Ethiopiques S/D

after four or five listens, vols. 6 and 7 (single-artist both) really started to grate, though it's been a couple years since I played either; maybe I'd change my mind now. kinda doubt it, though.

At the time, his classic album (the one this this volume is based on tho it adds a few ultra-rare tracks) was out of print, (I was lucky enuf to have the vinyl) and very few ppl in Addis were still familiar with him. Though wenever I played him while DJing everyone loved it, he was still mostly forgotten. In the last few years though there has been a huge revival in his career, he’s playing weekly now, the rights to the album were acquired after years of trying (making this available) and this past January we were able to hold the album release party in Addis in the context of a festival dedicated to him as a tribute. The man has been playing for over 50 years and is a consummate performer and musician.

I’ve been raving abt the album on other threads and keep having to retrain myself so I don’t go overboard but to anyone who is interested in this series you have to but this disc.

I’ll dig up pictures from the festival and post ‘em later.

Jeff - and anyone else- I realised when i pulled up disc that I have approx. 1000 pics from the festival (different sources) so it'll take me a day or so to pick some out. I also remembered I have a couple of video clips (i think recorded on Quicktime) but have no idea how to make 'em available if anyone is interested. If so, pls. let me know how post 'em. thx.

I shouldn't buy any more CDs in the next couple of months, the way I've been going*, but I'm going to have to get this anyway.

* it'd be a lot more efficient if I just deposited my paycheque, withdrew it all in cash and threw it out the window

What is your address? And is there a web site that tracks wind patterns in Quebec?

Actually, I'm working on putting a Europe & US tour for him as I belive so much in him and hearing positive stuff like this is essential in keeping me going against all the obstacles.

Funny seeing above post 'coz yesterday I actualy googled Sun Ra and Ethiopiques to see if anyone had seen any similarities with any of the stuff.

I found Mahmoud Ahmed's Ere Mela Mela a while ago and it's great.

I am interested in reading more about the history of Ethiopian music, specifically the relationship between the music and Ethiopian culture/politics/geography. Has anyone found any web resources, books, or articles that are insightful?

http://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/book-abbys.shtml

More sounds ...

http://www.aitrecords.com/

I am looking for information on Hirut Beqele, but have found only mentions of her participation in Ethiopiques.

Anybody have links?

(hi Mark)

thanks, sydney

Getachew spent part of last fall touring with The Ex and the ICP Orchestra for the 25th anniversary of The Ex. went great from all reports and they want to keep up the collaborations.

for those who are interested, for last year's festival i had invited Boston based big band Either/Orchestra and they'll be playing with Mulatu Astatqe (featured on Vol. 4) at Joe's Pub in NYC on March 15, def. well worth going to.

posting the press release below and for anyone who can't make but is interested there is a full concert they did together in the WNYC online archives. think the date was Nov. 12 2004.

Steve, there is supposed to be a March 18,19 show but venue is not set yet afaik

MULATU ASTATKE & THE EITHER/ORCHESTRA WITH GUEST DJ TIMAJ SUKKER

Monday March 14
9:30 PM & 11:30 PM
$20

Featured artists include:
Mulatu Astatke
Either/Orchestra http://either-orchestra.org

One of Ethiopia's major musicians, Mulatu Astatke studied in London, Boston and New York, in the late 1950s and returned home to invent Ethio-jazz, which stands with various South African and Nigerian styles as the most successful fusion of jazz and African music. Astatke is most notably featured in the acclaimed Ethiopiques series Vol. 4. The Grammy- Nominated Either/Orchestra is among the longest running and highly respected large ensembles in jazz. Since 1985, under the direction of saxophonist/composer Russ Gershon, the ten-piece has traversed the length and breadth of jazz to make unexpected connections between styles and approaches to music, including Ethiopian music and jazz.

In early 2004, as the first US big band to play in Ethiopia since Duke Ellington in 1973, the E/O met and collaborated with Mulatu. It was a match made in heaven, or at least in Addis Ababa! Since this meeting the two have performed together several times in the US building upon recorded Ethiopian explorations in E/O’s hit albums, afro-cubism and More Beautiful Than Death, “an album so jaw-droppin', eyes buggin' and head-shakingly good that it takes your breath away...” Snap Pop.

Don’t miss your chance to see this beautiful collaboration. "Mulatu Astatke's distinct brand of Ethiopian music features some of the most soulful hip-grinding instrumentals ever recorded in Mother Africa."-John Ballon, Musthear Reviews "One of the most innovative large ensembles in jazz for almost 20 years...[the Either/Orchestra] is still pushing the envelope." New York Newsday http://either-orchestra.org

Before and after sets, Downtown Manhattan's Ethiopian-born, female DJ/Producer Timaj Sukker, spins Nomadic beats, in which eclectic global rhythms are interwoven into a singular holistic adventure. www.nomadicbeat.com

March 18, 19
Washington DC, with Mulatu Astatke, venue TBA

more info here http://either-orchestra.org/newsEthio20PR.html

Those people only like what they hear on Top 40 radio.

more tour and other info below

http://either-orchestra.org/newsEthio20PR.html

http://web.joespub.com/caltool/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail&performanceID=1257

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19330

Film Puts a New Focus on the Master of 'Ethiojazz'
By BEN SISARIO
Published: October 13, 2005

In Jim Jarmusch's latest movie, "Broken Flowers," a graying former ladies' man played by Bill Murray has a strange companion with him as he searches for some old girlfriends, one of whom may have borne his son. He's gloomy but intrigued by the quest, and his mood is matched by the passenger in his rental car: a CD of brooding and mysterious music, a little funky and a little slithery, a bit like a 1970's blaxploitation soundtrack and a bit like dense modal jazz. He never seems to know what to make of it, but he clearly likes it.

The music is a particularly obscure vintage made in Ethiopia in the late 1960's and early 70's by a jazz innovator named Mulatu Astatke, and thanks to "Broken Flowers" and an acclaimed series of CD's, his music has enjoyed a little renaissance lately. A prominent figure in Ethiopia but barely known to Western listeners, Mr. Astatke makes a rare United States appearance tonight at Joe's Pub with the Either/Orchestra, an avant-garde jazz group that has championed him.

From the moment Mr. Jarmusch first heard it, about six years ago, the music got under his skin, he said, and he began seeking it out wherever he could find it. "When I was writing 'Broken Flowers,' " he said by phone from his home in the Catskills, "I was listening to a lot of his music, and I was thinking, 'How do I get this music into a film that's set in suburban America?' It even led me to make the character of Jeffrey Wright of Ethiopian descent." In the film, Mr. Wright's character, Mr. Murray's next-door neighbor, gets him started on his journey and hands him the disc. Several songs by Mr. Astatke are used prominently in the film, and are on the soundtrack album, released by Decca.

Mr. Astatke, a vibraphonist and bandleader, had a suitably cosmopolitan upbringing for a music that blends jazz with funk, Latin music and traditional Ethiopian five-tone scales. Born in 1943 in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, he was one of the few musicians of his generation to be educated abroad. He went to the Trinity College of Music in London, where he studied clarinet, harmony and theory, and in the early 60's attended the Schillinger House of Music in Boston, now the Berklee College of Music.

"My whole idea," he said by phone the other day from his home in Addis Ababa, "was sort of fusion with Ethiopian and jazz and modern music. I started at Berklee this idea of the 'Ethiojazz' business. From there I came to New York and I had this group, and what I wanted to do, I did it there."

His group in New York, the Ethiopian Quintet, was mostly Puerto Rican. He recorded two albums in the 60's on a small New York label, Worthy. He jammed with Dave Pike, who was Herbie Mann's vibraphonist at the time, and remembers his time here fondly.

"We had all these big bands," he said. "And the Village Gate, the Village Vanguard, the Palladium - there were all these clubs around at that time." He was surprised and delighted to learn that the Vanguard is still in business. "It's still around?" he said. "Fantastic! Wow!"

