Osibisa
Encyclopedia
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
Afro-pop
African popular music
African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz, salsa zouk, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions...
band, founded in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1969 by four expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n and three Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
musicians. Osibisa were one of the first African bands to become widely popular, leading to claims of founding World Music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
.
History
In GhanaGhana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
in the 1950s, Teddy Osei (saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
), Sol Amarfio (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
), Mamon Shareef and Farhan Freere (flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
) played in a highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
band called The Star Gazers. They left to form The Comets, with Osei's brother Mac Tontoh (born Kweku Adabanka Tonto, 25 December 1940, Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, Ashanti, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
died Monday 16 August 2010, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) on trumpet, and scored a hit in West Africa with their 1958 song "Pete Pete." 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 he persuaded Amarfio and Tontoh to join him in London, and Osibisa was born. Joining them in the first incarnation were Grenadian
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
Spartacus R (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
) (born Roy Bedeau, 3 September 1948, Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
, Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
, West Indies died Friday 30 July 2010) ; Trinidadian
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
Robert Bailey (keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
); Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
n Wendell Richardson (lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
); and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
). Their music is a fusion
Fusion (music)
A fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
of African, Caribbean, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, Latin and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
.
The band spent much of the 1970s touring the world, playing to large audiences in Japan, Australia, India and Africa. During this time Paul Golly (died 1977) (guitar) and Ghanaians Darko Adams 'Potato' (died 1995) and Kiki Djan
Kiki Djan
Kiki Djan was a Ghanaian musician who was the keyboardist with the band Osibisa, once popular in the 1970s. Djan's career peaked when he went solo and recorded "24 Hours in a Disco" which hit the charts in the United States and the U.K...
(died 2004) were also members of the band. In 1980 Osibisa performed at a special Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an independence celebration, and in 1983 were filmed onstage at the Marquee Club
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
in London. Changes in the music industry however (punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
primarily) meant declining sales for the band, and a series of label changes resulted. 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 widely anthologized in many collections, most of them paying no royalties whatsoever to the band.
In 1996 Osei reformed the band, and many of their past releases began coming out on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. The band remains active in 2009, although Osei has cut back his touring schedule due to the effects of a stroke.
Osibisa had an energetic performance in India, at the November Fest 2010 on 28/11/2010 at the Corporation Kalaiarangam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
The name Osibisa was described by the band members as meaning "criss cross rhythms that explode with happiness" but it actually comes from "osibisaba" the Fante word for highlife. Their style influenced many of the emerging African musicians of the time and even now, as Ace Ghanaian hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
music producer Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two, born Edward Nana Poku Osei is a record producer in the Ghanaian music industry. He is the founder and CEO of The Last Two Music Group and is also known for grooming some of the best artists Ghanaian Hip Hop or Hiplife has ever produced such as Obrafour, tinny, Kwaw Kese,...
stated that his debut production, Obrafour's 'paemuka' album, the highest selling hiplife
Hiplife
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style which fuses highlife and hip hop. It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe and Ga, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States,...
album to date was inspired by a single song(welcome Home) by osibisa.
He also had the chance to work with Kiki Djan
Kiki Djan
Kiki Djan was a Ghanaian musician who was the keyboardist with the band Osibisa, once popular in the 1970s. Djan's career peaked when he went solo and recorded "24 Hours in a Disco" which hit the charts in the United States and the U.K...
a few days before his death.
Album covers
Their first two albums featured artwork (and logo) by famed progressive-rock artist Roger Dean (before he became famous for his artwork), depicting flying elephants which became the symbol for the band. The third album, Heads, features a cover by Mati KlarweinMati Klarwein
Abdul Mati Klarwein was a painter best known for his works used on the covers of music albums.-Biography:...
, famed for his covers for Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
(Abraxas
Abraxas (album)
Abraxas is the second studio album by the Latin influenced rock band Santana. Consolidating their highly acclaimed live performance at the Woodstock Festival in August of 1969, and the interest generated by their first album, Santana , the band took some time to issue a follow-up...
) and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
(Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
). Osibirock features "Negro Attacked by a Jaguar" (1910) by Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
. Playing on the original flying elephants theme, the Ultimate Collection set features elephants with tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
turrets
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
for heads. 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 every release.
