Osibisa

After touring all of West Africa, I went to Europe, playing first in nightclubs in Italy. Then I toured the Middle East and Southeast Asia with a Turkish belly dancer, Princess Amina, learning local rhythms along the way. Then I settled in Sweden, playing with my own band, the Modern Sounds. We did jazz and classical music. I did some film music for Ingmar Bergman and played timpani for a Swedish classical orchestra and sat in with visiting American jazz-musicians. Then in 1973 I became a member of Osibisa, an Afro-rock band made up of Ghanaians and West Indians living in London. We had a string of successful records, mixing African rhythms and Western chord progressions. All this time, especially on our United States tour, I began to critically examine the difference between our native African music and the element of it that had been incorporated into popular Western music. And so my search began to find a modern African sound. I feel I can play a popular music more directly based on my African roots.

Kofi Ayivor