Mr. Astatke returned to Ethiopia in the late 60's and took part in a fertile musical scene there in the waning years of Emperor Haile Selassie, who was deposed in 1974. Establishing himself as a jazz ambassador, he brought the Hammond organ and vibraphone to Ethiopia. "I changed the whole Ethiopian music," he said without shyness, "combining jazz and fusion with the Ethiopian five-tone scales. Since then my name has been on the very, very top of the Ethiopian musical scene."

The music of that period, influenced by American funk and soul, is being collected in "Éthiopiques," a series of albums on the French label Buda Musique, which since the late 90's has run to 20 volumes. Mr. Astatke's disc, Vol. 4, is its best seller and has seen a bump in sales since "Broken Flowers" was released in August. It is now selling about 1,800 copies a week, said a spokeswoman for Allegro, the albums' American distributor; that is equivalent to the sales of a new album by a world music star like Youssou N'Dour.

Last year the Either/Orchestra, led by the saxophonist and composer Russ Gershon, performed in Addis Ababa and met Mr. Astatke. The group has since brought him to the United States for concerts twice, the first times Mr. Astatke had performed in New York in many years. After performing at Joe's Pub tonight, they will go on a brief Northeastern tour, traveling to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.

Mr. Astatke said he had been following news of "Broken Flowers" by e-mail ("I'm very far away") but had not yet seen them film in its entirety. He added, with a laugh, "I'm going to see it in New York."

Was I there? I just heard about this stuff recently, and I have a feeling I'd really like it.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19126

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19598

I think I am gonna be busy with my kid and will have to miss it. My son loves Ethiopian food, not so sure about the music. I need to check out the food and music at all those newish Ethiopian restaurants around 9th and U in DC.

that's awesome about the mulatu astatke shows!

http://www.afropop.org/radio/radio_program/ID/666/Ethiopia%20Part%201:%20Empire%20and%20Revolution

saw mahmoud ahmed play outdoors yesterday, GREAT performance!!

JEALOUS!

he was awesome! and the band was smoking hot.

and people were going nuts. clearly a big event for the ethiopian community. much happiness all around.

just noticed in the latest wire issue (aug, 2007) that manteca will be releasing ‘the very best of ethiopiques’. 2 cd’s / 28 tracks. should be a useful taster for someone like me who hasn’t heard any of the series so far. (not too sure about the elvis costello quote on the front though).

link

also.....here’s an e-music dozen dedicated to ethiopiques:

e-music 12

really can't recommend #21 ("ethiopia song," solo piano) enough. listen to it while the nights are still hot. if they're hot where you are.

Yeah, I'll second the recommendation for #21 -- really gorgeous stuff! Don't know exactly what to call it, but I love it all the same. Is there anything else like this?

I'll third the recommendation on #21: Definitely hints of blues and jazz, but using Ethiopian scales. Kind of hard to describe. Great night music.

yes. haunting.

jazzbo, that's what's so interesting and great about #21 -- there are elements of it that sound *almost* bluesy, *almost* jazzy, *almost* gospel-y, but it seems kind of doubtful that she's actually heard all that much of those kinds of music. It's like she's inventing those genres from scratch.

Exactly.

let's not get carried away here. she studied music in europe, chances are she heard jazz.

hmm, yeah, probably -- but I guess what I mean is that her music doesn't sound tied down to anyone's conception of jazz/blues/gospel. it seems to be coming from a more personally expressive place. if you know what i mean.

Mahmoud Ahmed, Neway Debebe, Maritu Legessese, Setegn Aregaw, Kuribachew W/Mariam...and more at the Washington D.C. Armory September 8th for an Ethiopian Millenium Celebration

(more than 25 Artists including dancers and musicians )

oh, fuckin a, that sounds awesome!

go see mahmoud ahmed!!!

(and everyone else)

i totally will. i guess alemayehu doesn't play anymore, but i would give my left nut to see him perform.

You have exactly one week to learn how to dance skista.

alemayehu does perform, you just have to come to ethiopia to see him

fyi re the new best of ethiopiques 2 CD set, stellar reviews so far

http://www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/reviews.php?ALBUM_ID=1017&LABEL_ID=2

http://ethiopiques.info/

everyone who can't get to DC or Ethiopia is invited to my place on Sept 9 for a millennium celebration, we'll be playing mahmoud and tibebu workye and mulatu astatque and gigi and teshome mitiku

http://www.ethiopianmillennium2000.com/millennium.html

The website does not list the names of the performers (in English at least) I had to e-mail them several times before I could find out the names listed above.

You know, I was just thinking that I was surprised they've done a volume of Tigrigna music, but never a comp of trad Gurage stuff, which I think their audience would REALLY go for -- and then some YouTube clicking around videos of Gurage music leads me to Tewodros & Abraham's "Gurageton," which is ... okay, I just get a kick out of seeing an MC clutching a carafe of tej!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhZjrxUpxfE

Wow, reggaeton has reached the Gurage people of Southwestern Ethiopia.

The dancing in that video totally kicks ass.

I like the ending too.

And tell us about that drink? I guess I could just look it up, since you gave the name.

Mmm. Honey mead something or other.

It's v. good.

Really need to get the rest of the series. I scored about half of them in the Great Tower Bankruptcy Firesale.

Yea, Tej is good. Busy with family I missed the big Ethiopian show with Mahmoud Ahmed and many others last night. Maybe I can make the outdoor event near the Washington Monument this week--I think there will be music at it.

Out of curiosity, how do people who like the Ethiopiques vintage stuff feel about late-80s/90s/current material -- i.e., the more laid-back digital-keyboard style?

i do not know it at all!

Just a random example of Ethiopian semi-trad pop (as opposed to, you know, more global pop sounds) -- Netsanet Mekonen. This just seems like one where you can hear plenty of continuity from the kind of stuff on Ethiopiques:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tPFkqZKm_sI

Sadly, 90% of Ethiopian-music comments boxes on Youtube are now flamewars involving someone called EritreanBabe. On the plus side, some guy has a bunch of "old-school" TV clips that are basically like Ethiopian Soul Train, and some guy has done a "Habesha Idol" clip that involves him putting in fake teeth and doing a solid speaking imitation of an older-generation Ethiopian.

for anyone in teh Boston area

free lecture/demonstration
Friday, September 28, 3 pm : "From Azmari to Jazz and Pop: Ethiopian Traditional and Modern Music." New College Theatre Rehearsal Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St. For more information, call 617.495.8676.
http://140.247.118.196/lfp/details.cfm?EVENT_ID=7194

Either/Orchestra with special guests Hana Shenkute, Setegn Atanaw, Minale Dagnew and Mulatu Astatke
The Somerville Theatre
Davis Square, Somerville MA
September 29, 2007: 7 pm tix: $28
http://www.worldmusic.org/concerts_event_indiv.php?p_seq=624

also, was rereading the thread and saw this
"volume 10 - tezeta - is also fantastic. A beautiful Seyfou Yohannes track "
reminding me that the Seyfou Yohannes track, Tizeta, was sampled for Common's "The Game"

hi H!

Out of curiosity, how do people who like the Ethiopiques vintage stuff feel about late-80s/90s/current material -- i.e., the more laid-back digital-keyboard style?

i like it all right; i don't know anywhere near as much about it as i do with the golden age jamz but those dudes are playing and singing around here all the time. i am not 100% into the types of keyboard sounds they tend to use, and i miss the sweat and funkiness and guitars. some of the arrangements are pretty kickass though.

"laid-back"?? most of that stuff is speeded up and laid-back is not what i'd call it, personally i find most of it an abomination, some really talented singers and some musicians out there but the arrangements and lack of songwriting on most of it really depresses me

i like some of the new stuff, Burntface, the ethiop hiphop guys out of (atlanta?) have some nice tracks, Off track just majes me giggle, friends loved the bole 2 harlem album which left me kinda cold but no antipathy

Gigi has done some fabulous work, the Gigi album with Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, HYerbie Hancock, Henry Threadgill + ethiop musicians really did more than anything to push what was being done contemporarily forward, the acoystic album she did Abyssinia Infinite also did a lot to push boundaries but tho ppl are impressed its easier to churn out another quickie synth-based studio album than anything else

right now i'm all at abt the budos and their mix of funk with ethiop styles, highly recommended

oh, and hello back mr slutsky

H, our man in Addis Adaba. (There really needs to be a full on FAP there.)

