Ebo Taylor is a fascinating human being. A Ghanaian guitarist who really took flight in the 1950s and 60s, his popularity was confined to mostly Ghana as his first international release was no more than a decade ago. His newest release from back in November titled Love And Death is Afrobeat meets jazz meets soul meets funk. Love And Death centers around unison horn melodies that harmonize simply on any given phrase's concluding note (typical of African jazz horns). The melody is repeated a few times and then the soloist kicks in. This is where the album really shines. The melodies are catchy, but they're simplistic. That's all they need to be to provide some type of home base. But when the lead starts, tracks turn into grooves that have dance written all over it. Why? African music is festive and soulful because Africans are festive and soulful people. For example, when my Moroccan family gets together, it takes no more than 10 minutes for my Aunt to get excited about something incredibly trivial and then within seconds the entire family is up and dancing and making noise just to make noise.
Buy this cat's album, break into spontaneous dance, and make a lot of noise. I promise it'll be fun.
4.3/5. Favorite tracks: Nga, Nga; Love And Death; Victory (Instrumental); Mizin; Kwame (Instrumental); Oborekyair Aba; and Obra. That's all but the second track on the album.
Best, Jonathan
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