Dick Essilfie-Bondzie

Dick Essilfie-Bondzie was a Ghanaian music producer and the founder of Essiebons, one of the most important highlife record labels. Essiebons released music by C. K. Mann, Ebo Taylor, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Papa Yankson and many others.

Early life

He was born on 1 May 1930 in Apam, in the Central Region, and moved to Accra at the age of five when his father was transferred there. At 20 he went to London to continue his education, returning to Ghana, where he held a job from 1957 to 1972.

Essiebons

He founded Essiebons in 1959 and built a recording studio and pressing plant, Record Manufacturers (Ghana) Limited. The label produced many of the best-loved highlife records of the 1960s and 1970s, with Ebo Taylor as its in-house guitarist, arranger and producer. In 1972 he helped form the Apagya Show Band, which lasted less than a year. In 1979 Essiebons moved into film with Roots to Fruits, a film on Ghanaian traditional music featuring the label's artistes.

Death

He died on 19 August 2020. In 2021 Essiebons released a compilation in his honour with songs by Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, C. K. Mann, Ernest Honny, Ebo Taylor, Papa Yankson and Bob Roy Raindorf.