Schedule it before the end of the year, and it can be H and my mom, at least.

Laid-back = a lot of the more recent stuff I hear over here, at least, draws as much on Ethio jazz stuff, which calms it down a little -- but I think a lot of the "laid back" feel just sits in the difference in feel between guitar + bass + punchy horns (on 70s-era stuff) and mellow digital synth settings (toward the late 80s or whenever). But it might also be a matter of what crosses the ocean (haha and deemed sedate enough to play & sell in restaurants)

new Ethiopiques sub-label has just released a DVD with The Ex and Getatchew Mekuria... here's a bit of the promo...

The DVD ‘11 Ethio-punksongs’ by French filmmaker Stephane Jourdain will be out in october. Its a registration of the practices with the Ex and Getatchew mixed with the concert at the Banlieues Bleues Festival in Paris. It will be out on Ethiosonic, (Buda Musique) the new sublabel of the Ethiopiques series, compiled by Francis Falceto. There are also concerts planned for december. A.o. The Africolor Festival in Paris, Transmusicale in Rennes, State X in Den Haag and others.

They also have a collab CD out on Terp, I haven't heard it but I did hear a fantastic show that they did together, this Ethiopian phase of The Ex is maybe my favorite stuff of theirs since 1983-84.

so 'bisco, hook me & yer mom up, we'll go out and establish exactly how our families know each other and/or are related etc

teh Ex/Getachew CD is excellent, did 2 shows with 'em back in january for my festival, Francis Falceto who does Ethiopiques thinks the 2nd show was the best concert he's seen in Ethiopia in over 20 years of coming here, audience going batshit, was excellent

ethiosonic is new imprint so ethiopiques will focus exclusively on vintage stuff and ethiosonic will do more recent stuff, the ex/getachew dvd (which is v. v. good) is the second release, 1st which came out cpl months back was either/orchestra backing up Mahmoud Ahmed, next releases most likely more electronic based

will wait to think out what i want to say re synth stuff and then post that

I was listening to a Mulatu Astatqe record from the later 1990s yesterday. It is dreadful synth jaxz, the Ethiopiques' Tutu.

should there be a separate thread for non-Ethiopiques style Ethiopian music?

Vol. 4 -- which includes songs featured in the Bill Murray film, Broken Flowers -- is full of spooky, groovy, noir-ish jazz. It's a fantastic, leftfield record.

8/18/08 - Millennium Park, Chicago, IL
8/20/08 - Lincoln Center, New York, NY

2 American shows left on sax man Getatchew Merkuria's US tour with the Ex. I guess I should get Ethiopiques #14 that he's on...

IF you get a chance to see Getatchew with the Ex, go!

His being in the USA wih the Ex explains why is not playing with his Ethiopian pals next friday in Dun Laoghaire.

http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=cat&catid=C28D5643-ECC3-F68B-D782AC0B89DDFB24

Just came across this March 18, 2008 Ethipian music posting on the Voice of America radio African music treasures blog

listening to ethiopiques 17, RIP tlahoun gessesse...

http://www.thefader.com/articles/2009/4/16/q-a-freeload-mulatu-astatke-the-heliocentrics-masengo

^ so hot

How did I miss out on all of this? I only have Vol 4 (Mulatu Astatke) and Vol 4 (Solo Piano, Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou), but drooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

Track 4 on Vol 4, "Tezeta (Nostalgia)" may be my favorite new (to me at least) song I've heard all year.

oops, meant Vol 4 and Vol 21.

Track 4 on Vol 4, "Tezeta (Nostalgia)" may be my favorite new (to me at least) song I've heard all year.

Yeah, this is my favorite song from the series (Vol. 4 is probably my favorite disc from the series, too). I think Tezeta was also on the Broken Flower movie soundtrack.

4 & 21 are both dope

Ah man, I don't want to feel like I've already heard all the best stuff!

Maybe I'll seek out the best of and try to scope out what direction to go from here.

There's one from a female piano player that's lovely. The songs aren't terribly memorable, but the playing has such a nice touch and feel.

Are you talking about Vol. 21, Solo Piano, by Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou?

dude, there is so much more great stuff in this series. you may have peaked early but there's more peaking to be peaked.

Getatchew Mekurya!

ZS: Yes, that's the one.

I have Vol 13, which is amazing.

ya there are tons of great ones.

21 is just so perfect... listen to it late at night in the middle of the summer sometime.

xpost - One of my favorites. BTW I would pay, like, $20 to hear your band try to cover "Gud Aderegetchegn."

so many of these are great. vol. 4 is the first one i got but i don't know if it's the best. alemayehu eshete's (vol. 9) is def one the best vocal ones. vol. 1 is great too. emusic has them all which is really nice

Are many of these on vinyl? After a quick search I can only seem to find a few: Vol 1 at Boomkat, and some comment mentioning how glad the person is that L' Arôme Productions is issuing it all on vinyl. A search for L' Arôme Productions and Ethiopiques, typically, yields nothing.

I've never seen a single one of these on vinyl, but I'm not really looking, either.

let's not forget the mahmoud ahmed ones... saw him live a couple of years ago, A+

Man, that guy has a ton of product available at eMusic. Vol. 7 has the song Tezeta, which M. Matos had this to say about: "The 15-song set's final track, "Tezeta," is one of the most beautiful records in any category, from any place — pirouetting recorder, languid organ, soulful guitar, comforting bass line and Ahmed nudging along a sun-kissed, indelible melody." Bold claim.

alemayehu eshete's (vol. 9) is def one the best vocal ones

Yeah, this one is great. Hard to describe. Kind of Middle Eastern singing over some hard funk played on Armenian scales, or something.

Diamanda Galas:

The only music I hear that resembles where American music should go today is Ethiopian music because it combines the knowledge of Byzantium with extra-Ethiopian influences. Keep in mind that Greeks, Ethiopians, and many Egyptians go to the same Byzantine churches, the Greek and Coptic churches. We were raised on the same music.

American people think you go to Ethiopia to claim your heritage, and we all just laugh. Wait 'til you get there, brother. It ain't about black, it's about culture. Culture is under the skin. It is not on top of it. That is “bling”. To us bling is just a cheap rip-off of the ancient masters. So—“too little, too late, too weak, too bad, motherfucker” is what I say to those who do not read. And in the living rooms of my apartments have been many a throwdown over this comment. I laugh.

Cooleh

I'm not really sure what she has in mind specifically (about American music and Ethiopian music), but these interview comments are at least provocative. (Good interview in general, and as always I am gratified by her list of artists she respects, which this time around includes La Lupe, Stelios Kazantzidis, and Marinella, to name the ones that are also my favorites.)

"And in the living rooms of my apartments have been many a throwdown over this comment."

?!?!

My Throwdown With Diamanda

im going to be out of town for the getachew/ex shows in september ;_;

Oh that sucks. They were awesome in Chicago.

yeah, and the ex is prob one of my top 3 live bands ever :(

potentially dumb question I could have googled instead of asking here: what does "Tezeta" mean and why are 1/2 of the best songs called "Tezeta"?

Tezeta (or tizeta) roughly translates to memories (with nostalgia a strong subtext), yearning for something in the past that can never be recovered

its a standard so you are mostly hearing different interpretations of the same song. it is also a musical mode that you can compose in)

in more detail, quoting from a friend's paper
" In the Amharic lexicon one finds three related meanings for the noun tizita. First, it means memory, the enterprise of memory; and some lexicons, though parenthetically, specify it as nostalgia to intimate more pointedly memory (of loss and longing), an intimation that underlines the term’s attendant mood, its melancholy, a mood discernable in the way Amharic speakers employ the term even in the most quotidian exchanges. Secondly, tizita refers to one of the four scales or modes in secular Ethiopian music, a mode in which the term’s lexical meaning finds sonic figuration. Third, and incorporating the two, tizita refers to a signature ballad in the Amharic songbook, a ballad whose sonic and lexical impetus is to figure loss."

now have to go check out that diamanda interview

thank you for the last 6 years of posting, H. It's good to be kept up to date on all this.

