It may be easy to take the current massive impact of African music on the global stage for granted without reckoning with the contribution of the forerunners who decades ago opened the world’s eyes and ears to the rhythms of the continent.
Among the iconic pioneers of contemporary African music is a band that was the brainchild of a group of Ghanaian musicians in the early 1970s and took the world by storm with an electrifying hybrid of their country’s highlife grooves, Caribbean sounds, jazz, funk and soul.
The death of Osibisa’s charismatic bandleader Teddy Osei at the age of 88 in London on January 14, 2025 is the end of an era for a generation that broke the barriers for African music and laid the foundation for the continent’s stars shining on the biggest platforms in the world today.
The drummer, saxophonist, flutist and vocalist led the group through a golden age when their music hit the world’s major music charts, a rarity for African musicians in the 1970s and 80s
As Osibisa’s biographer Charles Aniagolu writes: “they were the first band to put Afro-rock on the music map…. their songs contained a message that we held close to our hearts- the dream of a glorious continent with dazzling colours where everyone is happy.”
The combination of a spellbinding fusion of thumping rhythms, fiery percussions, dynamic stage performances and colourful costumes was a novelty that wowed fans the world over.
Francis “Teddy” Osei was born in December, 1937, in Kumasi, Ghana the second child in a family of seven children, and was named after the 19th century King Osei Tutu, one of the founders of the Ashanti Empire
Osei developed a love for the saxophone by listening to highlife, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, soul and calypso records while training as a draftsman in the Ghanian port city of Sekondi. His first band was an amateur outfit called The Blue Jewels and after completing college he founded The Comets.
In 1962 he received a government scholarship to study music and drama in the UK where he perfected his musical skills and formed a band called Cat’s Paw which played the hotel circuit in Tunisia before touring across Europe.
On his return to London in 1969, Osei and his younger brother, trumpeter, Mac Tontoh and drummer Sol Amarfio, formed Osibisa (derived from the word for a popular dance and rhythm, osibisaba, in the Fante dialect).
They were joined by Nigerian saxophonist, Loughty Amao, and three London- based Caribbean musicians, bassist Spartacus R, keyboardist Robert Bailey and guitarist Wendell Richardson. Another Ghanaian percussionist Darko Adams “Potato” completed the group.
They famously branded their music as “crisscross rhythms that explode with happiness”. As the leading British music publication Melody Maker wrote: “…they made a point of being unclassifiable, blending highlife, jazz, rock, blues, soul, jazz and above all, their African heritage.”
They were an influence on their contemporaries: Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, and Manu Dibango. (Legendary Kenyan saxophonist Teddy Kalanda dropped his original name Shadrack and became Teddy, as an honour to his hero Osei)
In 1970 while Osibisa was performing at the Imperial College, London in London, American icon Stevie Wonder joined them on stage and jammed with the band on three songs.
On his recommendation, the boss of MCA Records flew to London to check them out and signed the band to a five-year deal.
Osibisa band members.
Photo credit: Osibisa Band
American Tony Visconti, who had worked with David Bowie, was enlisted to produce Osibisa’s self-titled debut album. The masterpiece which included The Dawn, the delightful instrumental music for Gong Gong, Oranges and Phallus C, hit the top 10 UK charts and sold over 500,000 copies in less than a year.
Osibisa was competing for chart positions with pop superstars like Elton John, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. They performed on the BBC chart show Top of the Pops and were the first black band invited to perform at the elite UK school, Eton College.
“We were always getting invited because everyone wanted to be seen with those happy Africans – us,” Teddy Osei told the band’s biographer.
Osibisa’s fame spread beyond the British Isles to continental Europe and eventually America where they became the first African group to achieve gold-record status with sales of more than 500,000 copies of their debut album.
Their follow up album Woyaya, also produced by Visconti, was released in 1971 and for the next decade the band were on a rollercoaster, touring the world and recording prolifically.
They had a string of hits, notably the 1975 album Welcome Home, which contained their most successful chart single, Sunshine Day.
The band’s logo of a flying elephant designed by English artist Roger Dean which stood out on all their album sleeves remains iconic among fans of the group.
Osibisa commanded a huge fan base in Kenya in their heyday, with their sold out concerts in Nairobi and Mombasa in the early 1980s attracting throngs of fans, who resonated with the band’s authentic style.
Despite the debilitating effects of a stroke in 2015 and frequent personnel changes in the group, Teddy Osei remined a constant in Osibisa through five decades of happy music and good vibes.