Another founding member of the Osibisa band is dead

A world-class drummer and founding member of the Osibisa band, Solomon Amarki Amarfio has been reported dead.

The news broke out on social media on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.

Unclear what led to his death, news of the 84-year-old musician was shared on Twitter by a popular sports journalist, Yaw Ofosu.

“Sol Amarfio. Master drummer, songwriter, composer and a member of the legendary Osibisa band! Rest in peace,” the tweet wrote.

It can be recalled that in 2004, Kiki Gyan, a member of the Osibisa band who once held the title of the world’s greatest keyboard player died from a long battle with drug addiction, per reports.

A founding member, Mac Tonto also died in 2010 after battling an intense stroke, according to family reports at that time.

Osibisa is a Ghanaian Afro-Rock band, founded in London in 1969 by four expatriate African and three Caribbean musicians. Their music is a fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, funk, rock, Latin, R&B, and highlife and it also played a central role in developing an awareness of African music among European and North American audiences in the 70s.

The Ghanaian founding members of Osibisa; Teddy Osei, Sol Amarfio (drums), and Mac Tontoh, Teddy’s brother, were seasoned members of the Accra highlife scene before they moved to London to launch their attack on the world stage.

Osibisa was the most successful and longest-lived of the African-heritage bands in London, alongside such contemporaries as Assagai, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Demon Fuzz, and Noir, and were largely responsible for the establishment of world music as a marketable genre.

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