Sounds pretty similar to the concept of saudade, in a way.

Hey, thanks sleeve for saying that

Yeah ned, you can draw a link between tizeta, saudade, morna (tho obv saudaude and morna have more obv links)

Curmudgeon, so did you ever made it to the Lincoln Center concert last summer? I put that show together together then, due to airline fuckery, ended up missing it, but all the musicians got there and did get raves for the show which made it somewhat more bearable

I was at the Barbican show last Summer in London and I have to say it was one of the most life affirming, joyous shows I have ever attended...hope they do another...

Curmudgeon, so did you ever made it to the Lincoln Center concert last summer? I put that show together together then, due to airline fuckery, ended up missing it, but all the musicians got there and did get raves for the show which made it somewhat more bearable

― H in Addis, Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:31

I'm from DC and did not make it up there. There are frequently shows in DC (and local Ethiopian bands here) but the gigs are rarely promoted outside the Ethiopian community. I try to look for flyers and Ethiopian newspapers at local restaurants and ask about the gigs. There is a show coming up at the 930 club. I think this is the first time there's been an Ethiopian show there: Ethiopian Labor Day HomeComing w/ Gosaye Tesfaye & Ephrem Tamiru.

Oh, I did see Getachew with the Ex in DC at Black Cat

"Tezeta" is great. Matos wrote about it nicely here or elsewhere I recall.

I missed Mahmoud Ahmed in DC yesterday. He was at a reggae summerfest that had 20 some acts and I decided I did not want to see them all.

Nice 2008 Ethiopian song from Gosaye Tesfaye & Ephrem Tamiru who are currently touring the US. The video takes a few seconds before starting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb3b3SlVE9k

lil story on Getachew & the Ex on French TV.

http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-20h/groove-ethiopien-4513551.html

Awww man, I'm flying out of DC for the weekend and its Ethiopian Appreciation Day at Nationals Park with Mahmoud Ahmed performing at a special banquet event in the late afternoon before the baseball game that night.

ETHIOPIAN HERITAGE APPRECIATION DAY BEGINS AT 3 P.M. AT NATIONALS PARK,
1500 SOUTH CAPITOL ST. SE. $14.75–30.50. EAFC.ORG FOR TICKETS AND INFO

2010 in DC is starting out with Ethiopia's biggest current pop star Teddy Afro in Washington on Saturday. I'm not crazy about his reggae-smooth r'n'b sound.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2009/12/31/teddy-afro-ethiopias-bob-marley-at-the-armory-saturday/

Currently in love with Ethiopiques Vol. 24, especially "Mariyé marwèlèla" by Wubshèt Fisseha & Exception Five Band. Kinda taken aback at how many of the songs sound like Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti source material.

Side note of possible interest: If you haven't visited Awesome Tapes From Africa, it might do ya good to swing by the site. Great selection of items, including [I think] Ethiopia.

will do, thanks.

A thread!: awesome tapes from africa

Gonna miss Mahmoud Ahmed live again (busy with family). He's at the 930 Club in Washington DC Sunday night with Ephrem Tameru.

On the Rolling African thread I wrote about an unnamed DC area Ethiopian woman singer I saw and liked, and about

And I picked up a postcard for the Ethiopian show billed as "for the first time in America Helen Berhe" and "the talented Abraham Gebremedhin with the Zion band Sat. April 30 at DC Star 2135 Queens Chapel RD NE DC ethiostarent.com

Rolling African Music 2011 Thread

I don't really like this concept of "African Music" - I don't think the stuff on the Ethiopiques records, or Ethiopian music generally, has anything to do with music from other countries in the continent. Talking about "African Music" seems to be about as useful as talking about "European Music".

amusingly, that makes ME a curmudgeon. will Curmudgeon now reveal that he is actually a dirty vicar?

Obviously there's a problem with non-Africans tendency to talk about "Africa" like it's a country instead of a continent, but so few people post on that thread anyway that breaking it into even smaller areas of interest would kill it. I don't know enough about Ethiopian music to talk about its similarities or difference in depth, but surely it has commonalities with Eritrean, Somalian, Kenyan, or Tanzanian music. I don't know, maybe more people would post on a Rolling West African thread, or a Rolling Nigerian Music thread, but I would be surprised.

i dunno, is talking about "american" music not useful? and don't people talk about "european" musical traditions? i agree, it's totally problematic in a lot of ways, but i don't know if it's entirely pointless.

Dirty Vicar, curmudgeon may revive the world music thread just for that.

I don't really like this concept of "African Music" - I don't think the stuff on the Ethiopiques records, or Ethiopian music generally, has anything to do with music from other countries in the continent. Talking about "African Music" seems to be about as useful as talking about "European Music".

I'm sure it's irritating for those who know their shit, but for someone less versed it's pretty nice to learn about the range of different styles and traditions.

well I don't know my shit, but having heard an ethio-jazz record I know it has nothing in common with either the Congotronics or Malian record I have also heard.

and don't people talk about "european" musical traditions?

they might do in the context of folk traditions, but no one would talk about "European Music" as a category including The Beatles, Planxty, some Roma musicians from Eastern Europe, a German oompah band*, or a Turbofolk outfit.

*as opposed to various oompah bands from other European traditions

Obviously there's a problem with non-Africans tendency to talk about "Africa" like it's a country instead of a continent, but so few people post on that thread anyway that breaking it into even smaller areas of interest would kill it

^^
This.

no one would talk about "European Music" as a category including The Beatles, Planxty, some Roma musicians from Eastern Europe, a German oompah band*, or a Turbofolk outfit.

no Westerner would, you mean

Getting back on topic, a good general rule with the Ethiopiques comps is that if the cover features people playing saxophones and/or electric guitars then it is worth getting. What is most interesting about the music the series compiles is the 1970s transplanting of various Western musical forms (primarily jazz and beat music) into the Ethiopian setting, subtly altering them in the process. I don't think this music bears any relation to Somalian or Kenyan music, though I would not really know. I understand that the non-Western music that the music on the Ethiopiques comps bears most comparison to is not really from African either, as there is meant to be some similarity in the way scales are used to music from the Arabian peninsula... but I'm not a musicologist and do not really understand all that scale talk.

That said, if you are interested in more traditional Ethiopian music, there will be an Ethiopique record for you. #11 ("The Harp of King David") is a truly fascinating record, this guy singing very quietly while playing some strange instrument with these deep resonating tones.

That's the begena, which is maybe my favourite thing about Ethiopian music. I'm with DV on this one though, Ethiopian music really has very little in common (as far as I can tell) with much else in the way of African music. Even Axumite music is pretty different from Eritrean music, and they're only something like 40kms away and were the same country 100 years ago.

Debo & Fendika, North American Tour going on now. Debo are an Ethiopian-American band influnced in part by Ethiopiques

had debo play at my fest cpl years back, the fendika azmari bet leader melaku is the dancer who regularly tours with getachew & the ex for any who saw that

article on debo by former ilxor cybele http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/2011/06/30/reverent-grooves/

if you feel like popping up to boston tonight the debo horns will be playing with Group Doueh & Khaira Arby, guess this shld go over to the group doueh thread

That would be a nice gig to see. A publicist told me he saw the Debo Horns with Arby at South by Southwest and it was awesome.

