The African and global music communities are in mourning following the passing of Ebo Taylor, the legendary Ghanaian guitarist, composer, and architect of modern highlife and Afrobeat. Uncle Ebo, as he was affectionately known, passed away in the early hours of Saturday, February 7, 2026, at Saltpond Hospital in Ghana.
His death is particularly poignant as it occurred exactly one month after his 90th birthday and just one day after the soft launch of EboFest, a festival in Accra dedicated to celebrating his monumental seven-decade legacy.
Taylor was a pivotal figure in the evolution of West African music. In the early 1960s, while studying at the Eric Gilder School of Music in London, he formed a deep bond and musical partnership with Fela Kuti. Together, they jammed and experimented, blending traditional highlife with jazz and funk—a collaboration that helped birth the Afrobeat genre. While Fela became the face of the movement, Taylor remained its master craftsman, producing and arranging for icons like Pat Thomas and C.K. Mann, and releasing timeless albums such as Love and Death.
Even in his final year, Taylor remained remarkably active, releasing his final album through the Jazz Is Dead series in 2025 and continuing to inspire new generations of artists like The Cavemen and Stonebwoy.
