Ethiopian Music

Thanks

Saturday September 18th

For the first time in New York City
Legendary World Music Award Winner
MAHMOUD AHMED
Ethiopian Music Legend Icon

at
SOB'S

Yeah figures it'd happen after I move across the country. Dammit.

He has done DC shows over the years, but they're usually only publicized in flyers left at Ethiopian restaurants and in D.C.'s Ethiopian newspaper.

L.A. has Ethiopian restaurants and an Ethiopian community, I wonder if he's doing a gig there also?

And apparently he has played NYC before-- and he was just at the Chicago jazz fest

So a weekend for ethiop music in NYC
Friday night got Debo Band and Fendika at Joe's Pub, Debo is a Boston based big band put together by Danny Mekonnen, the repertoire is ethiopian music tho the band is a mixture of americans and ethiopians, presented them at my festival a cpl years back, Fendika is an azmari bet in Addis Ababa and got singers and dancers from here performing with Debo. If anyone saw the Getachew/Ex tour the owner of Fendika, Melaku who is performing with Debo was the dancer on the tour

Fri Sep 17 - Joe's Pub - NYC
Sat Sep 18- Balliceaux - Richmond, VA
Sun Sep 19 - Crossroads Music - Philadelphia
Thu Sep 23 - Burnside Park Music Series - Providence, RI
Sat Sep 25 - Global Union - Milwaukee
Sat Sep 25 - Martyr's - Chicago World Music Festival
Sun Sep 26 - Navy Pier -Chicago World Music Festivalv

Mahmoud is a phenomenal live performer and one of my all time favorite voices, he played DC a cpl weeks ago, not sure if he has another show there. His west coast shows were cancelled due to travel issues may be recheduled
(and yeah he played NYC 2 years ago as part Lincoln Center Outdoors, as I organized that show was a lil peeved when I saw the flyer)

Oooh by coincidence I'm going to be in NYC from 18th! You there, H, or are you literally "in Addis"?

literally in Addis

I'm actually arriving on Saturday evening, so there's every chance I'll be fast asleep by the time the concert starts. We'll see...

Awww man, I wish I knew about that M. Ahmed show in DC. DC has a huge Ethiopian population but, as I noted above, the shows only seem to be advertised via postcards in Ethiopian restaurants, an Ethiopian language newspaper available only at Ethiopian shops and restaurants, and there might be a one time a week AM radio show in Ahmaric. I love Ethiopian food, but if I don't go have it for a few weeks, I seem to miss out on events. H,' do you have any DC contacts who could keep me in the loop? When I found a postcard in January for a Teddy Afro show that month at the 6,000 seat DC Armory, and blogged about it for the City Paper it got linked to by several websites and got tons of comments from Ethiopians.

hmm, there are a cpl mailing lists, will get back to you on best way to be up to date

speaking of Teddy, I am quite surprised by the few tracks that have heard from his upcoming album, was never a huge fan and thought the majority of his stuff was just watered down pop reggae but this is a much more rootsy approach, lots of traditional instruments, much more instruments period and less reliance on synths. actually really looking forward to hearing the whole thing

Thanks. Someday I need to familiarize myself with the DC Ethiopian musician community that perform at various Washington DC area restaurants and write about them in the paper/website.

RIP Getatchew Mekurya

Some mentions of him here on this thread:

Ethiopiques S/D

https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/admas-sons-of-ethiopia?fbclid=IwAR0hS_x4YAs9D_JSPjkPNJyj5O5fxU8Yaks4-SJhzzxR_4g1YFn25gRSCHI

In 1984 , 4 Young Ethiopians in DC recorded an album that rearranged golden era sounds with their DC & elsewhere influences - highlife, disco, Brazilian Jazz, reggae. They added 80s synths and drum machines too

The album is now reissued

Oh, that’s my interview/ Article on them

Oh, that’s my interview/ Article on them

Has anybody come across a source for the Ayalew Mesfin Complete Works on cd other than the label which is charging $26 for p+p?
Hoped there might be something thisi side of the Atlantic that would therefore have much cheaper postage but is the lable keeping the cd version solely to themselves. Am seeing the lp version coming from other sources.

Nope