Mahmoud Ahmed,Abraham G. Medhin, and Ali Birra Saturday July 30 at DC Star, 2135 Queens Chapel Rd. NE, Washington DC

Did this series wind down?

series still ongoing

been biting my tongue for ages waiting till the announcement was officially made but very happy that francis is receiving this year's womex award for professional excellence for his work on Ethiopian music
http://worldmusiccentral.org/2011/08/04/francis-falceto-wins-womex-2011/

Very cool indeed.

all the album covers,upcoming album info and some links here http://www.womex.com/realwomex/2011/Francis_Falceto.html#recording

Just talked last night to Selam Seyoum Woldemariam, founder and member of the Ibex and Roha Band and guitarist with Mahmoud Ahmed since 1974. They're on Ethiopiques #7

H, come back

ha, was just abt to send you an email
are you making it to the mahmoud show? he's great live
selamino is a v nice guy

Missed Mahmoud again (was getting ready to head out of town). Ugh. Discovered that his guitarist Selamino (birth name -Selam Seyoum Woldemariam) also plays at a restaurant near me every weekend. I gotta go see him play. He was nice to me when I chatted with him on the phone.

Not on Ethiopiques I don't think, but this guy Hailu Mergia just had a tape reissued by Awesome tapes from Africa. He's a cabdriver now at Dulles airport in the W. D.C. area

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/06/21/awesome-tapes-from-africa-reissues-songs-from-hailu-mergia-local-cab-driver/

man, give the guy a gig! that youtube clip is awesome.

I'm just listening to #14 which I hadn't heard before. Very good record. Still wishing I knew exactly which #s were essential. Think this was anyway, so might need to get a physical copy.

Had a chance to buy a number of them cheaply a few years back. Possibly around the time Zavvi was a physical shop in London. Not sure which I already have. Think it's 3, 8, 9, 13, whichever harp of King David is, the one that was recorded specially for the series which i think is either a teen or an early 20s.

Think I inevitably need more and also need to pick up the Kenya Special set which came out a couple of months back.

i've heard tche belew by mergia + it's fab. i'm def gonna check out the new one.

this week the first worldwide release of Ethiopian jazz and funk band Hailu Mergia and the Walias' "Tche Belew” comes out on Awesome Tapes From Africa LP/CD/Digital/Cassette.

Recorded in 1977, the album went on to become one of the most celebrated of all Ethiopian pop recordings from the golden age of Addis Ababa’s live band scene, not to mention a "holy grail” LP that collectors trade for ~$4000 on eBay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/music/feedel-band-reviving-a-robust-sound/2015/03/26/dcda5618-cda8-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html

Ethiopians living in DC and playing "classic" Ethiopian sounds live

http://www.africanhiphop.com/vinyl-records-ethiopia-cultural-artifacts-festished-commodities/

excerpt:

As we were going in and out of stores in Merkato, the largest open-market in East Africa located in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, talking to various shop owners who were identified as record suppliers, we realized the process was rather shadowy. We were talking to most of them as if we were chasing to buy illegal goods or blood diamonds. None of them had the vinyl records close at hand. They were hidden away, in their homes or some obscure place. Arrangements had to be made to meet and buy at later time. It seemed like an ambiguous adventure.

After exploring for sometime, we found reliable contacts. This one vinyl record retailer was telling us that he only had 70 records left after a clean up from a regular foreign collector. On top of that, the price of a vinyl record in Birr [Ethiopian currency] has rocketed. The suppliers were sitting on a goldmine with foreign buyers who will pay any price for African vinyl records. “They want them, there is a high demand for East African music. That’s all they keep asking for and they’ll pay any price,” the supplier said, with a nonchalant attitude, arms crossed across his chest.

As it turns out others count at a high price cultural material we discount.

We were stunned, even more when we realized that the highly inflated market price didn’t respond to haggling. To a point of reckoning that vinyls, in this town, presumably have become a fetished commodity. The wondering wouldn’t stop: could it be that prices are based on real value, or on the assumption of dealing with rarefied artifacts, or is the market merely dictated on high demand against low supply? Nonetheless, regardless of what the market says, it can’t be ignored that “predilection for vinyls is criticized as an antiquated, expensive, elitist practice of compulsive hoarding, which in turn fuels dubious and artificially inflated markets dealing in rarefied artifacts of technology and media”.

limited edition 7 inch on Max Whitefield’s Philophon imprint now available -- Ethio-jazz legend Hailu Mergia’s first recordings in decades

been really into the king david harp volume recently

Tesfa Mariam Kidane ( sax player on many of the Ethiopiques albums originally recorded between 65 and 72) will be sitting in with the Feedel Band in DC Sunday night July 5th at Colombia Station.

Pianist, arranger, singer Girma Beyene who was on Ethiopiques 8, will be in DC and NYC and maybe elsewhere in October. From 1981 till some time in the 90s, he had left music and was living in DC. Some time in the 2000s he moved back to Addis, I think. Since around 2008 I think he has been playing again, including a bunch of gigs in Paris (some excerpts are on Youtube).

I saw another old-school Ethiopian perform this weekend-- guitarist Selamino Woldemarian w/ a keyboardist doing Ethiopian and jazz standards.

For those who don't read the yearly Rolling Global World thread:

So this past Friday I saw Ethiopian piano legend Girma Beyene with DC based Ethiopian group Feedel Band. Despite an arrogant soundman who wouldn't make Girma's gorgeous, melancholy voice and piano louder in the mix, the show was very nice. Ethiopian singing star Mahmoud Ahmed was in the crowd, and Girma's producer, Francis Falceto, the curator of the Ethiopiques series was also there.

A short US tour for Girma, who had lived in DC from 1981 to 2010. NYC show coming up. He's been just hanging out in DC.

I met Falceto briefly at the show and after-show

Nice. I recently filled in some gaps in the series I had, though it's still only the first fourteen total now all told.

Falceto also used to curate a festival in Ethiopia with H in Addis (his ilx posting name)

pianist/singer, composer of "Muziqawi Salt" Girma Beyene is doing one last gig in DC with Feedel Band tonight; and one over the weekend in Richmond, VA before he heads back to Ethiopia (and occasional trips to France to play with a band there, and hang with his producer, Francis Falceto, the curator of the Ethiopiques series )

Several selections from various volumes ofEthiopiques incl. on one of my favorite albums this year, Rough Guide To Ethiopian Jazz
info, incl. gist of the music as one participant hears and plays it, audio excerpts, etc. http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGNET1350/

Here comes another historic addition to the Ethiopiques CD series with the upcoming release of its 30th volume next month featuring legendary Ethiopian singer and songwriter Girma Bèyènè.

"After 25 years of silence, the legend Girma Bèyènè is back alongside one of the greatest ethio groups, Akalé Wubé," the announcement said. "Under the direction of Francis Falceto (director of the famous Ethiopiques series Buda Musique) Girma and Akalé Wubé came together and recorded this album in order to immortalize this renaissance."

A digital release of Girma's new album, which is entitled Mistakes on Purpose, is scheduled for January 13th, 2017 by the French world music record label, Buda Musique, while a vinyl release is set for February 3rd, 2017.

I saw on Facebook that Ethiopian drummer Temare Haregu, who played with Hailu Mergia and was a founder of the Walias Band and can be heard on an Ethiopiques compilation or 2, has passed away.

― curmudgeon, Friday, December 30, 2016 4:38 PM (sixteen minutes ago

Just saw pianist Girma Beyene again,with the Feedel Band. They have another gig or 2 in NYC coming up. Then Girma heads to Paris for his album release party (with a French band) before heading back to Ethiopia.

http://legacy.washingtoncitypaper.com/bestofdc/artsandentertainment/2017/best-ethiopian-guitarist-legend-guests-in-a-small-space

Selam from Éthiopiques 7: Erè Mèla Mèla is playing every Friday night, just outside Washington DC.

jelly

Girma Yifrashewa has some very Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou -like passages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb4F817xLTA

Thanks. Yifrashewa and his influences seem to have very old-school Ethiopian piano roots I know little about

http://www.emahoymusicfoundation.org/about

Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebrou

In early 1960s Emahoy lived in Gondar studying the religious music of St Yared, composer and father of Mahlet, the early Ethiopian religious music

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/arts/music/girma-yifrashewa-pianist-composer-at-issue-project-room.html

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23241-mulatu-of-ethiopia/

Originally released in 1972 and newly-reissued, the groundbreaking Mulatu of Ethiopia

Not an Ethiopiques release as such, but it seems like a good place to discuss it

Bits of it are on volume 4 aren't they or is that all from elsewhere?

