Solomon Amarki Amarfio, a founding member and drummer of the Osibisa Band has reportedly passed away.
The news broke out on social media on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Uncertain as to what caused his death, the 84-year-old musician’s death was announced on Twitter by sport journalist, Yaw Ofosu, journalist.
“Sol Amarfio. Master drummer, songwriter, composer and a member of the legendary Osibisa band! Rest in peace,” the tweet wrote.
Another founding member, Mac Tonto, 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 prominent 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.
