Was I there? I just heard about this stuff recently, and I have a feeling I'd really like it.
― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 3 November 2005 23:15 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19126
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19598
― H (Heruy), Friday, 4 November 2005 08:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Friday, 4 November 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 4 November 2005 14:40 (eighteen years ago) link
that's awesome about the mulatu astatke shows!
― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Friday, 4 November 2005 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 4 November 2005 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 4 November 2005 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― bob snoom (vestibule), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 17:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― greypejooze (Ryanssssss), Monday, 2 October 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.afropop.org/radio/radio_program/ID/666/Ethiopia%20Part%201:%20Empire%20and%20Revolution
― H (Heruy), Thursday, 26 October 2006 15:56 (seventeen years ago) link
saw mahmoud ahmed play outdoors yesterday, GREAT performance!!
― s1ocki, Monday, 9 July 2007 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
JEALOUS!
― Alex in SF, Monday, 9 July 2007 21:54 (sixteen years ago) link
he was awesome! and the band was smoking hot.
― s1ocki, Monday, 9 July 2007 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link
and people were going nuts. clearly a big event for the ethiopian community. much happiness all around.
― s1ocki, Monday, 9 July 2007 22:05 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― sam500, Monday, 30 July 2007 08:26 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― s1ocki, Monday, 30 July 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― tylerw, Monday, 30 July 2007 15:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Jazzbo, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:27 (sixteen years ago) link
yes. haunting.
― s1ocki, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:30 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Exactly.
― Jazzbo, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link
let's not get carried away here. she studied music in europe, chances are she heard jazz.
― s1ocki, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Monday, 30 July 2007 16:45 (sixteen years ago) link
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 )
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 30 August 2007 05:06 (sixteen years ago) link
oh, fuckin a, that sounds awesome!
― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 30 August 2007 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link
go see mahmoud ahmed!!!
(and everyone else)
― s1ocki, Thursday, 30 August 2007 15:26 (sixteen years ago) link
i totally will. i guess alemayehu doesn't play anymore, but i would give my left nut to see him perform.
― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 30 August 2007 16:44 (sixteen years ago) link
You have exactly one week to learn how to dance skista.
― nabisco, Thursday, 30 August 2007 16:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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/
― H in Addis, Thursday, 30 August 2007 16:52 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Dimension 5ive, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.ethiopianmillennium2000.com/millennium.html
― curmudgeon, Friday, 31 August 2007 05:31 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 31 August 2007 12:49 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 September 2007 22:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, reggaeton has reached the Gurage people of Southwestern Ethiopia.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 9 September 2007 01:59 (sixteen years ago) link
The dancing in that video totally kicks ass.
― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:07 (sixteen years ago) link
I like the ending too.
― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:08 (sixteen years ago) link
And tell us about that drink? I guess I could just look it up, since you gave the name.
― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Mmm. Honey mead something or other.
― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:21 (sixteen years ago) link
It's v. good.
Really need to get the rest of the series. I scored about half of them in the Great Tower Bankruptcy Firesale.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Yea, Tej is good. Busy with family I missed the big Ethiopian show with Mahmoud Ahmed and many others last night. Maybe I can make the outdoor event near the Washington Monument this week--I think there will be music at it.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 9 September 2007 14:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Out of curiosity, how do people who like the Ethiopiques vintage stuff feel about late-80s/90s/current material -- i.e., the more laid-back digital-keyboard style?
― nabisco, Monday, 10 September 2007 16:51 (sixteen years ago) link
i do not know it at all!
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 01:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Just a random example of Ethiopian semi-trad pop (as opposed to, you know, more global pop sounds) -- Netsanet Mekonen. This just seems like one where you can hear plenty of continuity from the kind of stuff on Ethiopiques:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tPFkqZKm_sI
Sadly, 90% of Ethiopian-music comments boxes on Youtube are now flamewars involving someone called EritreanBabe. On the plus side, some guy has a bunch of "old-school" TV clips that are basically like Ethiopian Soul Train, and some guy has done a "Habesha Idol" clip that involves him putting in fake teeth and doing a solid speaking imitation of an older-generation Ethiopian.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 18:00 (sixteen years ago) link
for anyone in teh Boston area
free lecture/demonstration Friday, September 28, 3 pm : "From Azmari to Jazz and Pop: Ethiopian Traditional and Modern Music." New College Theatre Rehearsal Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St. For more information, call 617.495.8676. http://140.247.118.196/lfp/details.cfm?EVENT_ID=7194
Either/Orchestra with special guests Hana Shenkute, Setegn Atanaw, Minale Dagnew and Mulatu Astatke The Somerville Theatre Davis Square, Somerville MA September 29, 2007: 7 pm tix: $28 http://www.worldmusic.org/concerts_event_indiv.php?p_seq=624
also, was rereading the thread and saw this "volume 10 - tezeta - is also fantastic. A beautiful Seyfou Yohannes track " reminding me that the Seyfou Yohannes track, Tizeta, was sampled for Common's "The Game"
― H in Addis, Thursday, 20 September 2007 09:34 (sixteen years ago) link
hi H!
― s1ocki, Thursday, 20 September 2007 13:24 (sixteen years ago) link
i like it all right; i don't know anywhere near as much about it as i do with the golden age jamz but those dudes are playing and singing around here all the time. i am not 100% into the types of keyboard sounds they tend to use, and i miss the sweat and funkiness and guitars. some of the arrangements are pretty kickass though.
― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 20 September 2007 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link
"laid-back"?? most of that stuff is speeded up and laid-back is not what i'd call it, personally i find most of it an abomination, some really talented singers and some musicians out there but the arrangements and lack of songwriting on most of it really depresses me
i like some of the new stuff, Burntface, the ethiop hiphop guys out of (atlanta?) have some nice tracks, Off track just majes me giggle, friends loved the bole 2 harlem album which left me kinda cold but no antipathy
Gigi has done some fabulous work, the Gigi album with Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, HYerbie Hancock, Henry Threadgill + ethiop musicians really did more than anything to push what was being done contemporarily forward, the acoystic album she did Abyssinia Infinite also did a lot to push boundaries but tho ppl are impressed its easier to churn out another quickie synth-based studio album than anything else
right now i'm all at abt the budos and their mix of funk with ethiop styles, highly recommended
oh, and hello back mr slutsky
― H in Addis, Monday, 24 September 2007 14:51 (sixteen years ago) link
H, our man in Addis Adaba. (There really needs to be a full on FAP there.)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Schedule it before the end of the year, and it can be H and my mom, at least.
Laid-back = a lot of the more recent stuff I hear over here, at least, draws as much on Ethio jazz stuff, which calms it down a little -- but I think a lot of the "laid back" feel just sits in the difference in feel between guitar + bass + punchy horns (on 70s-era stuff) and mellow digital synth settings (toward the late 80s or whenever). But it might also be a matter of what crosses the ocean (haha and deemed sedate enough to play & sell in restaurants)
― nabisco, Monday, 24 September 2007 17:44 (sixteen years ago) link