There was a review in Uncut this month too.

Mulatu Astatke recording in Acton Massachusetts in 2010 while on a fellowship at Harvard doesn't punch many digger checkboxes, but I love this track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF2XlLuZ8xc

Bits of it are on volume 4 aren't they or is that all from elsewhere?

Good question, but I don't know

Planning on seeing this tonight--

http://www.addisinsight.com/2017/05/grammy-nominated-ethiopian-american-singer-wayna-pays-tribute-icon-bezunesh-bekele-us-channel-9-news-concert-washington-dc-friday-june-9th/

After completing a 2-month US Tour singing with American soul and Motown icon, STEVIE WONDER, Wayna traveled to Ethiopia to perform weekly at the Marriott Apartments in Addis Ababa, beginning on New Year’s Eve 2016. It was while there for 2 months that she studied the music and style of Ethiopian soul superstar, Bezunesh Bekele, known as “the Aretha Franklin of Ethiopia.”

Disappointing night. Wayna only did 2 or 3 old songs (in part maybe because guitarist Selam W couldn't make it; the guitarist she had instead played schlocky Las Vegas arena rock stylings)

i'm kinda surprised no one's mentioned #9, featuring Alèmayèhu Eshèté. i guess #22 is also dedicated to him but i can't compare the two since i haven't heard it yet. but #9 is fucking sick from beginning to end. his band is really good and funky as hell. i can see why he got james brown comparisons - listen to "Gizew Honeshenna" - the tight, repetitive horn lines sound like that prime period when the JBs could do no wrong, and the drums just barely swing. it's so good. "Mekeyershin Salawq" sounds like an earlier period (the comp cover 1969-74), judging by the sound quality as well as the simpler composition, but it crackles with intensity.

I loved #9. I actually am filling out some holes in my Ethiopiques collection and finally picked up #10: Tezeta. So fucking good, love that kind of dark and lovelorn vibe. Oh and Vol. 14 by G. Mekurya is amazing too.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/arts/music/hailu-mergia-lala-belu.html

Hailu Mergia, keyboardist, accordionist, taxi cab driver is getting love from NY Times, Bandcamp and elsewhere for his new album

he rules

Tche Belew is nonstop solid jammage

New compilation out put together by this guy-- Ernesto Chahoud‘s ‘TAITU Soul-fuelled Stompers from 1970s Ethiopia‘,

I found my first Ethiopian record in Beirut at the flea market. It was ‘Zemam Sew Lebene’ by Getatchew Kassa on the yellow-labelled Kaifa, which I later traded with my friend and DJ Partner Jan Weissenfeldt aka J.J. Whitefield, with whom I share what you can call the Ethio fever. The first Ethiopian record that triggered this fever though was ‘Ewnetgna Feker’ by the legendary Ethiopian singer Hirut Bekele. The first time I heard this record I wanted more and decided to go and dig in Ethiopia

https://www.bbemusic.com/feature/digging-ethiopian-45s/

Got to give it a full listen

he played in los angeles at a small cafe that sold out

Some of those Zanzibara volumes are quite good too seem to come from the same label. Certainly look pretty similar.
I think it's volumes 3& 5 that struck me most.

Off to hike the Semien Mountains in September with a few days in Addis Ababa before and after. Anyone got any recommendations for the best places to catch live trad music?

Send a message to H in Addis, maybe his ilxor email address works (see posts from him upthread)

Have a look at Visiting Ethiopia, Minister. And definitely get in touch with H in Addis if you can. We caught some live trad music in, I think, Gondar. It was quite an experience - live 'rapping' or at least improvised vocals with quite bawdy lyrics (so I was told). Fantastic, jolly, welcoming atmosphere.

Sat. July 28 in Washington DC

* Love Wins--A celebration in honor of new Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s historic visit to #WashingtonDC with Ephrem Tamiru, Madingo Afwerk, Sami Berhane, Berehanu Tezera & More backed by Ras Band at Echostage (Ethiopian acts)

The Prime Minister is just meeting with the local Ethiopian community I think (not the us Prez)

From Strut, out now:

http://r.k7musicnews.com/7ws5lsp9g7e.gif

We continue our work with the “Godfather Of Ethio Jazz”, Mulatu Astatke, with the first official reissues of his early classics ‘Afro Latin Soul’ Volumes 1 and 2 from 1966, recorded as The Ethiopian Quintet.

The albums were the first experiments in Astatke’s pioneering sound, fusing Ethiopian cultural music with Afro Latin and jazz forms. “I have always felt a deep connection between Latin and African music,” he explains. “I travelled to Cuba and listened to their musicians; the tempo, rhythm and feeling was very similar to different African forms.”

Astatke would start to perfect his Ethio jazz sound on his later album for Worthy in 1972, ‘Mulatu Of Ethiopia’ (STRUT129) but the two volumes of ‘Afro Latin Soul’ stand as important recordings documenting his early career.

‘Afro Latin Soul’ Volumes 1 and 2 come in their full original artwork and are painstakingly remastered by The Carvery. All formats feature personal liner notes by Mulatu Astatke.
More info, audio:
https://strut.k7store.com/release/104151-mulatu-astatke-his-ethiopian-quintet-afro-latin-soul-volume-1-2

wonderful, wonderful albums, of course. i have the bare-bones reissue of vol. 1, and it's never let me down. it has one of the best album covers in music (looks like a bridget riley) and makes for the perfect dinner-time music. i've heard vol. 2 but might have to pick it up on wax!

Last time I saw Hailu Mergia he had 2 jazz guys from somewhere backing him up and he was good. Last night in DC he had an Ethiopian bassist from DC and a Nigerian (I think) drummer from DC, both who play in DC African and reggae bands. Hailu played more keyboards than he did accordion and melodica. Very good show. What a unique sound. Btw, Hailu stopped being a Dulles Airport cabdriver late last year.

Still kicking myself for missing the chance to see him in NYC recently

You’re in luck. He’s gonna be back in Brooklyn July 27

Actually, the drummer I saw was Ethiopian as well. He and the bassist both play in DC’s Feedel Band.

Anyone ever see 2017 doc “Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul”? It’s showing in DC Tuesday night and might also be available online, but I haven’t checked yet

Still haven’t seen above doc, but I just saw “My Beautiful Girma,” about pianist Girma Beyene. A French-made effort that is kinda a work in progress ( missing some subtitles and names of folks talking). Despite flaws it’s often touching and captures Bèyènè’s impressive skills. Beyene as an arranger and composer was involved with more tracks than Astatke. But then when he came to US band with Walias band on tour, he fled the military rule back home and stayed here. His sick wife and his daughter later joined him here. When his wife ( whom he had written tons of songs about) died , he was distraught. He gave up music and just worked at a gas station in DC for 30 years, paying bills to take care of his daughter and himself, but never playing music in dc Ethiopian restaurants. But finally a few years ago he returned to music. Film has him crooning some songs like one of his heroes Sinatra.

Beyene is playing outside DC in Md March 20 and doing a few dates elsewhere I think.

it's streaming here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ethiopiques and looks pretty cool. gonna watch this tomorrow as it rains all day, thanks!

Here’s the trailer for the Girma Beyene one
https://vimeo.com/214875072

Here’s the trailer for the Girma Beyene one
https://vimeo.com/214875072

Just heard that Girma Beyene is cancelling US tour because of virus concerns.

Check out those movie docs that include him if you can. Quite a story

2017 doc “Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul” leaves a few details out, but it's still a fascinating tale of Ahma Eshete opening a record store and then a record label and releasing songs by Girma Beyene and Mahmoud Ahmed, Then decades later frenchman Francis Falceto hearing a Mahmoud Ahmed record and then seeking him out in Ethiopia. Later after the Derg regime is gone, Falceto returns to Ethiopia finds more records and with Eshete , they find the master tapes and the Ethiopiques series starts.

