1976 Ebo Taylor “My Love And Music” on Gapophone

Ebow deRoy Taylor was the king of Ghana, literally and metaphorically. Leader of The Black Star Band, collaborator with Fela and Pat Thomas, the man writing, composing, and slinging guitar over decades of slamming the beat into afrobeat, easing the life in highlife. This is more or less his first slab as leader, and it’s absurdly great - a combo of lushly vibratory Ghanian rhythms with a touch of soul, pop, and YES, reggae.

​Which is fortunate as apparently less than 1000 of the OG press survived, due to the dictatorial machinations of the “government” at the time. It’s pretty hilarious how such autocratic/fascist oppressors come and go, their diktats ignored or rebuked, their names long forgotten in history and graves shat upon by lowly beasts, but the music they attempted to contain flourishes all the more widely. It’s an idea worth remembering during the next long three years under the thumb of a man too imbecilic to actually be a dictator, but able to convincingly portray one behind a clown’s red tie. Hey, we don’t mix music and politics here at Castle Wax, except in the general sense of all music, particularly jazz, being inseparably political. Anyway, I LOVE Ebo Taylor and this album is worth its weight in, as Fela would say, in the Coffin For Head Of State.