Ebo Taylor with films and words and music…

I think it was post Covid, while working on the Lockdown FM: Broadcasting In A Pandemic book, that Gilles Peterson played me Ebo Taylor’s ‘Love & Death’. “Do you know this?” he enthusiastically asked. I had to admit that despite it being a killer tune it was not on my radar. In fact, I knew very little about the Ghanaian band leader, behind the music. That was something that needed remedying.

As the story goes Gilles first discovered Ebo Taylor’s music while digging for vinyl in the iconic Disk Union record store in Shibuya, Tokyo. The man behind the counter had popped an Ebo Taylor album on the turntable and as Love & Death filtered from the speakers into the shop the impact on Peterson was immediate… mind-blowing.

Ebo’s funky, bass driven, Ghanain Highlife with its tough horn arrangements was for Peterson a pivotal discovery. It placed Ebo Taylor alongside Nigeria’s Fela Kuti. He became one of the most prominent international champions of Taylor’s work via his DJ sets and his weekly broadcasts on BBC Radio 6 Music and Worldwide FM. There’s no doubt that Peterson’s commitment led to international recognition for the highlife musician in his latter years. Ebo recorded for Strut records and collaborated with Jazz Is Dead while labels like Mr. Bongo reissued several classic LPs. He resumed touring and played a memorable set at Peterson’s We Out Here festival.

From my own perspective, during the “world music” explosion in the 80s, Ghanaian music had largely been eclipsed by the music of South Africa, Senegal, Mali and the Congo / Zaire. Even Fela’s music was difficult to get hold of at that time. Like Nigeria, Ghana had suffered under the military rule and many musicians, unable to make a living, left the country for Europe.

That said, time passes and in 2017 two excellent documentary films arrived via the Straight No Chaser network – Roots To Fruits and Black Stars of Highlife – that featured Ebo Taylor alongside a host of musicians like Kofi Ghanaba and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. However, the world was not quite ready for a deep dive into Ghanaian highlife. It was down to youth of the the London based Ghanaian / Nigerian diaspora to create a wave of parties and home grown productions that has since evolved to create the globally renowned genre of Afrobeats. With that came an underlying appreciation of the roots… Highlife! For a deeper take on this check out Christian Adofo’s excellent book: A Quick Ting on Afrobeats.

Sadly, Ebo Taylor’s passed away at the age of 90 on 8 February 2026. To celebrate his life Ebo Fest has been planned as a grand homecoming and musical festival. It will l held in his home town, Saltpond, Ghana and it will feature live music, dancing, screenings, and cultural conversations aimed at preserving Africa’s musical heritage. Ebo Fest will take place on August 27–28, 2026 following the funeral which will be the 31st July / 1st August.

In support of forthcoming Ebo Fest Ghana, Roberta Cutolo initiated the Ebo Fest London Activation event which took place at the Jago on Friday July 10th. We were lucky to have Tom Bass in house to talk about his Roots To Fruits film and project some extracts from the 3 hours of footage he’s got. It appears also that Tom has 30,000 words via interviews with many Ghanaian music legends who are no longer with us. Is there a publisher out there?

Excellent contributions on the night came from Ebo’s nephew, Kobby Taylor, who has a music based theatre production – The Torch – set to land in Greenwich at the Certain Blacks festival over the summer; from writer Christian Adofo who celebrated the musical continuum; from industry peeps – Stephen Budd and Will Page; from DJ / curator John Armstrong; and up n coming film maker Samuel Adjaye.

Also in the house were Robert Urbanus – founder of Sterns records, Rikki Stein – former manager of Fela Kuti and Janine Irons of Tomorrow’s Warriors. Thanks to Mr Bongo for their record stall and the DJs on the night – 232 West, Chief Commander Yaaba, Dom Ore (Miles Away Records) and Loose Egusi.

Repect to everyone who contributed and joined us at The Jago to celebrate the life and music of Ebo Taylor into the future. Medase

#ebotaylor