Vinyl Vault: Osibisa, “Happy Children” & “Ojah Awake”
On the next Vinyl Vault, we’ll hear some music from Ghana from the band Osibisa. We’ll hear tracks from two Osibisa albums, “Happy Children” from 1973 and “Ojah Awake” from 1976. Featuring these albums is particularly timely because one of the leaders of the band, Teddy Osei passed away on January 14, 2025, at the age of 88.
“Osibisa” means “highlife” in a Ghanaian dialect. “Highlife,” in turn, is the name of a popular form of Ghanaian dance music that first came to prominence in the early 20th Century. Highlife was a prominent influence in Osibisa’s music, but the band also drew from many other forms such as jazz, soul, blues, rock, Latin, reggae, and calypso, among others. It’s very rhythmic music and is unmistakably African. The band began recording in the early 1970s and continued until as recently as 2021.
Join Geoff Anderson for some infectious beats on the next Vinyl Vault on Tuesday, February 4 at 8:30 p.m. on KUVO JAZZ.
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