While other folders had many long and detailed articles relating to the Ethiopiques artists and the individual Ethiopiques releases, the folder I was browsing through contained mostly short and predicable reviews from mainstream media sources. Then I found this:

Forum Threat Title: ‘How much are the Ethiopiques Artists Getting?’
“Given that Union Square licensed the material from Buda (…) how much do you think the original artists/songwriters (or if dead, their families) are getting for their labours? (…) One option would be for Union Square to link up with Fairtrade to discuss partnership possibilities”.

The answer in the forum came not from USM but from the owner of the forum, Charlie Gillett, who replied “Hmm, I wonder what the folks at Union Square will make of this? As they are so far down the licensing line, I don’t think they have any moral responsibilities to the artists beyond paying royalties to Buda (…) Most of the artists would have recorded for session fees at best. I can’t imagine a royalty structure existing at the time.”

These are strange days for the music industry and a mainstream label like Union Square Music really took a big risk releasing an obscure project such as ‘The Very Best of Ethiopiques’, as it cannot be over emphasised how difficult times are at present with the internet and illegal downloads undermining legal trade.

Because of this, it seems that nowadays many artists are having to seek alternative business models to generate revenue. For example Radiohead left EMI to join mass concert organisers Live Nation, U2 made over $20m from the release of a 3D film their live concert in Buenos Aires, and Prince released his new album for free with a British newspaper then sold out London’s biggest concert arena 21 times. It is in this environment that we have to look at the Ethiopiques artists and ask “What did they get?”.

Well… It lead directly to the Ethiopiques headlining at Glastonbury 2008 and Womad 2009. To continuous successful solo tours for Mulatu Astatqé, Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Gétatchèw Mèkurya, and Mahmoud Ahmed. To Mulatu Astatqé releasing his first album of new material in 30 years. And finally going a good way to undoing some of the awful stereotyping done by Live Aid and firmly entrenched in public’s conciousness ever since.

As Charlie Gullitt correctly points our Union Square is “a straight forward commercial company, with no pretence of having a social agenda” so considering this, the whole affair really has to go down as quite the most remarkable experience for any ethical movement supporting the Ethiopiques artists and as such offers the yet another brave new workable business model for the changing music industry to consider.

Timjim 2009

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainaffectedbaboonparade/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Ethiopiques legend Tlahoun Gèssèssè died on 19 April 2009 in Addis Ababa as he was being taken to hospital by his wife. He had been in poor health for several years due to diabetes and had just returned to Ethiopia from the United States.

Born in Addis Ababa to an Amhara father and Oromo mother, Tlahoun was widely loved by both the major ethnic groups in the country. Howeverunlike other Ethiopiques greats he was was unable to take part in the recent concerts following the recent re-releases because of ill-health.

At the time of his death national television and radio broadcasts were interrupted to broadcast the news. On Thursday April 23 2009 a state funeral was held with about one million Ethiopians, including government officials, and entertainers, gathered in Mesquel Square.

He is survived by his wife and two children and will be missed by all.

Timjim 2009

Image: Steffen Wurzel – Creative Commons

Few of the modern perceptions, ideas and images that Europeans have of Ethiopia are accurate. In fact, most are wide of the mark. The fact that the country’s coat of arms is a pentagram seems to be symbolic of its elusive, cryptic, even perhaps esoteric nature. For those who first encounter Ethiopia, its people and culture, one of the first surprises is how wonderfully different the country is. Take for example, time and the calendar. The year may currently be 2009 in Europe, yet in Ethiopia, the only country in the world to use the Ge’ez Calendar, the year is 2001.

Modern Ethiopia is a state with a long pedigree going by a variety of names across the centuries, including the Aksumite Empire, or more recently Abyssinia. Established sometime before the 10th century BCE, Ethiopia can even be found in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (written about 200 years later). The ancient Kingdom of Sheba (as in the ‘Queen of Sheba’) mentioned in the Old Testament is said to be situated here. What is more, Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian states in the world, converting many centuries before all the European nations. The most famous church of Ethiopian Orthodoxy, the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, is said to contain the Ark of the Covenant (the holy container holding the Ten Commandments).

