Ethiopiques S/D

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.

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.