Solomon Amarki Amarfio, a world-class drummer and founding member of the Osibisa band has reportedly passed on.
He died Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at age 84. Sports journalist, Yaw Ofosu who confirmed the sad incident tweeted, “Sol Amarfio. Master drummer, songwriter, composer and a member of the legendary Osibisa band! Rest in peace.”
His death is yet another blow to Osibisa which has lost other talented members as Kiki Gyan and Mac Tontoh
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.