In
Ghana in the 1950s,
Teddy Osei (saxophone),
Sol Amarfio (drums), Mamon Shareef, and Farhan Freere (
flute) played in a
highlife band called The Star Gazers. They left to form the Comets, with Osei's brother Mac Tontoh on trumpet, and scored a hit in West Africa with their 1958 song "(I Feel) Pata Pata". Joining the three Ghanaians in the first incarnation were Antiguan Wendell (Dell) Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist), Nigerian Lasisi Amao (percussionist and
tenor saxophone), In 1980, Osibisa performed at a special Zimbabwean independence celebration, and in 1983 were filmed onstage at the
Marquee Club in London but by this time were a distant version of the original band. Osibisa had an important series of gigs in India in 1981, culminating in the release of the
Unleashed – Live in India album. The band engaged in a return to India, performing at the November Fest 2010 on 28 November 2010, at the Corporation Kalaiarangam in
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Changes in the music industry meant declining sales for the band, and a series of label changes resulted. Some of the band returned to Ghana to set up a recording studio and theatre complex to help younger highlife musicians. In the 1990s, their music was anthologised in many CD collections, with some of them allegedly unauthorised and paying no royalties to the band. However, this has been disputed by Osei, who, along with Amarfio and Tontoh, ran the band from the 1980s onwards. In the early 1990s, Osei regrouped the band, and many of their past recordings released legally on CD. This included a remaster series with bonus material and hitherto unreleased material and live concerts on the Red Steel / Flying Elephant label collaboration. Osei regrouped a version of the band in 1994 after commencing work with two UK labels:
Castle Communications (who had the licensing rights to the
Buddah catalogue and some of the
Bronze Records catalogue) and Red Steel Music, who specialised in remastering and reissuing albums on CD. With a new producer and label behind him, Osei progressed to record new material, culminating in the 1995 release of
Monsore, the band's first album of new material since the late 1980s
Movements album. The revitalised band with Osei at the helm commenced touring and recording, until Osei's stroke some fifteen years later. Osei cut back his touring schedule due to the effects of his illness but still continued to record until 2018. Various new recording and release projects were carried out from the mid-1990s onwards with remastered, remixed and re-recorded projects seeing the light of day. This included previously unreleased material from the
African Flight period, the incomplete follow-up which had a working title of
African Dawn, live projects including
Live at Cropredy (the bands first live album in fifteen years) followed by the semi acoustic live offering recorded at London's famous
Jazz Cafe,
Aka Ka Kra. Work commenced on more studio material that remains unissued to this day. A new studio album,
Osee Yee, was released in 2009. After the removal of personnel by Osei in 2014/15, a new recording project with Osei at the helm commenced in late 2015, shortly after the successful placement of material that was chosen for
Richard Linklater's film
Boyhood. However, apart from one track included on the band's 2020
Sunshine Day: The Boyhood Sessions album, the recordings featuring Osei remain unreleased. Recent announcements from the Osei’s management and the band indicate these tracks will make an appearance in 2025 along with an album of previously unreleased material from earlier years that Osei had started work on in 2016. Ace Ghanaian
hip-hop music producer
Hammer of The Last Two stated that his debut production,
Obrafour's
Pae Mu Ka album, which is the highest selling
hiplife album to date, was inspired by Osibisa's song "Welcome Home." He also had the chance to work with
Kiki Gyan a few days before his death. On 13 December 2022, drummer and founding member
Sol Amarfio died at the age of 84. In June 2023, long-time Osibisa bass player, sometimes keyboard player and producer Victor Mensah died at the age of 66, after a protracted illness. Founding member
Teddy Osei, singer,
saxophonist and drummer, died on 14 January 2025 in
London. He was 87. ==Artistry==