Osibisa

Biography

Osibisa is a Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London-based Caribbean musicians.
Osibisa was one of the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in London, alongside such contemporaries as Assagai, Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Demon Fuzz, The Funkees, Cymande, Black Velvet, and Noir, and was largely responsible for the establishment of world music and Afro-rock as a marketable genre.
The original band that featured on the first three studio albums was universally known as the "Beautiful Seven", also a song on their album Woyaya×Woyaya1971 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 7 tracksA1Beautiful Seven6:45A2Y Sharp6:21A3Spirits Up Above7:18B1Survival6:19B2Move On4:35B3Rabiatu5:08B4Woyaya4:27.

History

In Ghana in the 1950s, Teddy Osei (saxophone), Sol Amarfio (drums), Mamon Shareef, and Farhan Freere (flute) played in a highlife band called The Star Gazers. They left to form the Comets, with Osei's brother Mac Tontoh on trumpet, and scored a hit in West Africa with their 1958 song "(I Feel) Pata Pata". In 1962, Osei moved to London to study music on a scholarship from the Ghanaian government. In 1964 he formed Cat's Paw, an early "world music" band that combined highlife, rock, and soul. In 1969, Osei persuaded Amarfio and Tontoh to join him in London, and Osibisa was born. The name Osibisa was described in lyrics, album notes and interviews as meaning "criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness" but it actually comes from "osibisaba" the Fante word for highlife.
Joining the three Ghanaians in the first incarnation were Antiguan Wendell (Dell) Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist), Nigerian Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone), Grenadian Roger Bedeau, also known as Spartacus R (bass), and Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboards). Nigerians Fred Coker and Mike Odumosu (bass guitar) were later replacements.
The band spent much of the 1970s touring the world, playing to large audiences in Japan, Australasia, India, and Africa. During this time Paul Golly (guitar) and Ghanaians Daku Adams "Potato" and Kiki Gyan were also members of the band. In 1971, Osibisa contributed African percussion to the title track of Uriah Heep’s progressive rock heavy rock album, Look at Yourself , an album which came to be viewed as a high point in Uriah Heep’s career, regarded by many fans and critics as one of Uriah Heep's finest albums. Billboard described the music as "a mirror… a driving, psychedelic flow that's sufficiently hypnotic, controlled and groovy to reflect the tastes of many youthful rockers." AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco described the Uriah Heep track Osibisa contributed to as “a powerful rocker,” praising its “tribal-sounding drum jam,” deeming the composition to be “a high point of 1970s heavy metal”.
In January 1976, their single, "Sunshine Day×Sunshine Day1975 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksASunshine Day3:08BBum to Bum5:38", reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Their next single release, "Dance the Body Music", peaked at number 31 in the same listing. In 1980, Osibisa performed at a special Zimbabwean independence celebration, and in 1983 were filmed onstage at the Marquee Club in London but by this time were a distant version of the original band.
Osibisa had an important series of gigs in India in 1981, culminating in the release of the Unleashed – Live in India album. The band engaged in a return to India, performing at the November Fest 2010 on 28 November 2010, at the Corporation Kalaiarangam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Changes in the music industry meant declining sales for the band, and a series of label changes resulted. Some of the band returned to Ghana to set up a recording studio and theatre complex to help younger highlife musicians.
In the 1990s, their music was anthologised in many CD collections, with some of them allegedly unauthorised and paying no royalties to the band. However, this has been disputed by Osei, who, along with Amarfio and Tontoh, ran the band from the 1980s onwards.
In the early 1990s, Osei regrouped the band, and many of their past recordings released legally on CD. This included a remaster series with bonus material and hitherto unreleased material and live concerts on the Red Steel / Flying Elephant label collaboration.
Osei regrouped a version of the band in 1994 after commencing work with two UK labels: Castle Communications (who had the licensing rights to the Buddah catalogue and some of the Bronze Records catalogue) and Red Steel Music, who specialised in remastering and reissuing albums on CD. With a new producer and label behind him, Osei progressed to record new material, culminating in the 1995 release of Monsore, the band's first album of new material since the late 1980s Movements×Movements1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracks1Ko Ko Rio Ko3:572Pata Pata5:523The Lion's Walk5:034Inkosi Sikeleli Africa4:415Movements4:416Drum 2001 Carnival3:357Jambo4:078Life3:459Happy Feeling Rhymes2:34 album.
The revitalised band with Osei at the helm commenced touring and recording, until Osei's stroke some fifteen years later. Osei cut back his touring schedule due to the effects of his illness but still continued to record until 2018.
Various new recording and release projects were carried out from the mid-1990s onwards with remastered, remixed and re-recorded projects seeing the light of day. This included previously unreleased material from the African Flight period, the incomplete follow-up which had a working title of African Dawn, live projects including Live at Cropredy (the bands first live album in fifteen years) followed by the semi acoustic live offering recorded at London's famous Jazz Cafe, Aka Ka Kra.
Work commenced on more studio material that remains unissued to this day. A new studio album, Osee Yee×Osee Yee2009 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Osuno1:262Watusi6:033Ayioko3:504Life Time6:455Osee Yee4:326Yen Ara Ghana4:077Higher & Higher5:048It's OK4:419My Sweet Lord4:3610Boyengya4:0011One Life4:5612Mystical4:4913Too Much Going On3:5514Saworowa2:49, was released in 2009.
After the removal of personnel by Osei in 2014/15, a new recording project with Osei at the helm commenced in late 2015, shortly after the successful placement of material that was chosen for Richard Linklater's film Boyhood. However, apart from one track included on the band's 2020 Sunshine Day: The Boyhood Sessions album, the recordings featuring Osei remain unreleased. Recent announcements from the Osei’s management and the band indicate these tracks will make an appearance in 2025 along with an album of previously unreleased material from earlier years that Osei had started work on in 2016.
Ace Ghanaian hip-hop music producer Hammer of The Last Two stated that his debut production, Obrafour's Pae Mu Ka album, which is the highest selling hiplife album to date, was inspired by Osibisa's song "Welcome Home×Welcome Home1975 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Sunshine Day5:00A2Welcome Home4:21A3Densu5:23A4Choboi (Heave Ho!)5:11B1Do It (Like It Is)4:24B2Right Now3:12B3Seaside - Meditation5:19B4Uhuru3:28B5Kolomashie4:33." He also had the chance to work with Kiki Gyan a few days before his death.
On 13 December 2022, drummer and founding member Sol Amarfio died at the age of 84.
In June 2023, long-time Osibisa bass player, sometimes keyboard player and producer Victor Mensah died at the age of 66, after a protracted illness.
Founding member Teddy Osei, singer, saxophonist and drummer, died on 14 January 2025 in London. He was 87.

