It is almost criminal that so many were deprived of afrobeat history’s best kept secret, when he played on Wednesday evening in Stockholm.
Ghana’s eternal funk volcano Ebo Taylor is not only a legendary guitarist, songwriter and arranger who developed afrobeat sound alongside Fela Kuti, but also one of the world’s most alert 74-year-olds – well worth seeing live.
On the other hand, Taylor never really received the attention he deserves. While Fela successfully mixed sex and politics were content Ebo with really good songs that do not seriously reached outside of hip-hop producers and vinyl dope FREQUENCY domains until the 00-century collections as “Ghana soundz”.
If Usher – who sampled the Taylor’s “Heaven” on the last disc, “She do not know” – or DJ Gilles Peterson has stood for Gota Källares marketing this week, it would have been more difficult to fit to shake everything must be shaken to so great blowing riffs and intricate baspedalstyrda cowbell.
Taylor’s great contribution is leaving the cat and get one just to gawk over the Ghanaian star rapper Sarkodie not resample break his funk national hero instead of imitating the American mainstream hip hop.
His gentle guitar outshines the other hand, quite often by the elite backing band Afrobeat Academy – with members including Poland, Nigeria and the U.S. – which is so phenomenal that my notes are completely illegible to all compulsive dancing. On June 28 they play in Malmo.
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