Born out of a surreal experience and with strong devotion Black Flower takes you on a lucid voyage through the gardens of the Abyssinian afterlife. A highly remarkable place, far away from what you and I would call reality. It is a place where strange creatures and unfamiliar sounds merge into a harmony of the weird and the beautiful.
It is said that these are the secret realms of the long past legendary ruler of Ethiopia, Sir Prester John. Some even claim that he composed these sounds as a way of ruling his ancient land. Whether this is fact or myth, nobody knows for sure...
Now, for the first time, we have the chance to get a glimpse of this mystical empire. It is no secret any more that Nathan Daems has been chosen to witness this special place. Being such an overwhelming experience, he felt the urge, even the obligation, to share this with the real world. The result is a record he applicably called “Abyssinia Afterlife”.
It was no easy task finding the right people for this job. In his years of musical exploration, Nathan kept searching for the right people to team up with. A challenging process, because they needed to embrace the idea of looking to music from a whole new perspective. They needed to be able to capture the Abyssinia Afterlife as if they had visited it them-selves. Finally he found four young and dedicated spirits who could do the job.
This is the moment Black Flower was born.
Black Flower - Upwards
Track list:
1. Solar Eclipse 6:39
2. Upwards 4:59
3. I threw a lemon at that girl 5:20
4. Jungle desert 4:50
5. Winter 5:35
6. Star fishing 5:42
7. The legacy of Prester John 3:41
8. Again I lost it 4:57
9. Abyssinia afterlife 7:45
Nathan Daems - Soprano saxophone, Tenor saxophone, Melodica, Flute Jon Birdsong - Cornet Simon Segers - Drums Wouter Haest - Piano and keyboards Filip Vandebril - Bass, Effects
Akalé Wubé’s third album, Sost (“three” in Amharique) is perfectly in line with their previous records, it is also a testament to a more mature and experienced band, who have proved able to win over different audiences in different circumstances with their infectious grooves. While touring in Ethiopia, the band realised that local musicians had stopped playing music from the Swinging Addis golden age. A puzzling but liberating discovery that convinced the band to completely stand behind their project, and release three albums to date.
More than half of the tracks in “Sost” are original compositions, with the other half being songs discovered on old cassette tapes brought back from Ethiopia. Akalé Wubé have invited the radiant Genet Asefa on three tracks, an Ethiopian singer with whom they have often shared the stage. Cautious to give precedence to authentic encounters, the band have chosen only to invite musicians with whom they have already played in a live context. Manu Dibango’s presence on the album is not an opportunistic move: there are strong human and musical ties between the afro-jazz pioneer and Akalé Wubé. Another sign of the band’s high quality expectations is that the album has been recorded in a studio set up by the band itself in the heart of Paris. This is a space that Akalé Wubé have made their own and which has permitted them to master completely the process of recording this album.
Akalé Wubé - Anbessa (feat Manu Dibango)
Akalé Wubé's third album is aptly-titled Sost, which means 'three' in Amharic--the official language of Ethiopia. The music is highly groove-based and follows the early traditions of Ethiopian jazz, which is not too unlike the popular Ethiopiques series. About half of the music is based on traditional recordings and cassettes found in Ethiopia, while the other half of the songs are original compositions. The emotive vocalist, Genet Asefa, leads a few tracks with her seasoned voice in line with tradition Ethiopia music. The blurt of a trumpet, the beat of a drum, and a jazzy melody with Afro-jazz flavorings rounds out the gist of each song. However, each song brings something new to light--whether it be a hook, a sound, or a rhythm. Akalé Wubé know how to tease the feet with danceable grooves and lush sounds. This is another acclaimed album. ~ review by Matthew Forss
Ethio Cali is a Los Angeles-based Ethio-Jazz ensemble, led by trumpeter, arranger, and composer Todd Simon. The ensemble’s sublime sound is inspired by the golden age of Ethiopian music of the 1960’s and 70’s, filtered through a lens that is uniquely Los Angeles.
Acknowledging the diverse musical foundations of Ethio-Jazz, the ensemble also draws inspiration from the rhythmic and melodic textures of Sudan, Somalia, Ghana, and Colombia. Ethio Cali’s published cassette Live at The Blue Whale. [ find it : HERE ]
Todd Simon's Ethio-Cali Ensemble - Fowler Museum at UCLA 8/14/11
Ethio Cali features: Todd Simon – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Music Director Kamasi Washington – Tenor Saxophone Randal Fisher – Tenor Saxophone Mark de Clive-Lowe – Keys Alan Lightner – Steel Pan Damon Aaron – Guitar Pat Bailey – Bass Steve Haney – Percussion Te’Amir Yohannes Sweeney – Percussion Dexter Story – Drums
Extended Family:
Kamasi Washington - Tenor Sax
Justo Almario - Tenor Sax/Clarinet
Richi Panta - Percussion
Geoff Mann - Percussion
Elizabeth Lea - Trombone
Mark Cross - Keys
Thomas Lea - Viola
Tylana Renga - Vioin
Peter Jacobson - Cello
Special Guests:
Dereb the Ambassador
Kelela Martin
Perna (Antibalas/Ocote Soul Sounds)
Jared Tankel (Budoes Band)
Aaron Johnson (Antibalas/FELA!)