Music

Osibisa has been credited with introducing African music to European and North American audiences with their fusion of African and Western music styles. The band's style encompasses elements of rock, progressive rock, acid rock, Latin, jazz, afro-funk, jazz fusion, soul, highlife, reggae, calypso and pop. This style has been classified as afro rock, progressive rock, Afro-pop, and highlife. Mystic Energy saw the band shifting away from their trademark sound, in favor of R&B, dance-pop and disco.

Album covers

Their first two albums featured artwork by the progressive rock artist Roger Dean (before he became widely known for his artwork), depicting the flying elephants which became the symbol for the band. The third album, Heads×Heads1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Kokorokoo4:35A2Wango Wango4:31A3So So Mi La So3:13A4Sweet America4:21A5Ye Tie Wo4:17B1Che Che Kule6:28B2Mentumi3:47B3Sweet Sounds5:12B4Do You Know4:49, features a cover by Mati Klarwein, known for his covers of Santana’s Abraxas and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. Osibirock, the band's sixth studio release featured "Negro Attacked by a Jaguar" (1910) by Henri Rousseau. Playing on the original flying elephants theme, the Ultimate Collection set features elephants with tank turrets for heads, an early Roger Dean idea reborn for the project. In 2009, their Osee Yee album featured the flying elephants once more, this time painted by Freyja Dean (Dean's daughter). Roger Dean's logo for the band continues to be used on many of the releases comprising classic material. Artwork for many of the reissues and 1990s material onwards was put together by Frank McPartland, Andrew Buckle and the Grammy Award winning designer Rachel Gutek and her Guppy Art company.

Musicians - original band

Teddy Osei (born Francis Osei, 1937-died 2025) – lead vocals, saxophone, flutes, percussion
Mac Tontoh (born Kweku Adabanka Tonto, 1940–2010) – trumpet, horns, percussion
Sol Amarfio (born 1938 - died 2022) – drums, percussion
Robert Bailey - keyboards, percussion
Wendell (Dell) Richardson – guitars, lead vocals, percussion
Abdul Loughty Lasisi Amao (born 1936 - died 1988) – flute, vocals, percussion
Spartacus R. (born 1948 - died 2010) - bass, percussion, vocals

Live albums

1977 – Black Magic Night (Live at the Royal Festival Hall)
1982 – Unleashed - Live in India 1981
1984 – Live at The Marquee
1998 – Live at Cropredy
2001 – Aka Ka Kra - Acoustic
2005 – Blue Black Night

Literature

Lloyd Bradley, Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, 2013. (Contributors)
Charles Aniagolu: Osibisa – Living In The State Of Happy Vibes And Criss Cross Rhythms. Victoria (CDN): Trafford Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-4120-2106-5.
Brigitte Tast, Hans-Jürgen Tast be bop – Die Wilhelmshöhe rockt. Disco und Konzerte in der Hölle, Verlag Gebrüder Gerstenberg GmbH & Co. KG, Hildesheim, ISBN 978-3-8067-8589-0.