Ethiopiques S/D

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.

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.