The disc recorded by Stephanie Weisser between March 2002 and December 2005 in Addis Ababa is the fourth CD of traditional Ethiopian music in the backup program intangible heritage of this country, "Ethiopia: Traditional music, dance and instruments , a systematic survey "led by Olivier Tourny. Indeed, following the disk Polyphonies Ari published by Ocora (Fournel 2002) as well as two discs of Unreleased collection of Maale Music (Ferran 2005) and 'aqwaqwam (Damon 2005), Stephanie Weisser shows us one of three famous Ethiopian chordophones the bagana, it has specifically studied in his thesis.
Alemu Aga - "Besmeab - Abatachin Hoy"
playing the Begenna, the Harp of David from Ethiopia
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The disc echoes of hope for the revival of the instrument in Ethiopia for the interest of its author for bagana, which was endangered in Addis Ababa, allowed its rehabilitation and the foundation of schools and transmission structures while promoting the creativity of musicians, since all the compositions on this disc are original. It also pays tribute to the greatest performers of Ethiopian bagana, including Tafese Tesfaye (tracks 1 and 2) between deceased time.
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Recordings that Stephanie Weisser introduces us was collected in Addis Ababa among the performers themselves, which reports to a tour de force in this large African capital where the activity never stops and where is hard to find a silent place. The extensive research that the author has synthesized here illuminates the amateur as professional, who may be interested in the specifics of sound bagana. Indeed, the leaflet, synthetic and clear, in French and English, allows to approach the musical characteristics of bagana songs, their formal structure, rhythm that underlies them, the contents of the texts or vocal techniques specifically associated with these religious songs.
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The first piece, the listener is swept away by the individual sound bagana, big ten-stringed lyre whose sizzling character is the result of adding leather pieces between the strings and the bridge, but also by the vocal stamp both soft and veiled that seeks to mimic that of the instrument. On this disc tour de force also lies in its ability to make sensitive to both the emotional power of the songs of bagana and intimate character. Indeed, the live performance of songs by Alem Marefia Na'at Alemu Aga (track 9) or of Sebsebo by Yetemwork Mulat (track 8) is very moving. The quality of the recordings and the balance between voice and bagana are very successful and music acts on us as if the interpreter was facing us. This emotional capacity bagana songs is also recognized in Ethiopia, and it contributes to their specificity. Thus, any provision of Alemu Aga brings tears of auditors and participates in a form of collective devotion.
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The wealth of different facets of bagana songs highlighted in this record gives it a special interest. Indeed, six performers follow one another, with two compositions each, giving a glimpse of their dexterity and their vocal timbres. In addition, two female performers, Gebre Yesus Sosenna and Yetemwork Mulat, highlight the rare successes of women in the interpretation of traditional music Ethiopian, who often remain the prerogative of men.
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ON also noted the diversity of instrumental timbres, including the difference between the instrument of Tafese Tesfaye (tracks 1 and 2), whose sound box is made entirely of wood, and that of Alemu Aga (tracks 9 and 10), the soundboard is skin.
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The professional master of Alemu Aga, the most famous master of bagana, known worldwide thanks to the disk 11 of the Ethiopiques collection, is also highlighted in this record because we propose two techniques for game. Exhibit 9 is interpreted bare hand and begins with the traditional invocation before the first song of the provision: "In the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen." Exhibit 10 is against extremely rare since it involves playing with plectrum (megrafia) goat horn. This technique is extremely difficult endangered and only Alemu Aga practice yet. It is therefore interesting to compare the two game modes to capture the virtuosity of mixed game.
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The variety of musicians playing techniques contributes to the interest of this disc. It may well linger compared virtuosity and technical skill of the masters of the instrument are Tafese Tesfaye, Alemu Aga and with the game slower but still very expressive women (tracks 3, 4, 7 and 8) or even with the strong play of young Abiy Seyoum (track 5 and 6).
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Enfin, the last piece on this disc gives us an original interpretation since it involves a chorus of two deacons, which is extremely rare for bagana songs which are, as the disk we heard, very intimate. Moreover, this final piece, Manimeramere, has many vocal ornaments similar to those of the Ethiopian Orthodox song or secular pieces of azmari, the troubadours of this country.
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To his faculties to make us travel to unveil a part of the Amhara imagination to move us and also, in some way, to elevate our soul, this drive is to listen. However, it would have been interesting to see the whole texts in Amharic accompanied by a translation in order to highlight the particular taste of Ethiopians for word games and semantics research. But as we explained Stephanie Weisser, poetic forms of bagana songs are very elaborate and remain impenetrable to the uninitiated and therefore have no place in a disc. Comments are effective and photos and help inform the listener about this fascinating instrument. Be transported by yebagana mezmour (bagana songs) and their ostinati always renewed.
