Francis Osei, widely known as Teddy Osei, was a Ghanaian musician, born in Kumasi in the Ashanti region of what was then the Gold Coast. Though his exact birth date is unknown due to the lack of record-keeping at the time, his mother estimated he was born in December 1935. He passed away on January 14, 2025. Osei was a saxophone player, drummer, and vocalist, and is best remembered as the leader and a founder of the influential Afro-pop band Osibisa, which began in 1969.
Osei was introduced to musical instruments early in life, as his father was an amateur musician who played the horn in the local church band, and he learned traditional instruments from a school teacher. He began to play the saxophone while attending college in Sekondi, teaching himself by playing along with jazz records. After college, he worked briefly as a building inspector before deciding to pursue music professionally, forming a band called "The Comets," which had a hit in West Africa with the 1958 song "(I Feel) Pata Pata."
In 1962, Osei moved to London on a grant from the Ghanaian government to study at a private music and drama school for three years. However, his scholarship was cut short after the 1966 Ghanaian coup d'état. He teamed up with other musicians who had lost their grants and formed a group called "Cat's Paw," playing soul music across Europe. In 1969, Osei convinced his brother Mac Tontoh and fellow musician Sol Amarfio to join him in London, and they founded Osibisa. The band became known for its fusion of African and Western music styles, encompassing elements of rock, highlife, jazz fusion, and more, and is credited with helping introduce African music to European and North American audiences. Osibisa enjoyed significant popularity throughout the 1970s, achieving a UK Singles Chart hit with "Sunshine Day" in 1976, and the band continued to perform and regroup in various forms for decades.