Ethiopian culture carries this feeling of inspired and grounded tradition, yet also incredible diversity. With over eighty indigenous languages, homogeneity is not something indigenously Ethiopian. The Very Best of Ethiopiques picks up on this variety, and can be described as enchanting, earthy, melancholic, even. In its diversity, TVBE defies description and pigeon-holing, but at the same time there are common threads that run through much of the music we find here.

The common threads that the European ear might find it easier to grasp are the jazz-tinged sounds of Tesfa Maryam Kidané, Mulatu Astatqé, Batha Gèbrè-Heywèt and Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou. Tesfa Maryam Kidané’s “Heywèté” is a wonderful instance of styled saxophone playing and Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou’s “Mother’s Love” is an excellent example of simplistic yet piercing and delicate piano work. As familiar as these instruments may sound, one can hear the different tradition from which the music springs.

On listening for the first time to Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Wallias Band, Ayaléw Mèsfin & Black Lion Band and Sèyfu Yohannès we might be forgiven for thinking that we arelistening to funk. In fact, we are offered a dose of what might be more reliably and readily called high-tempo Ethiopian jazz-funk, with un-funk-like vocals and percussion that is remarkably well-grounded, earthy and solid.

These jazz- and funk-like sounds keeps the listener ‘attached’ to TVBE, but changes in rhythm, vocal style and the fact that TVBE is sung in wholly unfamiliar tongues keeps us forever surprised, mesmerised and suspended in the unknown. Two examples are Beyene Habte’s “Milènu” and Mulatu Astatqé’s “Embi Ila” which, through changes and syncopations, take the listener full circle through the known to the unknown and then back again.

Like Ethiopia itself, much of TVBE sounds unfamiliar and ‘other-worldly’. Take for instance the vocal qualities of Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gèssèssè and Menelik Wèsnatchèw which at times sound, for want of a better comparison, Arabic simply because the European ear is unable to find any other point of reference. Alèmu Aga’s “Abatatchen Hoy” falls even further outside any reference point, though. His deep singing and mastery of the begena captures an ancient and alien culture, enchanting, spiritual and deeply hypnotic.

The Very Best of Ethiopiques is unique in that it is an attempt to chart the traditions and ‘feel’ of a culture through the music of a short yet extremely productive and creative period: 1970s Ethiopia. It successfully captures the depth of Ethiopia, the diversity of Ethiopian music and the genuineness of its artists.

Raf Uzar 2009

So these words are not about that. No, not at all. They’re a plea for the real world of Ethiopian music today. Yes, in the main, the acoustic bands of the 70s no longer exist. And yes, it’s very probable their demise was economic rather than artistic. Although promoters might still pay as much for just two musicians and an arsenal of electronics as they used to pay for a whole orchestra, the associated costs – particularly in the Ethiopian diaspora – are significantly less.

And you might regret that. But if Ethiopian music is only to be appreciated through a wistful and rosy rear-view mirror then a disservice is done, not only to the music, but also to a people. Because the songs are still there. The great performances are still there. The addictive rhythms and unique melodies that twist and twine in a manner that seems completely unconstrained by their pentatonic format … all these are still there.

And if the clothes are electronic and the aspirations more in tune with MTV than BBC Radio 4, France Inter or NPR, then so what? That’s only the surface. The Western world missed much of what went on in Ethiopian music the first time around. It would be ironic if, having finally caught up, we fixed our appreciation to a particular time and space, refusing to open our ears to its manifestations today.

Iain Scott www.triple-earth.co.uk 2009
(The Very Best of Ethiopique is compiled by Iain Scott and Steve Bunyan)

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So, I pulled out my best Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm record only to be abruptly stopped in my tracks:
“I don’t want to listen to that,” she exclaimed, “I don’t care if he is a genius or not. I’m not interested!”
This brings me to the unusual and unique example of Gétatchèw Mèkurya, a true individual in the world of Ethiopian music, who one day decided to transpose with his saxophone a traditional vocal style of Ethiopian war songs. Performing in a military cape and head gear resembling a lion’s mane, Mèkurya plays a music called ’shellèla fukara’, which involves shouting and howling, until you lose your throat into the instrument playing a music that spirals into less and less structure and inhibition. It is liked by Ethiopian audiences because they can recognise it as the vocal style of their war songs which is saying “We will kill you. We will cut the balls off you. We will do this, and we will do that,” (Francis Falceto) and when Mèkurya plays, each and every Ethiopian can hear behind the saxophone these lyrics shouted as loud as can be.