Musicians
- Saxophone — Teddy Osei
- Trumpet — Colin Graham
- Percussion, Congas — Kofi Ayivor, Nii Tagoe
- Drums — Sol Amarfio, KB
- Keyboards — Bessa Simons, Kwame Yeboah, Chris Jerome, Emmmanuel Rentzos
- Guitars — Kari Bannerman, Gregg Kofi Brown, Wendell Richardson
- Bass Guitar — Spartacus R and later Victor Mensah, Herman Asafo
- Vocals Gregg Kofi Brown, Teddy Osei, Emmanuel Rentzos, Wendell Richardson & all on BV's
- Tour Manager Mick Tresnan AKA Mick Tee
Line-ups
The original line-up consisted of Teddy Osei (saxophone,flute and vocals), Mac Tontoh (trumpet and background vocals), Sol Amarfio (drums and backing vocals), all three from Ghana, Loughty Lassisi Amao (congas,percussion and horns), from Nigeria, Robert Bailey (keyboards), from Trinidad, Spartacus R (bass), from Grenada, and Wendell Richardson (lead guitar and vocals) and together they were also known as "the beautiful seven." The first to exit officially was Spartacus R who was replaced numerous times by once the bassist of the group called AssagaiAssagai
Assagai was an Afro-rock band from South Africa, active in the early 1970s in London. It consisted of five members: drummer Louis Moholo, trumpeter/flautist Mongezi Feza, tenor saxophonist Bizo Muggikana, guitarist Fred Cocker, and alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana....
and a few times by Jean Mandengue and others. Amao left and was replaced by Kofi Ayivor who was replaced by Potato but returned to the group later. Richardson left in 1972 and returned in 1975 and henceforth "Welcome Home" and "Sunshine Day". Bailey was replaced by Kiki Gyan before "Sunshine Day" release. Richardson was replaced a few times by the likes of guitar wizard, Kari Bannerman.
Albums
- 1971 - OsibisaOsibisa (album)Osibisa is the eponymous debut album by BritishAfro-pop band Osibisa released in 1971 by MCA. Reissued in 2004 in a two-CD pack together with Woyaya by BGO Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
- (Billboard Hot 200 # 55 - UK #11) - 1971 - WoyayaWoyayaWoyaya is the second album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1971 by MCA. Reissued in 2004 in a two-CD pack together with Osibisa by BGO Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
- (Billboard # 66 - UK #11) - 1972 - HeadsHeads (album)Heads is the third album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1972.-Track listing:-Personnel:* Teddy Osei – tenor saxophone, flute, African drums, vocals* Sol Amarfio – African drums, bells, bongos, clavinet, cowbells, drums...
- (Billboard # 125) - 1973 - Best of Osibisa
- 1973 - Superfly T.N.T. SoundtrackSuper Fly T.N.T.Super Fly T.N.T. is a 1973 film directed, starring, and co-written by Ron O'Neal. O'Neal reprises his role of Youngblood Priest from the smash hit blaxploitation film Super Fly.The film is currently out of print.-Plot:...
(Billboard # 159) - 1973 - Happy ChildrenHappy ChildrenHappy Children is the fourth studio album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1973 by Warner Bros. Records WB 2732. Released on CD format 2000 by One Way Records 35164 and COE Records COE 111.-Track listing:-Track listing CD COE Records:...
(Billboard # 202) - 1974 - OsibirockOsibirockOsibirock is the fifth studio album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1974 by Warner Bros. Records K56048 and WEA International WE 835...
(Billboard # 175) - 1975 - Welcome HomeWelcome Home (Osibisa album)Welcome Home is the sixth studio album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1975 by Island Records ILPS 9355. Issued in 1997 CD format by Red Steel Music Ltd...
(Billboard # 200) - 1976 - Ojah AwakeOjah AwakeOjah Awake is an album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1976 by Island Records ILPS 9411. Issued in 1995 CD format by AIM Records .-Track listing:-Personnel:...
- 1977 - Black Magic Night: Live at the Royal Festival HallBlack Magic Night: Live at the Royal Festival HallBlack Magic Night: Live at the Royal Festival Hall is a live double album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 19th July 1977 with live versions of songs from their previous albums...
- 1980 - Mystic Energy
- 1981 - African Flight
- 1983 - Unleashed
- 1984 - Live at The MarqueeLive at The Marquee (Osibisa album)Live at The Marquee is an album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa recorded live at The Marquee Club, London, April 5, 1983 and released in 1984 by Premier Records under catalog #1035...
