R.I.P. highlife and Afrobeat legend Ebo Taylor

Ghanaian music legend and highlife and Afrobeat pioneer Ebo Taylor has died. The Guardian reports that his son, Kweku, announced his passing on Sunday. He was 90.

Born in 1936 when Ghana was still under British colonial rule, Ebo Taylor played piano as a child and began playing guitar as a young man, as the highlife sound—rooted in palm-wine music from Sierra Leone and taking influence from Afro-Cuban music—began to popularize in West Africa. He played with highlife groups The Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band, and in 1962, took his band, the Black Star Highlife Band, to London, where he collaborated with the likes of Fela Kuti and other African musicians living in Great Britain.

Taylor returned to Ghana in 1964, and became the in-house producer and guitarist for the label Essiebons. He began releasing a series of solo albums in the 1970s, which have since become regarded as highly influential records in highlife and Afrobeat, earning him widespread recognition late in life.

Taylor suffered a stroke in 2018, but he continued performing and recording, playing his first show in the U.S. in 2022. Last year, he released his final album, Jazz Is Dead 022, a collaboration with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.