Gétatchèw Mèkurya started his pioneering adventures in music in 1952-3, a full 10 years before the beginning of the US Free Jazz Scene. Like all Ethiopians at this time, he was unfamiliar with music from the rest of the world (including the rest of Africa), and knew little or nothing of international Jazz Culture. He had been lucky enough to be recruited by the Municipality Orchestra of Addis Ababa where he had learned to play the saxophone performing in theatres and bands, and that was it. End of story. If we now fast forward to present day, Gétatchèw Mèkurya can be found playing with cutting edge Free Jazz Bands where his style is now compared to that of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler. Mèkurya loves playing with these bands (who love playing with him) as he is given the chance to blow and blow, competing with all, to see who can go furthest in their music. It is in this Free Jazz movement built on the morals of the 1960s civil rights movement that the war songs of Gétatchèw Mèkurya have found their home.

Although unique in his own way, Gétatchèw Mèkurya is not the first to reveal this incredible dichotomy that allows traditional values to sit comfortably next to cutting edge modern ones. Sun Ra arrived at the same point travelling in the opposite direction, leaving his origins in the open Chicago Improvised Jazz scene of the 1960s and ending up in a separatist, traditionalist, afro-centric sect claiming it could save the world. If it hadn’t been for this, the musical innovations in improvisation and communal creativity as practised by Sun Ra would have elevated his name to the very top of the Jazz world. As it stands though, he remains a cult figure on the fringes, just as does Gétatchèw Mèkurya.

I heard Gétatchèw Mèkurya’s music before I found out they were based on war songs, and am now left in two minds. As anyone who has studied modern cultural theory knows, there are many routes to end up at the same artistic conclusion, some morally sound and others not. But to prefer the music of Duke Ellington to that of Charlie Parker just because of their private lives, though understandable, also leaves an uncomfortable feeling. With regards to Gétatchèw Mèkurya, who can say if it is possible to take a moral ‘high ground’ on his music, as even if in the past he was cut off from the Free Jazz movement, by now he must be more than aware of what it represents?

Timjim 2008

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Below are 3 great articles published by the UK’s national press. Who says everything you read in the papers is rubbish?

“the world is finally discovering how great the music of Ethiopia is”

Ethiopiques: Addis Ababa-baloola-a-wop-bam-boom! – The Telegraph 11 August 2007

“the African answer to swinging London”

Ethiopiques: Swinging back to old Addis – The Independent 2 August 2007

“funk workouts that retained an eastern-sounding, Ethiopian edge”

Haile’s got a brand new bag – The Guardian 10 august 2007

Good stuff!

Below are listed our choice of the best modern ‘non-Ethiopian’ bands, all of whom have MySpace sites for you to go and listen to their music for free.

	Either / Orchestra Myspace
Top US Ethiojazz Band! Gig List, Gallery, and 3 songs on this small, but well formed Myspace.
	Debo Myspace
Ethio Mashups US band mashing up Ethiopian sounds into the strangest thing you’ve ever heard. Debo is a classic Amharic word means “communal labor”. Far Out!
	Bedume’s Band Myspace
Franco-Ethio French Afro-beat band (French language site) sliding into Ethio Groove thanks to use of singers. Touring continental Europe like crazy.
	Imperial Tiger Orchestra Myspace
Imperial Tiger Orchestra Great grooves from Geneve. Pure Ethiopian sounds direct from Switzerland.

SO, WHAT did the Ethiopians ever do for us? Well Haile Sellassie/Jah Rastafari, obviously. And, for better or worse, Live Aid and Band Aid. And for a period until 1978, , when Addis was as hot as muscle shoals. Kudos, then, to Amha Eshèté, who set up the first independent record company in the country and kick started this story. Like hippy entrepreneurs in the summer of ’68, Eshèté was in his mid 20’s and determined to take on The Man: in his case a heavy handed censor who was anything but rigorous when it came to music. Between 1969 and ’75 Amha records released 103 singles, and alongside them came a whole industry and a short lived scene that only died under the long curfew of Mengistu’s Derg regime.