- 1989 - Movements
- 1992 - Africa We Go GoAfrica We Go GoAfrica We Go Go is an unauthorized compilation album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1992 by Soundwings Records and distributed by Serenade S.A., Barcelona, Spain.-Track listing:...
(unauthorised) - 1992 - Uhuru (unauthorised)
- 1992 - The WarriorThe Warrior (Osibisa album)The Warrior is an unauthorized compilation album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1992 by Soundwings Records MC-102.1075-2 and distributed by Serenade S.A., Barcelona, Spain.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Teddy Osei - Saxophone...
(unauthorised) - 1992 - Ayiko BiaAyiko BiaAyiko Bia is an unauthorized compilation album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1992 by Soundwings Records and distributed by Serenade S.A., Barcelona, Spain.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Teddy Osei - Saxophone...
(unauthorised) - 1992 - JamboJambo (Osibisa album)Jambo is an unauthorized compilation album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1992 by Soundwings Records and distributed by Serenade S.A., Barcelona, Spain....
(unauthorised) - 1992 - Gold
- 1992 - Criss Cross Rhythms
- 1994 - Celebration: The Best of Osibisa
- 1994 - The Very Best of Osibisa
- 1997 - MonsoreMonsoreMonsore is an album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1997 by AIM Records under license by Red Steel Music Ltd. Their particular sound now incorporates new world-fusion elements on this fascinating studio recording.-Track listing:...
- 1997 - Hot Flashback Volume 1
- 1997 - Sunshine Day: The Very Best of Osibisa
- 1997 - The Ultimate CollectionThe Ultimate Collection (Osibisa album)The Ultimate Collection is a 2-CD compilation by British Afro-pop band Osibisa with studio and live versions of songs from their previous albums...
(2 CDsCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
) - 1998 - Live At Cropredy
- 1999 - The Best of Osibisa
- 2001 - Aka Kakra (Acoustic Live)
- 2001 - Best of V.1
- 2001 - The Very Best of OsibisaThe Very Best of OsibisaThe Very Best of Osibisa is a 3-CD set unauthorised compilation bringing together three Osibisa's albums: Uhuru, The Warrior and Africa We Go Go, released in 2001 by Prestige Records under catalog #205886-349...
(3 CDsCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
) - 2002 - Millennium Collection
- 2002 - Best of Osibisa
- 2003 - African Dawn, African Flight
- 2004 - Wango Wango
- 2005 - Blue Black Night (Live) (2 CDsCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
) - 2008 - Selected Works
- 2008 - Sunshine Day: The Hits
- 2009 - Osee YeeOsee YeeOsee Yee is a studio album by British Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 2009 by Golden Stool Records – GSTOCD 002. Includes a nice rendition of George Harrison's My Sweet Lord that's given an Osibisa funk spin...
- 2009 - The Very Best of Osibisa
Note - Although the title of the second album is conventionally spelled Woyaya, the actual title is Wכyaya (with a backwards-c)
Singles
- 1971 - "Music for Gong Gong"
- 1972 - "Wango Wango"
- 1972 - "Ana Bo 1"
- 1972 - "Move On"
- 1973 - "Prophets"
- 1973 - "Happy Children"
- 1974 - "Adwoa"
- 1974 - "Who's Got The Paper"
- 1975 - "The Warrior"
- 1975 - "Sunshine Day"
- 1976 - "Black Ant"
- 1976 - "Dance the Body Music"
- 1976 - "The Coffee Song"
- 1977 - "The Warrior"
- 1977 - "Black Out"
- 1978 - "Living Loving Feeling"
- 1980 - "Jumbo"
- 1980 - "Celebration"
- 1980 - "Oreba"
- 1980 - "I Feel Pata Pata"
- 1982 - "Move Your Body"
- 1985 - "Wooly Bully"
- 1996 - "Sunshine Day (radio edit)"
- 1997 - "Dance The Body Music"
Video
- 1983 - Warrior (VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
) (recorded 5 April 1983 at the Marquee Club, London) - 2003 - Osibisa - Live (DVD Plus) (same show as above)
Literature
- Charles Aniagolu: Osibisa - Living In The State Of Happy Vibes And Criss Cross Rhythms. Victoria (CDN): Trafford Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1412021065.
- 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.