Last edited Fri Aug 4, 2023, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)
Tony Visconti wrote about them in his autobiograpy, on pages 161-163.
They were one of two groups managed by Gerry Bron that Tony started working with in late 1970 (the other was Gentle Giant). Tony loved their live sound - "think Santana without the Latin" - but was having trouble getting them to replicate it in the studio - "their bubbly live sound was not surfacing." He finally asked them what was wrong and was told they didn't like the boards between them - the baffles that were there to get a clean sound in the studio. So he told the engineer to get rid of them, to set up for a live sound.
And that worked well enough they were able to quickly record several tracks they were all happy with. But they were needling him a bit, telling him he couldn't understand their music because he was white but he was "doing a good job anyway." There was infighting in the band, with one member walking out during the recording sessions (he doesn't say which one, and later he ran into the same problem with a couple of other groups, but I think this was the first album where he ran into those difficulties). In particular there were disagreements between the African and West Indian band members.
Tony was stressed enough by the infighting, despite loving their music, that he told Gerry Bron he didn't want to work with them again. Then their first album became a hit, and Bron invited him to a celebration at Ronnie Scott's club. The band carried him around the room on their shoulders, and Teddy said, "What's this, you don't want to work with us again?" - and Tony agreed to produce their second album.
And during those sessions there was more infighting, again between the Africans and the West Indians, with the latter telling him one night they wanted to do their own separate album (he told them the budget wouldn't cover recording that as well). Then Loughty/Lofty Amao quit the band before they'd finished recording, so they finished recording without him, and then he rejoined during the mixing and was upset that drummer Sol had played his percussion parts (Lofty played congas as well as saxophone) and he demanded those be re-recorded, but the budget wouldn't allow that.
Tony said he was very proud of the album, but his "nerves were frayed."
Working with Osibisa was great grounding for many later projects, and I could have got a job at the U.N.
I don't know if he was asked to produce their later albums, but it doesn't sound like he would have agreed. At least he was able to produce their two most successful albums for them, even if Osibisa and Woyaya didn't quite make the Top Ten, both making it to #11.
Just found a live performance I want to post in a thread of its own... Editing to add the link:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034103825 .
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