This week the Ghanian musician Ebo Taylor died at 90 years old. While he was not well known in the U.S. he was a star in Africa, and a defining force in highlife music.
(SOUNDBITE OF EBO TAYLOR SONG, “ABOA KYIRBIN”)
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
This week, the world lost a legend of African music. The Ghanaian musician Ebo Taylor has died. He was 90 years old, and since the 1950s, he was a defining force and sound behind highlife music.
(SOUNDBITE OF EBO TAYLOR SONG, “ABOA KYIRBIN”)
ADRIAN YOUNGE: Highlife music is something that – it’s danceable music. It’s very melodic. But an easier way to describe it is it’s kind of like the funk, soulful precursor to Afrobeat.
CHANG: Adrian Younge is a musician and producer based in Los Angeles. He cofounded the Jazz Is Dead record label and produced some of Taylor’s music. Highlife in Ghana became the soundtrack to post-colonial Africa when the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE AND DEATH”)
EBO TAYLOR: (Singing) Brothers and sisters…
CHANG: Songs like “Love And Death” could be heard in bars all over West Africa.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE AND DEATH”)
TAYLOR: (Singing) Listen to my story.
CHANG: And while Ebo Taylor was a star across Africa, highlife and Afrobeat didn’t really pick up in the U.S. until the early 2000s. He spoke about that shift in 2013 at Afro-Latino Fest in Belgium.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TAYLOR: The biggest change in music is that African music is now in focus, and people are more interested in African music than before.
CHANG: Taylor played his first show in the U.S. in 2022, when Younge brought him to Los Angeles to record.
YOUNGE: As soon as the flyer went up on our Instagram, man, it blew up, and then tickets were selling out from Chicago to New York.
CHANG: The Jazz Is Dead label released an album of original music with Taylor in 2025. Much of it was improvised on the spot by Taylor, his sons and Younge. And it was the last album that Taylor recorded.
(SOUNDBITE OF EBO TAYLOR, ET AL. SONG, “NSA A W’OANYE EDWUMA, ONDZIDZI”)
YOUNGE: And he’s sitting there, like, singing and just bobbing his head and kind of getting crazy with the music. And I’m like, he’s 90 years old, and it’s making him feel like that.
CHANG: Taylor was creating music until nearly the end of his life.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TAYLOR: Music does not stop. You know, I don’t know where we’re going next, but I will still be playing.
CHANG: Taylor’s son announced his father’s death on Sunday, writing, quote, “Dad, your light will never fade.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSA A W’OANYE EDWUMA, ONDZIDZI”)
TAYLOR: (Singing in non-English language).
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
