“OSIBISA” this is another of my favorite you will want to ask
me if I have seen the band performed? Yes Osibisa performed live at FESTAC 77 yes I
was there at the national art theater Igamu Lagos
I advise our young Nigerian Musicians to emulate Osibisa,
the costume, the stage orientation, the fusion of African music into western Rhyme
and the true African flavor in Osibisa
Osibisa are a British Afro-pop band, founded in London in
1969 by four expatriate African and three Caribbean musicians. Their music is a
fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, funk, rock, Latin, and R&B. Osibisa
were one of the first African-heritage bands to become widely popular and
linked with the world music description.
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
"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
Spartacus R (bass); Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboard); Antiguan Wendell
Richardson (lead guitar); and Nigerians Mike Odumosu and Fred Coker (bass
guitar) and Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone) 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 (guitar) and Ghanaians Daku
Adams 'Potato' and Kiki Gyan were also members of the band. In 1980 Osibisa
performed at a special Zimbabwean independence celebration, and in 1983 were
filmed onstage at the Marquee Club in London
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
