Shigeto releases new album, Cherry Blossom Baby, with focus track, Nothing Simple...

The Michigan-born drummer, producer and DJ's new album honors traditions in electronic, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop. A celebration of scene vitality rooted in Detroit's new wave, including guests such as Zelooperz, KESSWA, Ahya Simone, Tammy Lakkis, and more.

“Cherry blossoms remind me of my mother and grandmother's steadfast nature to look towards the light and the strength in 'acting as one'. The cherry blossom trees that bloom every spring in Hiroshima are an enduring image of hope, resilience, and renewal. Even through the most turbulent of times. Cherry Blossom Baby was literally ‘impossible’ to make without every single person involved. It started in 2018 and was finished in 2024. A manifestation of our shared experiences of pain, struggle, hope and growth over the past 6 years and a true testament to the power of ‘togetherness’." - Shigeto

Cherry Blossom Baby, Shigeto's first full-length statement since 2017, sprouts out from a collective thaw, ambitious, collaborative, and fully realized. The Detroit-based, Japanese-American musician, DJ, Portage Garage Sounds label co-founder, and long-time Ghostly International artist embraces the role of producer and composer. Bold and cultivated with intention, the band-built sound honors traditions in electronic, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop, a fusion that's become his signature, now more vibrant than ever. Zach Saginaw and a group of guests and players present a snapshot in time, a celebration of self-love and an expression of vitality distinctly rooted in Detroit and informed by his family’s cultural history.

"I am a cherry blossom baby," he says. "We all are cherry blossom babies, we all are resilient, we all are growing, we all will continue to."

Unfortunately, the Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas tour will be postponed. We apologize for any frustration this may cause. There are issues obtaining visas for many travelers worldwide and believe we will have this completely sorted by the the new concert dates.

Ebo Taylor and his family have decided to make this tour his official farewell to the Americas. This will be our final opportunity to honor the legendary maestro, the pioneer of highlife and father of Afrobeat, and give him his flowers.

If you've already purchased tickets - Your current tickets remain valid for the new date, and no further action is required—just hang on to them! If you have any questions or need assistance with ticket options, feel free to reach out to your point of purchase.

If you have not yet purchased tickets, please see dates and cities below. We would love for you to join us and be a part of this very historic moment when Ebo Taylor, one of Africa's most influential, artists, says his farewell to the Americas.

Ebo Taylor Bio

Born in 1936, Ghanaian guitarist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and producer Ebo Taylor has been a vital presence in African music for more than half-a-century. During the early '60s, he was active in the influential highlife bands the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band whose singles were mainstays on national radio. In 1962 he took his Black Star Highlife Band to London and collaborated with other African musicians who were also in Britain at the time, including Fela Kuti. Back in Ghana, he worked as an influential producer, crafting recordings for Pat Thomas (his future collaborator) and C.K. Mann, among many others. During the '70s, his own musical projects combined traditional Ghanaian music with Afro-beat, jazz, and funk, creating a trademark sound as evidenced by the albums Ebo Taylor & the Pelikans (1976) and Twer Nyame (1978). In the '80s, albums such as Conflict Nkru! and Hitsville Re-Visited (co-billed to Thomas) by his Uhuru-Yenzu band delivered a rawer, more immediate sound. Over the next two decades, Taylor was a noted producer, arranger, and composer, working with Thomas, Mann, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Kofi Yankson, and dozens of others. He returned to performing live in the early 21st century after hip-hop producers began sampling his work. Soundways Records released the compilation Ghana Special. In 2010, Strut Records released Love and Death, his first internationally distributed album, followed by a series of catalog reissues and all-new recordings including 2018's Yen Ara.

Taylor was born in Ghana and grew up on the sounds of the wartime big bands. His father nudged him into music, by encouraging his son to learn to play the family organ. He caught the music bug and began studying guitar in school, coming under the sway of the emergent highlife movement. He would soon lead his first group, an eight-piece band named the Stargazers. In 1962, he departed his native Ghana for London to study at the London Eric Gilder School of Music. He explored jazz, funk, and soul alongside fellow student Fela Kuti and future Osibisa bandmembers Teddy Osei and Sol Amarfio. They indulged in endless jam sessions in jazz clubs off Oxford Street, after which Fela would often join Taylor in his flat in Willesden Junction. They would listen to jazz records for hours, analyzing the structure and chord progressions of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. During his time abroad, Taylor founded the Black Star Highlife Band, which showcased one of his greatest contributions to highlife: His jazz-inspired horn arrangements.

After returning to Ghana, Taylor became an in-house arranger and producer for labels like Essiebons, working with other leading Ghanaian stars including Mann and Thomas. He was paid to write for them, play guitar on sessions, and supervise recordings. From the '70s through the '80s, Taylor cut a host of his own solo albums that offered idiosyncratic but very popular fusions of traditional Ghanaian sounds, Afrobeat, jazz, soul, and funk on albums such as My Love and Music, Twer Nyame, and Me Kra Tsie. His single "Heaven" from this period stands among the most revered Ghanaian Afrobeat tunes of the era. Taylor formed Uhuru-Yenzu in 1980 and released the albums Conflict Nkru! Nsamanfo: People's Highlife, Vol. 1, and Hitsville Re-Visited (the latter co-billed to Thomas). After the album Pat Thomas & Ebo Taylor in 1984, the guitarist stopped recording and touring and focused instead on producing, arranging, and composing for dozens of other artists.