I know there's also Zanzibara because I have a couple of volumes, did the label put out any other region specific series?
Or is it a larger label anyway?

they did a really good series for Angola too. I only have the two vols. of Angola 70s, but it's some of my favorite music

Buda Musique is the label

https://likembe.blogspot.com/2007/08/angola-80s-plus.html

Buda Musique is the label

https://likembe.blogspot.com/2007/08/angola-80s-plus.html

since we’re jumping around the continent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfp1XMljLlw

Wallahi Le Zein!! - Wezin, Jakwar And Guitar Boogie From The Islamic Republic Of Mauritania

My article on Hailu Mergia who was in Walias Band and guitarist Selam Seyoum Woldemariam who was in Roha Band and backed Mahmoud Ahmed. Both live in the Washington DC area now

https://dcist.com/story/20/04/30/two-local-ethiopian-jazz-greats-have-new-albums/

https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/album/yene-mircha

whoa you can get the 3 hailu reissues there on CD for $25 total, that rules

Yes!

search

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6VLsipKTJc&
Ayalew Mesfin ‎– Lene Anchi Bicha Nesh

Nice.

This may have been have been posted already, but it's beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZnmJE1XIoE

This is so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-IxAhumDw

Both of those last two tracks you posted are wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N09oe9eK6c

How did I never see this BBC Under African Skies one hour doc about Ethiopia before? Filmed in 1984, it starts with Aster Aweke in DC and then jumps back to Ethiopia and covers traditional music, religious music, and secular . Walias Band, Roha Band, Alemayehu Ashete and more

xp to that brownie post of the Ali Mohammed Birra song - I listened to that a few times in July after it was posted in June, dug it well enough (as I do most Ethiopiques recommendations), and then sometime a month ago in the early morning hours as I was coming out of a dream and got stuck in that annoying half-dream/half-wake phase where you become aware of the weird quickly-repeating themes/scenes at the end of your dream (or whatever it's like for other people), I kept replaying the horn opening to that "Si Inbanbinsin Warri" song without remembering who it was. There's usually always at least one song from the previous day left rattling around in my subconscious every night, and that was it, but a mystery. I spent a while the next night going through everything new I'd listened to recently, and when I finally eureka'd THAT song, it was such a big ol victory that I did my dishes with the whole album cranked, super into it, a triumph for the spirit of ILM.

along those lines I want to put here the first track from what Stevolende put on the What Are You Listening to? 2020 thread, a newly reissued Sharhabil Ahmed (the Sudanese Freddie King maybe) album that I do believe rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElqHJs4O0W4

I couldn't find a recording date for the music on the Sharhabil Ahmed cd , liner notes refer to a 1963 e.p. with a couple of tracks whose titles may be different spellings of tracks on the cd. But it did really strike me that that cd does sound like an earlier point in the development of music I'm hearing in the Ethiopiques series. I could do with hearing more of the traditional music from the areas they're right next to each other and both will have interacted with the Arab world though their location on the coast of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Anyway love both.

The French company that put out the Ethiopiques series also put out Zanzibara which I have 3 discs from which are pretty good. Not sure how well known that 2nd series is.

https://youtu.be/OQVsVL7DNMo

Listening to Eritrean traditional singer & krar player Amleset Abay . She moved to DC at some point & had a restaurant where she and other musicians performed in early 1980s ( that I sadly didn’t know of at the time)

there was some traditional ethiopian music that they played on that bbc4 programme, on an instrument called a begena, and it sounded unearthly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBqBnuRlBQ

see also:

https://www.discogs.com/Sosena-Gebre-Eyesus-Sosena-Gebre-Eyesus/release/12947296

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/08/12/admass-sons-of-ethiopia-how-a-great-lost-album-is-finding-new-fans/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/admas-sons-of-ethiopia-interview

In 1984 some Ethiopians living in the DC area borrowed some $ and recorded an album as Admas and pressed a 1000 copies. Decades later they were selling for a lot on Ebay. A Danish collector living in NYC tracked them down after he bought a copy on Ebay, and he reissued the album. 3 of the band members are back in Ethiopia. 1 tours as Teddy Afro's keyboardist, one is a producer, the other is a music educator.

The album is mostly instrumental and starts with a loungey golden era Ethiopia type track, and has one track with a reggae feel, another with a Brazilian jazz samba portion, and funkier one and one has vocals

I have the Ethiop[iques volume with the Harp of Kind David , not listened to it in years. I heard that begena and assumed it was going to be the same instrument and googling it links it back to an ancient instrument linked to Israel the kinnor which was what David played to KIng Saul.

Dig the buzz.

dang, the reissued LP is already sold out! i like it too, thanks for the tip!

http://www.funkfidelity.de/

This website is a good source for golden era Ethiopian music and the various labels it was issued on (pre-Ethiopiques)

Seeing on Facebook, twitter, & IG that bassist Melake Gebre from the Walias Band has died from cancer at age 71. Am pretty sure he played bass on a great rendition of “Musicawi Silt” by Walias Band arranged by Girma Beyene & including Hailu Mergia on keyboards

respect, melake.☮

unrelated—

i realized recently that the last physical music i purchased was the latest fleet foxes album and that has yet to actually be shipped to me, so i went over to amoeba.com and bought every volume of this that they had currently in stock after years of only knowing volume 4. the ones that happened to be in stock at amoeba were volumes 1, 3, and 17. currently halfway through the tlahoun gèssèssè set and just considering buying up the rest of the series and listening to nothing except this music for the rest of my life.

you could def do worse w/r/t "rest of life" listening

if they do a box set of the complete series, i'm there.

and they should, btw. if someone can do those ridiculous sets for pink floyd demos and outtakes, a complete ethiopiques set seems like a cinch.

This series is like sushi to me. Not my favorite food in the world but I could happily eat it everyday.

for me its one of those things where i wont think about it for a long time, but then when i get in the mood it's all I want to listen to for days. and there always seem to be volumes that I haven't gotten around to (or at least didnt absorb the last time i binged). one of these days i really need to go on discogs and just cop them all so i can line them up on my shelf all nice

so yeah. . . just decided to hit up another vendor (this time importcds) and got one of everything they had in stock. this is volumes: 6, 7, 8, 13, and 28.

wheeeeee!!

importcds' 20% off when you spend $60+ deal has roped me in many, many times

dude. . . volume 28.

omg how great is this

i haven't heard that one!

I wish there were LPs, boxes, mini-boxes, and also mega-boxes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-IxAhumDw

I'm on Nagatti si jedha right now, love it of course :D

having just bought some synths, i'm curious which ones they're using

x-post -- yeah Ali Birra is great. Oromo legend.

nothing new to add. finally just got volume 13 and it's absolutely killer.