Kudos, too, to Francis Falceto, who spent ten years trying to put out a compilation of Ahma’s hits, before beginning the Ethiopiques series (volume twentysomething coming soon). Such a catalogue is daunting: a time dominated by afro’s and miniskirts, funk and flares, but there was quiet satie-esque jazz, traditional music so old it could have been played on King David’s harp. Wading into the series of unprepared tempts disappointment. Indeed, it’s the wealth of unheralded soul and its sequencing that costs this long-awaited initiate-friendly 28 track sampler a star. Like a DJ it begins tentatively as if warming us up for the main course. Three of the first six tracks are by jazz pioneer Mutalu Astatqé – they’re intriguing tunes of unresolved tension, but they feel more like obstacles than entrées. When you hit Mahmoud Ahmed, you know you’ve struck gold. With his extraordinary vibrato, he sounds like Lennon through a Leslie speaker (cf Tomorrow Never Knows). While singing the backwards coda to Rain.

The key to the Ethiopian sound though, comes not from the throat, but from the bands finely drilled musicians, who were, as with many of Jamaica’s heroes, schooled in brass bands. To keep the government happy, they mixed their military backgrounds with traditional music and this new sound. Once you’ve cracked the regimentation they imposed on themselves, the full musical range of Ethiopia’s golden years opens up and Alémayéhu Eshété, the Wallis Band and Tlahoun Gésséssé become friends for life. Think about it: the Imperial Bodyguard Band tried to railroad their country into modernity through soul. They were beaten back by greater forces, true, but here’s what they left us. Not roads, aqueducts or sanitation, just the funk.

David Hutcheon

“The essential introduction to Ethiopian music”

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 current scene in Ethiopia is as a result little-known outside the country. What we do know is largely thanks to the energetic and selfless work of Francis Falceto and his hugely admired Éthiopiques series for Buda. Since we first covered it back in Songlines #3 (when a series of 15 CDs was projected), this has proved a lifeline for fans of Ethiopian music. But with the series now at 21 CDs and counting, there’s clearly a need for this budget-priced two CD overview.

The soulful sound of saxophonist Tesfa-Maryam Kidané takes you straight into the glorious, laidback sound of swinging Addis in the late 60s and early 70s with its distinctive pentatonic melodies curling around themselves. It’s a seductive opener, and the saxophone is the predominant siren call throughout these tracks, even the vocal ones. There are echoes of Glen Miller and James Brown behind this music.

The two discs feature tracks by the star vocalists Mahmoud Ahmed (his famous ‘Erè Mèla Mèla’), and Tlahoun Gèssèssè (the awesome ‘Sema’), both still little-known in the West. There are also gems by many others and brief notes by Francis Falceto to introduce them. The selection was made by Iain Scott who played his own part in the story of Ethiopian music, releasing the albums of Aster Aweke from the late 80s. Inevitably, the selection favours the urban and commercial aspects of the Éthiopiques series, so more traditional performers such as Asnaqètch Wèrqu, and azmari nightclub musicians, don’t get in. However, an other-worldly ‘Pater Noster’ from Alèmu Aga, played on the begena – or ‘Harp of King David’ – rounds the selection off. The essential introduction to Ethiopian music.

Simon Broughton

“Is there any musicmore alluring (…) more down right sexy?”

Despite it being the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, the music of Ethiopia has remained conspicuously underwhelming to European
ears – only US residing song birds Aster Aweke and Gigi have turned Western heads in recent times. Aside from that there is a long running series of largely vintage recordings from the ‘60s and ‘70s whose name has become a by-word for quality, mystery and captivation – Ethiopiques. Currently running to 21 absorbing volumes, it’s a series that’s converted A-list names to the glories of otherwise long forgotten music, among them Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and Brian Eno.

