Osibisa

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.[2] 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."[2] 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.[2]

Joining them in the first incarnation were Grenadian Spartacus R (bass); Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboard); Antiguan Wendell Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist); and Nigerians Mike Odumosu and Fred Coker (bass guitar) and Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone).[2] 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.

Changes in the music industry however (punk and disco 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 anthologised in many CD collections, most of them unauthorised and paying no royalties whatsoever to the band.

In 1996 Osei reformed the band, and many of their past releases began coming out legally on CD. The revitalised band remains active, 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 November 2010 at the Corporation Kalaiarangam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.[3]

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.[4][5] Their style influenced many of the emerging African musicians of the time and even now, as Ace Ghanaian hip-hop music producer Hammer of The Last Two stated that his debut production, Obrafour's Pae Mu Ka album, the highest selling hiplife album to date was inspired by a single song ("Welcome Home") by Osibisa. He also had the chance to work with Kiki Gyan a few days before his death.

Following the death of keyboardist Kiki Djan, his daughter Vanessa Sullivan Djan, in an interview she granted a local newspaper RazzPaper, stated “They betrayed him! If I’m your friend and I’m into some form of immorality and you watch me go on with it till I crush, that is a form of betrayal! Kiki wrote many songs when he was part of Osibisa but they never gave him credit for that. That was another betrayal”.[6] Teddy Osei, who refuted the reports said in an interview with Let’s Talk Entertainment (LTE) on JoyNews on MultiTV, the group took care of Kiki, who joined the band at age 18, until his death in 2004.[7]

• Saxophone: Teddy Osei (1937– )
• Trumpet: Mac Tontoh (born Kweku Adabanka Tonto, 1940–2010),[8][9] Colin Graham,[10] Kenny Wellington
• Flute: Abdul Loughty Lasisi Amao ( –1988)[11]
• Trombone: Abdul Remiola
• Percussion, congas: Kofi Ayivor, Nii Tagoe, Darko Adams 'Daku' Potato (1932–1995), Dinesh Pandit
• Drums: Solomon "Sol" Amarfio (1938– ), KB, Frank Tontoh, Remi Kabaka, Robert Fordjour
• Keyboards: Robert Bailey, Bessa Simons, Kwame Yeboah (1977– ), Chris Jerome, Emmanuel Rentzos, Errol Reid, Kiki Gyan (a.k.a. Kiki Djan 1957–2004), Jean Rousell
• Guitars: Kari Bannerman, Gregg Kofi Brown, Wendell "Dell" Richardson, Tony Etoria, Paul Golly ( –1977), Gordon Hunte, Kwame Yeboah (1977– ), Jake Solo, Robert Abia Moore, Matola, Winston Delandro
• Bass guitar: Spartacus R (born Roy Bedeau, 1948–2010), Mike Odumosu, Fred Coker, Victor Mensah, Herman Asafo-Agyei, Gregg Kofi Brown, Jean-Karl Dikoto Mandengue (1948– ), Abia Moore, Dino Walcott
• Vocals: Gregg Kofi Brown, Teddy Osei, Emmanuel Rentzos, Wendell Richardson, Pamela Carter, Desiree Heslop

• 1983 – Warrior (VHS) (recorded 5 April 1983 at the Marquee Club, London)
• 2003 – Osibisa – Live (DVD Plus) (same show as above)
• 2012 – Live from the Marquee Club (same show as above)

• 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.

• Osibisa – official site
• Osibisa discography at Discogs
• Osibisa live reviews
• Osibisa at IMDb