Mahmoud Ahmed is one of the biggest singers in Ethiopia, known all over the world. One of his greatest gifts as a live performer include his ability to get the shoulder-shaking Eskista dance spread like wildfire! With him on stage, he is one of Ethiopia’s most legendary live bands - Roha Band!
Mahmoud Ahmed - Selam
Mahmoud Ahmed was born in Addis Ababa’s Mercato district and began his career as shoe shine boy before he became one of his country’s top stars. Already at an early age he was fascinated by the music that was played at home on Ethiopian radio. During the 60s, he got a job at the club, Arizona, the club where Haile Selassie’s legendary Imperial Bodyguard Band played. He soon became part of the band’s regular set, where he stayed until 1974.
During the 70th, Mahmoud recorded a series of songs with the record companies Amha and Kaifa and quickly became a big name within Ethiopian music. In the 1980s he ran his own music store in Addis Ababa while he continued his singing career. 1986 he gained a larger Western audience when the Belgian label Crammed Discs released the collection Ere Mela Mela, and even greater international attention in the late 1990s after Buda Musique launched the Éthiopiques series. This led to new recordings and tours in Europe and the USA with Boston’s Either / Orchestra, and French Badume Band. His undulating, slightly veiled voice, which seems to be able to express every nuance, has retained the charm and properties that are characteristic of Azmaris, traditional bards performing in local pubs in Ethiopia.
Mahmoud Ahmed is still one of the most well known and beloved Ethiopian artists in the world.
Mahmoud Ahmed - 01 - Tetesh (5:36) Mahmoud Ahmed - 02 - Abaye mado (5:20) Mahmoud Ahmed - 03 - Kelenesh (Gurage) (5:14) Mahmoud Ahmed - 04 - Erey endale lebay (7:34) Mahmoud Ahmed - 05 - Selam (4:59) Mahmoud Ahmed - 06 - Awy legeto (7:07) Mahmoud Ahmed - 07 - Enbayen lemetereg (5:48) Mahmoud Ahmed - 08 - Tey neylegn menew (5:20) Mahmoud Ahmed - 09 - Tizita yakatelew (6:31) Mahmoud Ahmed - 10 - Dekamenesh temate (5:37)
Orchestra Ethiopia was an Ethiopian performing group formed in 1963 by the Egyptian-born American composer and ethnomusicologist Halim El-Dabh (born 1921). The group, which was founded in Addis Ababa, comprised up to 30 traditional instrumentalists, vocalists, and dancers from many different Ethiopian regions and ethnic groups (including Amhara, Tigray-Tigrinia, Oromo, Welayta, and Gimira). It was the first ensemble of its type, as these diverse instruments and ethnic groups previously had never played together. For a time, due to El-Dabh's efforts, the Orchestra was in residence at the Creative Arts Centre of Haile Selassie I University (now Addis Ababa University).
Orchestra Ethiopia – The Blue Nile Group [full album]
Its main instruments included krar (medium lyre), masenqo (one-string fiddle), begena (large lyre), washint (end-blown flute with finger holes), embilta (end-blown flute without finger holes), malakat (straight trumpet), kabaro (drum), and other percussion instruments. On occasion, it also used the tom, an mbira-like instrument.
Many of Orchestra Ethiopia's performances were theatrical in nature, such as the drama The Potter, which was arranged by El-Dabh.
Following El-Dabh's departure from Ethiopia in 1964, subsequent directors included John G. Coe, an American Peace Corps volunteer (1964-1966); and Tesfaye Lemma (1966-1975), both of whom composed and arranged for the group. During Lemma's tenure as director, in 1968, another American Peace Corps volunteer, the Harvard-educated Charles Sutton, Jr., was assigned by the Peace Corps to assist the Orchestra as Administrator, a position in which he continued until 1970. Sutton had arrived in Ethiopia in 1966 and, immediately attracted to Ethiopia's traditional music, actually mastered the masenqo, studying with Orchestra member Getamesay Abebe. He began performing with the Orchestra in March 1967 (playing masenqo and singing in Amharic), at Lemma's invitation. The group performed frequently in hotels and at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, and appeared on national radio (including Radio Voice of the Gospel) and television. The group also had an audience with Emperor Haile Selassie I.
In the spring of 1969, due to the efforts of Sutton and the Peace Corps, Orchestra Ethiopia toured the Midwest and East Coast of the United States, under the name "The Blue Nile Group". The group performed in twenty cities, including Manhattans Town Hall and The Ed Sullivan Show (in early March).
The group released two LP recordings, both entitled Orchestra Ethiopia. The first, subtitled "The Blue Nile Group", was released on Tempo Records c. 1969; and the second was released on Blue Nile Records, in 1973 or 1974. The Orchestra was also featured in a National Geographic documentary film entitled Ethiopia: The Hidden Empire (1970). By 1975, due to the upheavals caused by the Derg revolution, the group finally disbanded, although many of its musicians continued to perform with other groups, and as soloists. The group's washint player, Melaku Gelaw, lives and continues to perform and record in Washington, D.C.; Tesfaye Lemma, now retired, lives in Washington, D.C. Masenqo player Getamesay Abebe and drummer, vocalist, and star dancer Zerihun Bekkele, both retired, continue to live in Ethiopia. Washint player Yohannes Afework, who had replaced Gelaw, lives in Addis Ababa and is retired from the Mazegajabet (Municipality) Orchestra. Coe, the former Executive Director of the Wyoming Arts Council, is now retired and living in Wyoming; and Sutton performs today as a jazz pianist in Connecticut (and continues to play masenqo for special occasions). Several other of the Orchestra's members have died in Ethiopia.
A selection of the Orchestra's archival recordings transferred from reel to reel audiotape to audio CDs by the Ethiopian-American engineer Andrew Laurence was released in Europe in late 2007, and was released in the United States in February 2008, as the 23rd volume in Buda Musique's Ethiopiques CD series, with the liner notes having been prepared by Sutton and Lemma.
In 2007, a recording entitled Zoro Gettem (Reunion) was released on the Nahom Records label; the CD, recorded in Washington, D.C. in September 2006, features four of the Orchestra's former members (Charles Sutton, Getamesay Abbebe, Melaku Gelaw, and Tesfaye Lemma) performing repertoire they had performed together in the late 1960s.
Kiros Alemayehu (Ge'ez: ኪሮስ ዓለማየሁ)(1948–1994) was an Ethiopian Tigrigna singer. He was born in Tigray region, Saesi Tsaedaemba and was the only child to his parents.
Kiros was born to his father Girazmach Alemayehu Meles and Mrs. Qeleb Gebremeskel in the eastern part of Tigray region, in a village known as Saesi Tsaedaemba in 1948 (1940 EC). He went to school in the nearby city of Wukro and then joined Atse Yohannes High School in Mekelle.
Kiros Alemayehu - Aymenekuwan
Kiros was a prolific song writer and singer. He popularized Tigrigna songs through his albums to the non-Tigrinya speaking Ethiopians. Before joining Ras Theatre in 1975E.C (circa 1982-1983) where he published his first Album, Kiros had worked as assistant trainer of Tigray Musical Troupe (ትግራይ ኪነት). Some of his songs include "Anguay fisis", "Fililiy","Selam Hawa", "Suwur Fikri" "Adey Mekele". Kiros along with other musicians had played in Libya and other middle eastern countries. A memorial library is under construction in Wukro near his birthplace.