In 2008, Taylor met the Berlin-based musicians of the Berlin Afrobeat Academy, including saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. A year later, Usher sampled "Heaven" for his hit "She Don’t Know" (feat. Ludacris). In 2010, Taylor teamed with Berlin Afrobeat Academy for Love and Death on Strut Records, his first internationally distributed album. It offered re-recordings of his highlife and Afrobeat hits. Its success prompted Strut to issue the stellar retrospective Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980 in the spring of 2011. In 2012, a third Strutalbum, the deeply personal Appia Kwa Bridge, appeared and showed that at 76, Taylor was still intensely creative and forceful, mixing traditional Fante songs and chants with children's rhymes and personal matters into his own sharp vision of highlife. 

That record marked the beginning of a popular renaissance for Taylor around the world. Early singles and other tracks appeared on several compilations over the next few years, and in 2015, his rarest album, Ebo Taylor & the Pelikans, got the grand reissue treatment. His early hit, the Ghana funk anthem "Come Along," made DJ playlists globally. In February 2016, at age 80, he opened the MOGO Festival's Nights with Music Greats. The gig proved to be a precursor for the deluxe reissue of his 1975 album, My Love and Music, on Mr. Bongo. In 2018, Taylor issued the album Yen Ara that saw him translating various strains of Fante music through contemporary Ghanaian highlife and experimenting with new rhythmic forms through horn-dominated compositions. At age 82, he supported it with a world tour. The following year, Mr. Bongo reissued Hitsville Re-Visited in May, while BBE Music released the Palaver album in September, that contained five unissued tracks from a (previously unknown) lost 1980 session. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

Pat Thomas Bio

Pat Thomas is a Ghanaian vocalist and songwriter famed for his work in the highlife bands of Ebo Taylor and his own recordings of Afrobeat and Afro-pop.

Born in Agona, in the Ashanti region, Thomas had music almost literally in his DNA, his father was a music theory instructor and his mother a bandleader. In the 1970s, he moved to Accra to join Ebo Taylor's legendary highlife band The Blue Monks; their residency at the Tip Toe Night Club is an important part of modern Ghanaian cultural history. In the later years he moved to the Ivory Coast and produced various records in Afro-beat, Afro-Latin sounds and reggae melded to funky African disco.

In 1982, he moved to London, U.K and recorded Hitsville Revisited with Taylor and the guitarist's band, Uhuru Yenzu. Thomas's first hit outside Africa was 'Asanteman' in 1985. He followed it with Highlife Greats Mbrepa a year later. In June 2015, the U.K. label Strut released his first recording in over a decade. Dubbed Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band, it was recorded in Accra. It placed the singer in the company of a band assembled by multi-instrumentalist Kwame Yeboah and saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. Other musicians included drummer Tony Allen, Noble Kings' bassist Ralph Karikari, and a host of younger players including Thomas' daughter Nanaaya, a celebrated vocalist in her own right.

For the first time in the US, Gyedu Blay Ambolley will be performing his 1975 debut album Simigwa in its entirety! Bringing his 8 piece band from Ghana, they will perform the pioneering masterpiece.

Gyedu Blay Ambolley is a musical luminary hailing from Ghana, West Africa, with a staggering 29 albums under his belt. Known affectionately as the "Simigwa Do Man,” Ambolley’s musical journey began in the vibrant port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. His early fascination with music blossomed into a lifelong passion. From mastering his father’s flute at the tender age of eight, to honing his guitar skills under the mentorship of “Uncle Bonku”, Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, Ambolley’s musical odyssey has been nothing short of extraordinary.  This all led to Ambolley becoming a musical life force and exploding on the scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called 'SIMIGWA-DO'.  His name has become synonymous with Simigwa music and dance.

Coming of age amidst the zenith of Ghana’s highlife era, Ambolley emerged as a pivotal figure in its evolution, lending his talents to esteemed bands such as Houghas Extraordinaires, Meridians Of Tema and Ghana Broadcasting Band. It was during this time that he caught the attention of his compatriot and friend, Ebo Taylor, who recruited Ambolley to be a member of the Uhuru Dance Band. This all lead to a transformative journey to Nigeria in 1973, where they shared the stage with the legendary Fela Kuti at his renowned Shrine venue. 

1975 Debut Album Simigwa: 
Gyedu Blay Ambolley’s groundbreaking debut solo album, released in 1975, stands as a cornerstone of Ghanaian music history - with one of the most iconic album covers! Simigwa stands as Ambolley’s magnum opus, a masterpiece fusing together the rich tapestry of highlife, afrobeat, folk and funk. The album is a true testament to Ambolley’s unparalleled artistry written and produced in collaboration with the legend Ebo Taylor.

Ambolley not only embraces his musical roots but also pioneers the fusion of Ghanaian highlife with soul and funk influences from across the Atlantic. With Simigwa, Ambolley seized the opportunity to showcase his own musical prowess and embark on a journey of experimentation. A main inspiration for this album was the work of the mighty Mr. James Brown, something that is evident from the rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs and percussion breaks throughout the record.