The Very Best Of Ethiopiques does exactly what you’d expect, undertaking the unenviable task of distilling 28 tracks from across the whole series, and spreading them across two discs. What’s immediately apparent is the extraordinary breadth of music being played in the swinging clubs of Addis Ababa 30 or 40 years ago. We get funk blues and loads of jazz inflected flavours, but it sounds so different, so-er-Ethiopian. As Elvis Costello observes, it’s music “from a strange and wonderful place of its own”. Its also proof that the likes of Mahmoud Ahmed and Mulatu Astatqé should have been huge stars in their homeland (although Hollywood has recently given Astatqé a belated leg up, by heavily featuring his music on the sound track to the Bill Murray vehicle Broken Flowers). Allow yourself to be cast under the Ethiopiques spell and then answer this question. Is there any music – anywhere – more alluring, more seductive, more down right sexy?

Nige Tassell

“astonishing music”

At the end of the Sixties and the early Seventies, Ethiopia was in the dying years of the imperial decline of Haile Selassie and the early years of a brutally repressive junta led by Mengistu. Within the confines of this stifling and constrictive environment there flowered some astonishing music. At times showing Fela Kuti’s influences, in the big band sax flavour and other times a different take on regional music, this is a music that is accessible to all and has been championed by the likes of Robert Plant, Brian Eno and Elvis Costello. It is the fresh sound of spiritual freedom.

Nicky Tesco

“This double CD is a revelation” 18 Aug Album Of The Week

This double CD is a revelation. From the vaults of the Buda Musique label comes a mesmerising collection of tracks recorded in Ethiopia from the Sixties onwards that has until now been a secret of the cognoscenti. Ranging from dreamy blues to wild R&B, with jazz-style piano thrown in, the material is fascinating and addictive. It could do for Ethiopia what the Buena Vista Social Club did for Cuba.

Roger Trapp

T U R K A I R O

CD1:
1. Heywete – Tesfa Maryam Kidane
2. Yekermo Sew – Mulatu Astatqe
3. Yekatit – Mulatu Astatqe
4. Enken Yelelebesh – Girma Beyene
5. Ewnet Yet Lagegnesh – Bahta Gebre-Heywet
6. Gubelye – Mulatu Astatqe
7/8. Ere Mela Mela/Metche New – Mahmoud Ahmed
9 .Tchero Adari Negn – Alemayehu Eshete
10.Telantena Zare – Alemayehu Eshete
11.Muziqawi Silt – Wallias Band
12.Gedawo – Ayalew Mesfin & Black Lion Band
13.Tchuheten Betsemu – Tlahoun Gessesse
14.Tezeta – Menelik Wesnatchew

CD2:
1. Mother’s Love - Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou
2. Sema - Tlahoun Gessesse
3. Milenu - Tewelde Redda
4. Embi Ila - Beyene Habte
5. Tezeta - Mulatu Astatqe
6. Set Alamenem - Girma Beyene
7. Yemendjar Shega - Muluqen Mellesse & Dahlak Band
8. Antchi Hoye - Getatchew Mekurya
9. Kulun Mankwalesh (1970) - Tlahoun Gessesse
10. Shellela - Getatchew Mekurya
11. Mela Mela - Seyfu Yohannes
12. Atawurulegn Lela - Mahmoud Ahmed
13. Fetsum Denq Ledj Nesh - Mahmoud Ahmed
14. Abatatchen Hoy (Pater Noster) - Alemu Aga

These 2CDs contain some of the very best tracks from the highly acclaimed ‘ethiopiques’ series featuring, among others, the award-winning Mahmoud Ahmed, national icon Tlahoun Gessesse, the `James Brown’ of Alemayehu Eshete and `Broken Flowers’ movie music of Mulatu Astatqe.

“This is a unique record release series, much of it from the glorious explosion of soulful, sorrowful and joyful music cut between the repression of absolute monarchy and the cultural insanity of the Derg regime. The spoilt complaints of Western pop musicians pale into insignificance compared to the defiant human spirit contained in these recordings.

Do yourself a favour and discover the Ethiopian R&B counterparts to James Brown, Elvis Presley and Jackie Wilson but also jazz composers, choral groups, folk minstrels and bluesmen with power and wildness of Bukka White or Son House, or contemplative piano music that might suggest Bill Evans or Maurice Ravel for a moment, but is really from a strange and wonderful place of its own.”

Elvis Costello