01 - Tafese Tesfaye - Ergebe na Wane (The Dove and the Pigeon) (6:03)
02 - Tafese Tesfaye - Wodadje Wodadje (You Who Take Good Care of Me) (5:59)
03 - Sosenna Gebre Yesus - Adeneyn Kemote (Save Us from Our Death) (6:11)
04 - Sosenna Gebre Yesus - Dengel Sele Esbe (When I Say Your Name) (6:16)
05 - Abiy Seyoum - Deggwa Tsome Deggwa (The Last Judgement) (2:56)
06 - Abiy Seyoum - Nastemaselke (We Are All Mortals) (3:44)
07 - Yetemwork Mulat - Semayi na Meder (Heaven and Earth) (5:45)
08 - Yetemwork Mulat - Sebsebo (The Second Coming of Christ) (4:58)
09 - Alèmu Aga - Alem Marefia Na'at (The World Is But a Place of Survival) (4:42)
10 - Alèmu Aga - Selamta be Megrafia (Song of Praise Played With a Plectrum) (3:51)
Tekle Kiflemariam - Wedi Tukul, an Eritrean musician who is best known for being one of the most visible supporters of the Eritrean War of Independence from Ethiopia, and is so popular that he is known as the Bob Marley of Eritrea.
Shambel Belayneh is a singer and master of the Masinko, the traditional one-string Ethiopian violin. He has performed with the greats of Ethiopian music, including Aster Aweke, Mahmoud Ahmed and the Roha Band, among many others. He currently lives in the United States.
Arheebu, Shambel's seventh recording, is an attempt to blend traditional musical instruments (Masinko and Kirar) with western instrumentation.
Yemane Ghebremichael (commonly known as Yemane Barya), was a well-known Eritrean songwriter, composer and singer. Not confined to musical pursuits, Yemane was also heavily involved in Eritrean politics. He died of natural causes in 1997.
Yemane's songwriting strove to reflect what he perceived to be Eritrean experience during the Eritrean War of Independence. His songs were dotted with stories of love, journey, hope, immigration, and liberation.
In 1975 he was jailed for the perceived political interpretation of one of his songs.
Selam Seyoum Woldemariam, also known as "Selamino", is an African musician who has turned out 250 (mostly locally produced) albums in his more than forty years as a professional musician. He has been called “The Jimi Hendrix of Ethiopia” and is a national legend.
In Memory Of Tekle Tesfazghi - Kemdilayey
Early life
Selam Seyoum Woldemariam was born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, in 1954 to a director-teacher father, Seyoum Woldemariam Kidane, and an assistant teacher-housewife mother, Tsirha Nemariam.
The family moved to Asmara, Eritrea, in 1965 and stayed there throughout his childhood (c. 1965–1972). While in Addis Ababa, his father worked in a school run by American missionaries. They brought various records of spiritual songs; Woldemariam and his siblings studied some of the songs and sang them at the Mekane Yesus Church in Addis Ababa. The family owned an acoustic guitar, and while each of his siblings tried to learn, he was the most disciplined in his musical study.
During the mid-1960s, Woldemariam formed a church music quintet choir group in Asmara at "Geza Kenisha", which became popular and pulled hundreds of followers to the church where they performed. Later, they included a Swedish drummer but the sound eventually became too noisy for the elderly congregation and they had to discontinue playing.
Woldemariam returned to Addis Ababa in 1972 and finished high school. This was at the height of the Ethiopian Civil War and classes in most schools, including Addis Ababa University (AAU) were disrupted. Soon, all higher learning institutions were closed, while students and staff were forced to join the national campaign (Idget Behibret). With the AAU closed, Woldemariam could no longer continue his education.
Woldemariam later returned and graduated with a BA in History from AAU in 1988. He wrote his senior essay on Ethiopian music: "Origin and Development of Zemenawi Music in Ethiopia, 1896-1974”.
BSB Ibex and ROHA
He joined The Black Soul Band (BSB) while they were on tour in Addis Ababa in 1973. Alemayehu Eshete and Slim Jones were the main vocalists of the group and together with Tesfaye Lemma of Orchestra Ethiopia, they travelled to various parts of Ethiopia. Towards mid-1974, Woldemariam and some other members of BSB joined the Venus club.
After working for a year or so at the Venus, Woldemariam replaced Zimbabwean Ibex Band guitar player Andrew Wilson at the Ras Hotel. During that time, Ibex was dominated by two foreign musicians: Ismail Jingo, vocalist and percussionist and Andrew Wilson, lead guitarist. At the time, most foreigners were leaving Ethiopia due to the revolution and Jingo and Wilson couldn’t stay. As a result, the band re-formed as Ibex (II) with the inclusion of some new members.
