Osibisa founding member and singer Teddy Osei dead at 88

Teddy Osei onstage in 1974 (Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns)

Afro-rock band Osibisa have confirmed that founding member, singer and saxophonist Teddy Osei has died aged 88.

In a statement on their Facebook page, the band said: "The members of Osibisa, and the band’s management, are deeply saddened by the death today of their dear client and friend Francis ‘Teddy‘ Osei.

"Known the world over as the leader and founder of Osibisa, the groundbreaking Afro-Rock band, he was a talented and passionate, man, musician, and mentor to many. A talented saxophone player, drummer and vocalist, Teddy found success but also fulfilment with his bands, most notably Osibisa.

"His was an important voice in music and culture, and he will be missed, but never forgotten."

With Osibisa, Ghanaian-born Osei was instrumental in introducing white music audiences to Africa's infectious Afro-beat sound, finding favour with progressive rock fans for their first few albums in the early 1970s.

A young Roger Dean created the band's distinctive logo several years before he designed the famous bubble logo for Yes, and also designed the covers for the band's first two studio albums, 1970's Osibisa and 1971's Woyaya, both of which featured his unique flying elephant artwork.

The band had their biggest UK hit with 1975's Sunshine Day (from that year's Welcome Home album) which reached No. 17 and also featured in Richard Linklater's 2014 Academy Award-winning film Boyhood.

Born Francis Osei in 1939 in Kumasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, and named after Ashanti King Osei Tutu, the young Osei thrived in a musical environment at home. At college he taught himself saxophone by listening to jazz records, when the intended saxophonist in a band he was trying to form failed to show up for rehearsals.

Having achieved some success. Ghana with his band the Comets, Osei left for London in 1962, studying music and drama on a grant from the Ghanaian government and forming soul outfit Cat's Paw. In 1969, along with his brother Mac Tontoh and Sol Amarfio from Cat's Paw, Osei formed Osibisa, joined by Antiguan Wendell (Dell) Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist), Nigerian Lasisi Amao (percussionist), Grenadian Roger Bedeau, also known as Spartacus R (bass), and Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboards).

The band's early success waned as the 1980s dawned but the band continued to tour and record. Osei suffered a stroke in 2010 and was forced to cut back on touring but remained active in the studio.

In 2020 the band released Sunshine Day: The Boyhood Sessions – capitalising on the Linklater connection – and in 2021 they released a new studio album, New Dawn, which saw Osei and fellow founding member Robert Bailey working together once again, alongside long-standing member Gregg Kofi Brown.

Drummer and founding member Sol Amarfio died at the age of 84 in December 2022.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.