#ethio jazz

[ferylcheryl]

[mywifeleftme]

357: Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band // Wede Harer Guzo

Wede Harer Guzo Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band 1970s, Ms Recording (Bandcamp)

I can’t 100% recall, but I’m pretty sure this was the first African record I ever bought (it was this or Nass El Ghiwane), and I wasn’t the only one—I’ve got a few friends with exactly one African record in their collection, and it’s this. When his music was rediscovered in 2016 after Awesome Tapes From Africa pressed this record (using Mergia’s own cassette copy as a source), Wede Harer Guzo became for western music nerds a part of that small company of gateway albums to the music of an entire continent. Let’s play a game of Remember Some Guys.

Remember Some Guys: That One African Record Edition

Expensive Shit Who is William Onyeabor? Wede Harer Guzo Nigeria 70 (The Definitive Story of 1970’s Funky Lagos) A dollar bin Miriam Makeba LP uh TEN$ION Remain in Light (honorary)

God I’m tired. Anyway, I’ve always had kind of an uncertain relationship with this record. Mergia’s organ can sound like a cool balm on my aching brain or… elevator music. Dahlak Band can sound like a perfect fusion of the floaty “intellectual highlife” of Celestine Ukwu and the grooves of Booker T. and the MG’s… or, what were we talking about? An entire side just past me by unnoticed, yet again. I think this has more to do with me than it does with the record… though at a cassette-length hour-plus run time, some ideas do get repeated.

(Three ellipses in one paragraph… I think that’s more than I’ve used in this whole series so far. I’m so tired of writing these things man. I’m not even really divorced, I can’t wait to leave.)

Anyway, again, at its best, the record is transcendently beautiful. The way Mergia’s organ expands and contracts like the shimmer of light on dark water on “Anchin Kfu Ayinkash,” guitarist Dawit Kassa answering his pauses with little soulful licks… there the ellipses go again. Sometimes the record feels like it’s insinuating I should go to the lobby for more popcorn. Maybe I’ll buy Raisinettes?

It’s very good I’m saying, obviously. See you tomorrow.

357/365

[theparanoid]

Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu

(2018, full album)

[Ethio-Jazz, Tizita]

[magicalmysterymix]

Ethiopian Jazz Mix - Ethio Jazz Feat. music from: Mulatu Astatke, Getatchew Mekuria, Walias Band, Jonovan Cooper, Tukul Band, Kibrom Birhane, Girum Gizaw, Anbessa Orchestra, Akalé Wubé.. "From the traditional rhythms of Mulatu Astatke to the contemporary interpretations of Jonovan Cooper, this mix showcases Ethiopia's rich musical heritage and diverse artistic expressions in Jazz and traditional rhythms."

[happylittlehermit]

Ethiopian jazz may be my new favorite sub genre of music.

[albums-log]

[twistedsoulmusic]

Leeds’ most mysterious outfit MABGATE bring together ethio-jazz, desert blues and retro soul to create a sound reminiscent of BADBADNOTGOOD, Khruangbin and Surprise Chef on their new single ‘I Asked’.

[cowbrains]

Kasalefkut-hulu (1972) - Mulatu Astatke

[shamelesswizardtastemaker]

[mywifeleftme]

339: Mahmoud Ahmed // ማሕሙድ ፡ ኣሕመድ

ማሕሙድ ፡ ኣሕመድ Mahmoud Ahmed 1975, Kaifa (Bandcamp)

Says something extremely cool about Ethiopia circa 1975 that something like this was pop; not merely because the tracks are long and groovy (the case with most African music), but because of their sunblasted grandeur, their fervour. ማሕሙድ አሕመድ (Mahmoud Ahmed, also issued in the ‘80s as Erè mèla mèla) is a formidable work of fusion. I hear notes of the Afrobeat movement that was sweeping West Africa, and the heavy influence of Arabic music from the north and across the nearby Red Sea, but also American spiritual jazz (the latter itself partially derived from African and Eastern sounds). “Sedètègnash Nègn / Samerayé” and “Endénèsh Gèdawo” are among the most striking African recordings I’ve heard, built on mesmerizing, helixing odd-time double bass rhythms stabbed through by blurts of saxophone, like someone repeatedly skewering a serpent with a barbecue fork. The ritualistic air conjured by the Ibex Band and Ahmed’s tremulous, utterly committed vocal makes me think of Exuma and, oddly, Black Sabbath-era Ozzy—a frail, human figure both captivated by the musical powers he commands and pushed to the limits of his sanity.

Much of the record is lighter fare, like “Abay Mado” and “Erè mèla mèla,” and they have their own sway, kissed by flickers of organ, electric guitar, and even flute. These tunes exude an ambient sense of good will, like some musical healing practice, and make a welcome contrast to the more intense jams—they’re so lulling in fact that if I’m doing something else while I listen I can almost forget what I’ve got on, until something freaky like “Ohoho Gédama” drops. I wish I could speak more to the lyrics, but online translators seem to brick Amharic, to the point I couldn’t even tell you what most of the titles mean. I’ve little doubt though that they deal with the same universal concerns as most music of the time and place: the love and fear of love and God. You can party to this, and you can meditate to it, and you can absolutely break in an extremely elaborate hookah to it. Highly recommended.

339/365

[theparanoid]

Mulatu Astatke - Sketches Of Ethiopia

(2013 album)

Full Youtube Video | Spotify

[Ethio-Jazz, Afro-Cuban Jazz]

[garbagemillennial]

🌟💛

“Everything that we are was made in a supernova”

[haveyouheardthisband]