Mahmoud Ahmed was already in the group. The first recording the group did was his Ere Mela Mela album (LP) around 1975, which was later to become their first ever CD in Ethiopian history, released by a good friend, Francis Falceto on his Ethiopiques series. (Ethiopiques # 7). Ibex disbanded in 1979 as most of its members left for the Sudan, while Mahmoud left for the US. The remaining three members, Giovanni Rico, Fekadu Andemeskel and Selam Woldemariam, formed ROHA Band. The Ibex and ROHA Band dominated the music of the 1970s and 80s. They arranged and recorded well over 250 albums (2500 songs), accompanying various Ethiopian vocalists. From 1980 to 1990, The ROHA Band travelled extensively, throughout Europe, Middle East and the USA as well as to some parts of Africa. Mulatu Astatke joined the ROHA Band at the Paris and Spain summer shows in 1987.
Recent and current work
During 2000, Woldemariam moved to the US, and started collaboration on the Power of The Trinity project with the Brooklyn-based Tomas Doncker Band. Besides co-writing and playing guitar on some tunes, Woldemariam is also involved as a production consultant. He has performed with the group at various venues. They will be performing together in a long-awaited show at the New York Summer stage in July and August.
Woldemariam is in the process of expanding his thesis paper on Ethiopian music and gathering together a book based on his over forty years of experience in music. He is also working on an instrumental album.
His instrument has saved his life. Samson Kidane agrees his krar, the national instrument of his native Eritrea.
His language is Tigrinya. His thoughts are cosmopolitan. His music is universal. And his instrument has saved his life. Samson Kidane (47) sits on his sofa and playing on the krar. "I've been so long in Germany, that I sometimes call myself Kölscher Negroes."
SAMSON KIDANE BAND - Mesiluni (I thought)
Kidane is one of about 25 000 people from Eritrea, who had to leave their country in the 1980s. He was eleven when he became a soldier and went against the Ethiopian government in the war. "I was a freedom fighter, not a child soldier. Like all boys of my age. The war was all over the country. No one could before fleeing." Child soldiers since Kidane is quite convinced there has never been in Eritrea. "None of us has been forced to kill." An eleven year old who draws freely in the fight? Let the simply are. The discussion can not carry on.
Five bullets hit Kidane, the child, in a raid on the camp of his unit to which he has come only because there was no one there who could play the krar. "I was previously in another group. They were all killed in another battle. "
Enough of the past, says Samson Kidane, the musicians. Because his lyrics and poems have less to do with what he had as a child as with the wars that are now out in the name of religion between Christians and Muslims experience during the war. "At home," said Samson, "were never made differences between Christians and Muslims. Until I came to Germany, I did not know enmity between Christians and Muslims."
Kidanes music combines his African roots with modern musical styles, reggae, hip-hop and rock. In the songs is about justice, repression, solidarity. "The man is crazy, a skilled Doof," it says in the title song of the CD "Serenity".
A trained Goofy. That sounds resigned. But Kidane is the opposite of that, he once had its own cleaning company, organizes festivals and symposia, mixed in the cultural scene of the city. He calls the network, including a Cologne'd say cliques, and he tried his sons Aminadab (14) and Meron (10) to give a taste of home. "You do not know Eritrea yes. I have to ensure that they can speak in their mother tongue. It's their native language. "
Kidane says this because it's happened to him in similar reason. He was 14 when he came to Germany - and has the theme of integration is a very personal opinion. "I have problems with foreigners who want to be more German than the Germans." For people from Africa it was much more difficult to gain a foothold in Germany. "I think you still do not take us seriously because we regulate much easy with each other." That had a lot to do with the cohesion. The Africans in Cologne were a secret society and it was "very sad that there are no African center in Cologne." What surprised him the discussions that will be conducted, for example, about the many people of Turkish origin. "I think it's almost insulting. Who have grown up here, speak sometimes even Kölsch. The integrated, maybe they live just different. "
How Kidane, whose music is well known in the opposition his home. He is a cosmopolitan who is looking for the linking between cultures.
Kidane himself sees the sober. He once strangers left on a tour through the immigrant milieu in Cologne in his apartment, which have gone on a world tour in your own town.
01 - Samson Kidane & Band - Mehaza (4:34)
02 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gelassenheit (3:49)
03 - Samson Kidane & Band - Ihre anwesenheit (3:14)
04 - Samson Kidane & Band - Sein (4:07)
05 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gefangnis (5:29)
06 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gefahrliche Liebe (3:23)
07 - Samson Kidane & Band - Ich Dachte (2:42)
08 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gerechtigkeit (6:37)
09 - Samson Kidane & Band - Der Mensch ist Wertvoll (5:52)
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