Music > Live Reviews

Ebo Taylor

20/10/14

This was one of those rare nights when you can actually say the artist you are going to see is a living legend. In the case of Ebo Taylor he may not be especially well known in the UK, but in his native Ghana the septuagenarian Afrobeat and Highlife star is a household name. It’s fair to say though that thanks to the tireless efforts of our very own Keith Slater on Future Radio’s Boiling Point show he’s better known in Norwich than in many other parts of the country. No surprise then that despite the gig falling on a Monday night, the turnout was very respectable.

The band launched into the first song and within minutes the keyboard player was out front showing off his impressive, energetic moves. I’m not sure how impressed he was by the low key response he got, but if anything they almost started in too high a gear. Ebo was all smiles and his voice was very strong and clear and by the end of the third song the band had hit their stride and the audience was starting to really warm up. Ebo’s seven piece band was absolutely brilliant, filled with talented players and in the percussionist I witnessed probably the happiest man alive, clearly he loves his work.

Ebo himself took some time out during the odd song. When I nipped out for a refill and returned through the side door, there he was standing on the ramp at the back of the hall! He also sat on the drum riser so clearly he hasn’t quite got the energy he had in his younger days. The music mostly followed the Afrobeat tradition of having some vocal at the beginning of the tune then a lengthy instrumental jam with solos from the various musicians. Massive funk tunes basically. By the end of the main set everyone was completely into the show and it felt like we could have gone on for hours. For an encore Ebo returned to perform an almost solo rendition of a traditional Highlife piece before his band came back to end with a version of probably his best known song ‘Heaven’.

It’s thanks to some of the many excellent reissue compilations that have been released in recent years (‘Ghana Soundz’ &’ Afrobeat Airways’ spring to mind) that the turnout was so impressive and after some unsubtle prompting from Ebo and the band as soon as the gig ended there was a crowd at the front of the stage snapping up vinyl and CDs. Yet another brilliant night at the Norwich Arts Centre and as I left the venue 78 year old Ebo Taylor was still signing records and posing for photos with fans.