Osibisa is a Ghanaian‑Caribbean Afro‑rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African musicians and three London‑based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa was the most successful and longest‑lived of the African‑heritage bands in London, alongside contemporaries such as Assagai, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Demon Fuzz, Black Velvet and Noir. The group was largely responsible for establishing world music and Afro‑rock as marketable genres. The original band featured on the first three studio albums was universally known as the “Beautiful Seven”, also the title of a song on their album Woyaya. 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. 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”. 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, Osei persuaded Amarfio and Tontoh to join him in London, and Osibisa was formed. The name Osibisa was described in lyrics, album notes and interviews as meaning “criss‑cross rhythms that explode with happiness”, but it actually derives from osibisaba, the Fante word for highlife. Joining the three Ghanaians in the first incarnation were: Wendell (Dell) Richardson (Antigua) — lead guitar, lead vocals, Lasisi Amao (Nigeria) — percussion, tenor saxophone, Roger Bedeau (Spartacus R) (Grenada) — bass, Robert Bailey (Trinidad) — keyboards. Later replacements included Nigerian musicians Fred Coker and Mike Odumosu on bass guitar.
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Sunshine Day
The Coffee Song
Like it is
Woyaya (live in Greece 1995)
Flying Bird
Seaside / Meditation
Right Now
Choboi (Heave Ho)
Densu
Welcome Home
The Warrior
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