THIS POLYRHYTHM IS MELTING MY BRAIN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T75B9W9ek

holy hell, how do any of the musicians manage to keep their respective grooves?????

god yes its so wild, 13 is one of my favorites... i put it on a few weeks ago while i was installing some flooring and had to take it off because trying to concentrate on anything else while listening to those grooves kept making me flustered and confused

Oh yeah 13 Ethiopian groove has Walias Band doing “Muziqawi Silt” I think. That’s a classic that a number of musicians and groups cover

I especially love the polyrhythmic switches from straighter single claps to swung/off-time double claps towards the ends of many songs on the Tigrigna/Eritrean one, Vol. 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsS11_hm3Ro

Ali Birra , Mahmoud Ahmed ( Ethiopiques #7 ) and non Ethiopiques Aster Aweke all first came out on Ali “Tango” Kaifa ‘s Kaifa records . Sadly , Ali Kaifa has just passed , I see on Facebook. His role has been analogized to Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic, and Berry Gordy at Motown. Here’s a 2016 article on him:

https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/ali-kaifa-man-who-built-ethiopia%E2%80%99s-motown

Label owner Ali Tango Kaifa didn’t get enough acclaim outside Ethiopia . RIP

RIP Gash Ayele Mamo, Ethiopian mandolin player and songwriter who played a big role in classic Ethiopiques music

This was one of my favorites of 2020: To Know Without Knowing, by Mulatu Astatke w Melbourne-based Black Jesus Experience, incl. trad Ethiopian and Aboriginal songs, among other elements

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2196770380_16.jpg

whole thing is here:
https://mulatuastatkeblackjesusexperience.bandcamp.com/album/to-know-without-knowing

And The Rough Guide to Ethiopian Jazz was my gateway:

01 Mulatu Astatke: Gamo 05:12
02 Akalé Wubé: Alègntayé 04:17
03 The Budos Band: Origin Of Man 04:52
04 Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Friends: Ambassel 07:36
05 Tesfa Maryam Kidane: Heywete 05:13
06 Tlahoun Gessesse: Aykedashem Lebe 04:56
07 Samuel Yirga: Firma Ena Wereket 06:55
08 Gabriella Ghermandi: Be Kibir 08:16
09 Emahoy Tsegue-Maryal Guebrou: The Homeless Wanderer 07:05

Total Playing Time: 54:42
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1826/7323/products/RGNET1350_2000x.jpg?v=1536217426

xp yes that Mulatu/BJE record is excellent

Another great Ethiopian producer / label owner gone: RIP Amha Eshete, whose Amha Records was notable. He also helped Walias band members after he fled to the US

https://www.musicinafrica.net/fr/node/15368

Earlier bio of Amha Eshete covering his years as a pioneering Ethiopian producer and label owner, plus touching on his later years after he fled to Washington DC and started the Blue Nile and the Ibex restaurant/ clubs.

Another article on Amha Eshete ‘s Ethiopian years.

https://pan-african-music.com/en/amha-eshete-the-dreamer/

Both of these articles were penned earlier, and are not obits .

Funeral is Tuesday in Ethiopia. Fans of classic Ethiopian golden era music having to deal with deaths of Kaifa, Mamo, and Eshete now over a very short span.

man. so grateful to know about this music and all of those amazing people.

Hailu Mergia & The Walias Band Tezeta is being re-released on June 4, the band’s first full-length album that was originally released in 1975.

Below is from press release and liner notes

Virtually unheard(-of) outside Ethiopia—and extremely rare locally—the cassette-only release came out on the band’s own label housed in their record shop in the mid-70s. This is a historic record of one of the most interesting and pioneering bands of the “golden age” of Ethiopian popular music. The music is absolutely bonkers despite the sound quality.

FYI—Walias were the house band at the Hilton, Addis’ legendary high-end hotel, where they played nightly. They recorded the album in the nightclub itself and pressed the tape in Athens. The music beautifully encapsulates the way bands were re-vamping traditional music into soulful new renditions, and the Walias were THE instrumental-focused band of the era, breaking ground on so many levels (see notes below).

The record includes archival photos, interview content with former hotel staff and an essay by a long-time knowledgable fan and ATFA friend Tessema Tedele. Audio is carefully extracted and remastered from one of the only known original copies of the tape by the engineer we have worked with on every release, Jessica Thompson.

Odds are, any Ethiopian over the age of 35 who had access to TV or radio by the early 90s, will instantly recognize the sound of Walias. What is not a given is, how many would actually identify the band itself. Barely a day went by without hearing the Walias either in the background on radio or as an accompaniment to various programs on TV. Their music was so ubiquitous in media that most of us who enjoyed it never bothered to go out and look for it. Gradually, they started to slip out of public consciousness by the early 90s when newer works by bands such as Roha and Axumite were favored. Only then did those of us feeling a certain sense of loss started inquiring about "that music from TV" at record stores. Yet, most of their work remains stubbornly elusive.

This "Tezeta" album is one of those that have been impossible to find for nearly three decades. Sourced by Awesome Tapes From Africa and expertly remastered by Jessica Thompson, its unique and funky renditions of standards and popular songs of the day are so quintessentially Walias, flavorful and evocative. Hailu's melodic organ, unashamedly front and center in every track, makes even the complex pieces accessible. The stirringly distinct opening riff from "Zengadyw" took me right back to a certain time in my youth. Deliciously vivid, it's a time capsule in and of itself. "Gumegum" is a definite favorite. The vocal version, most popularly sang by the legendary Hirut Bekele, tells of unrequited love - an over-exploited theme in music of the time. "Tezeta" is the traditional anthem of nostalgia that doing a version of it was, for a long time, a rite of passage for any aspiring musician. "Endegena" (To Love Again), is a sleepy ballad by Mahmoud Ahmed getting a zesty uplift here. "Ou-Ou-Ta" is one of the signature songs of the greatest of them all, Tilahun Gessesse.

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/alemayehu-eshete-has-died

RIP the “Ethiopian Elvis” “Alemayehu Eshete. Some of his 1969 to 1974 songs are on Ethiopiques #9

RIP.

I thought this revive was going to be about this interview with Mulatu Astatke:

https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEIKDOVgIRYPtT6j56Elz7usqGAgEKg8IACoHCAow-4fWBzD4z0gw_fCpBg?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

rest well, alemayehu☮

just catching up with to know without knowing and it's predictably great.

Yep

see also:

https://www.discogs.com/Sosena-Gebre-Eyesus-Sosena-Gebre-Eyesus/release/12947296

― sleeve, maandag 7 september 2020 1:16 (one year ago)

RIP contemporary era Ethiopian singer Madingo Afework at too young an age. Not from classic era Ethiopiques, but thought folks who go to this thread might appreciate him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-oyFQYoUTc

I keep seeing this Walmart commercial that has Tsegue Maryam-Guebrou playing in the background (she of the almost intolerably beautiful solo piano Ethiopiques #21, Emahoy). I know it is absurdly anachronistic to be shook by music being used in a commercial in 2022, but it's messing with me

I wouldn't be shocked to hear it in a commercial per se but Walmart in particular is natural to get shook over I think.

Ethiopian Gala and cultural dinner w/ singers Maritu Legesse, Fasil Demoze, Abeba Desalgen November 27 in Silver Spring, Md

I wonder if these vocalists hearken back to old school Ethiopiques? Haven’t researched yet

https://ethiopianstoday.com/2022/11/06/legendary-ethiopian-artist-ali-birra-passed-away/

RIP Ali Birra

Happy Birthday Amahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebrou

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/emahoy-tsegue-maryam-guebrou-12th-december-2022

RIP

Just learned about the passing of Ethiopian artist Emahoy Tsegué Maryam Guèbrou, one of the most vital composers of the 20th century. It was always a joy to hear her beautiful music, whether on the speakers at home, performed by Maya Dunietz, or in Ethiopian cafes in London. RIP. pic.twitter.com/vTjgiQ1URV

— Fielding Hope (@fieldinghope) March 27, 2023

99 years old! Her stuff still sounds so amazing every time I play it. New archival collection coming out soon: https://emahoytsegemariamgebru.bandcamp.com/album/jerusalem

Ah shit. What an absolute genius. RIP.

It was really something discovering her music, floating in from a lost world from not so long ago, yet knowing that she was still out there alive in her cloister.

She was phenomenal.

the ethiopiques compilation is incredible

https://emahoytsegemariamgebru.bandcamp.com/album/jerusalem

The title track here is incredible.

title track is great because it has her wonderful sense of time, the other songs also have some of that but are more traditional classic solo piano

vocal compilation forthcoming https://emahoytsegemariamgebru.bandcamp.com/album/souvenirs

If you like some Ethiopiques comps, you might also like seeing the band Qwanqwa live. They are on a US tour now. Baltimore tonight , DC area Sunday and some gigs in between and many after

https://www.qwanqwa.net/tour

Zanzibara done by the same label had some very interesting material too. Not sure if it got anything like the same recognition.