|
If you are reading this you do not have a Flash Player installed, or maybe you have Javascript disabled?. |
 |
|
|
 |
| Éthiopiques |
|
www.ethiopiques.info/
|
|
“Utterly distinctive and indispensable”
FINANCIAL TIMES
“Every track is thrillingly addictive”
UNCUT
“A unique record release series... a glorious explosion of soulful sorrowful and joyful music. Do yourself a favour and discover the Ethiopian R&B counterparts to James Brown, Elvis Presley and Jackie Wilson... but it is really from a strange and wonderful place of its own.”
ROBERT PLANT
“If you've never heard this music an adventure waits”
*****THE OBSERVER
|
|
Compared to the high profile that West Africa has on the world music scene, East Africa has remained very much in the shadows. In the case of Ethiopia, there are political reasons for this. A golden age of Ethiopian music was brought to an end by the Mengistu dictatorship (1974-1991), during which many musicians emigrated, and the haunting, infectious and wildly seductive music scene in Ethiopia is as a result little-known outside the country.
What we do know is largely thanks to the energetic work of Francis Falceto and his hugely admired Éthiopiques compilations for Buda (no less than 20 volumes!); an album series that inspired what is unquestionably the most important tour of Ethiopian music ever seen out of its homeland. The Éthiopiques live show unites three of the biggest stars of Ethiopia's golden age; Mahmoud Ahmed, Alèmayèhu Eshèté and Gétatchèw Mékurya, who perform their best known works accompanied by a10 piece band. Having debuted at London's Barbican and performed as a headline act at both Glastonbury Festival and Ireland's Festival of World Cultures, they will be available internationally during the summer of 2010.
Mahmoud Ahmed
Since the European release of 'Eré Mèla Mèla' (1986 Crammed Discs / expanded and remastered 1999 Buda Musique), Mahmoud Ahmed along with Aster Aweke and Gigi, is without doubt the Ethiopian artist least unknown to the western public. This influential album, originally released in Ethiopia in 1975, was for years the only example of modern Ethiopian music known in the 'west' and has been praised by critics from the New Musical Express to The New York Times.
Music, in particular, plays a strong integrating role in Ethiopian society and Mahmoud is a true veteran of the scene; he began appearing with the Imperial Bodyguard Band in 1962-63 and has never stopped since, accompanied by just about every Ethiopian musician of note. His "melancholy blues, piercingly minimalist country airs, brassy, danceable urban jazz, heart-wrenching, off-key crooners: a rich and stirring patchwork of sounds, crossing afro-beat, latino-swing moves and Eastern arabesques" (Anaïs Prosaïc) have, more recently, been reappraised with acclaimed, energetic performances at Womad, and as a well-deserved and popular winner of the 'Africa' category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2007.
Alèmayèhu Eshèté
Along with Mahmoud and Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté is one of the most prolific singers in Ethiopian recorded music. Star vocalist of the Police Orchestra from 1960, he became one of the first artists to leave that institution and join the young guard of independent bands. Often described as the 'Ethiopian James Brown' or the 'Ethiopian Elvis', for his style and stage presence as well as for his music, Alèmayèhu has long symbolised modernist Ethiopia: in love with rhythm' n' blues and soul music, but still keeping hold of the unique roots of millennial Abyssinia.
Gétatchèw Mèkurya
There exists, among Ethiopia's numerous vocal genres, a form of singing that is purely warlike: epic and declamatory, harsh and hoarse-voiced, it is known as shellèla. In the past, and up until the 20th century, it was de rigueur to belt out a shellèla before battle, in order to galvanise one's troops. Anybody could sing a shellèla and the genre, to this day, is well-loved by Ethiopians.
Gétatchèw Mèkurya was not the only one to adapt those furious solos for the saxophone but he remains, in the annals of modern Ethiopian music, the symbol of shellèla. Nicknamed "Negus of Saxophone" and a real giant - both musically and physically - he even wears the symbolic trappings of the genre: a military cape symbolising the pelt of a killed animal, and headgear resembling a lion's mane. Beyond the military references however, here we encounter a musical form that is daring, improvisational, angry and impetuous, where each melisma spirals dizzyingly towards less structure and greater freedom. Without resorting to clichés, shellèla saxophone was a sort of free jazz before its time. Gétatchèw remembers trying out the first heady strains in 1952-53 but still knows nothing of Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler of the 60s.
« back to roster
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
