Ebo Taylor

• Palaver [Precision, 2019] B+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Palaver [Precision, 2019]
Now in his eighties, guitarist Taylor was one of Ghanaian highlife's conceptual dynamos in the early Colonel Jerry Rawlings years. On this five-track, half-hour album from half a lifetime ago, he generates the kind of elation Kwame Nkrumah's independence was supposed to bestow permanently on their nation in 1957. Yet all three of the English lyrics also subtly address the contradictions of Rawlings's one-man rule, which there was no point pretending weren't there--"Palaver" about empty talk, "Make You No Mind" about hustling for money, "Help Africa" a plea perpetually denied. American songwriters! Study these songs and do likewise for our own needy nation! If all you can do is the least you can do, at least you will have tried. B+