Vardan Ovsepian
Semere-Ab Etmet
Yohannes Tutu
Sweeney Rickey
EthioCali - 01 - Azmar (11:19) EthioCali - 02 - Mulatu (13:14) EthioCali - 03 - Sabye (My Saba) - Live @ Del Monte Speakeasy March 17,12 (7:10) EthioCali - 04 - Sidama de Cali (5:11) EthioCali - 05 - Tadias - Live @ Del Monte Speakeasy March 17, 2012(7:10) EthioCali - 06 - Tiny Pyramids (8:08) EthioCali - 07 - Zafari Live at the Blue Whale (9:37) EthioCali - 08 - Zafari (8:50)
Kibrom Birhane is Ethiopian Pianist, Multi Instrumentalist / producer / songwriter / Record / Mix engineer, arranger and composer passionate about Ethiopian folk, world, pop, jazz and gospel music.
Kibrom started his musical career in a very early stage of his life, and had the opportunity to work, perform and record with musicians from all over the world. While attending Los Angeles College of music, he was fortunate to learn under great musicians such as: Sean Halley (Vinnie Colaiuta, Jerry Marotta, Richard Marx), Andre Knecht, Andrew Murdock (Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Linkin Park), Dave Pozzi (Celine Dion, Diana Krall), Howie Shear (George Benson, Stevie Wonder), Tony Inzalaco (Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon) and many others.
Kibrom Birhane - Zelesegna ዘለሰኛ
Learning how to play the krar, a five stringed traditional Ethiopian lyre, at age 8, Kibrom Birhane found himself enthralled by Orthodox chanting. “Always it moves me when I hear music,” he says. And from that time on he knew he wanted to pursue a career in music. Kibrom eventually began teaching piano to other students for about three years before receiving a scholarship to attend the Los Angeles College of Music where he developed a passion beyond Ethiopian folk music, and became a songwriter and composer focusing on the fusion of Ethiopian folk with jazz and gospel sounds. His debut album entitled ‘Kibrom’s Tizita’ was recently released by Tsehai Records, a new division of Tsehai Publishers. Kibrom describes his new album as “an exploration of Ethiopian heritage through folk and pop music with a jazz backbone.”
Kibrom is also a record and mixing engineer and says he “learned to play all of these different roles over time, and with that came new innovations” in his music and sound. His solo pieces are among his most personal works, and Kibrom shares that they are “an expression of what I feel at the moment. I don’t study or learn solos; I just play them.”
Kibrom hopes to reach the younger generation with his music. He sees the power of fusion as a way to expose individuals to Ethiopian music while adopting a style that is already familiar to them (such as jazz). Kibrom has already garnered some success including writing the score for the documentary film ‘Sincerely Ethiopia,’ singing in the award-winning documentary ‘Get Together Girls,’ and composing music for the documentary on the African Union’s 50th year celebration.
“The raw sincerity of Birhane’s music seeks to make strong connections with listeners as they are transported on a musical journey. And a journey it is – Kibrom uses Ethiopian scales, which are rarely heard in Western music. The distinct nature of these scales makes for hypnotic listening,” states Tsehai Records.
Kibrom Birhane - 01 - Pending Prayer (4:06)
Kibrom Birhane - 02 - Yonas Gorfe Tribute (5:10)
Kibrom Birhane - 03 - Simagne Hageree (4:25)
Kibrom Birhane - 04 - Wazema (5:26)
Kibrom Birhane - 05 - Broken but Beautiful (10:06)
Mulatu Astatke - New York-Addis-London [Full Album]
Ethio jazz. That's what Mulatu Astatke called his style of music when he invented it back in the 1960s, and it means exactly what it implies: Ethiopian melodies played on Western instruments with room for improvisation. Astatke was a pioneer for his country's modern music. His concept of instrumental music as an end in itself was a bit foreign in his homeland, where singers rule the popular music sphere, and he was among the very first musicians from Ethiopia to learn about music while abroad. He started playing as a teenager at school in Wales, and after a stint at London's Trinity School of Music, he jumped the Atlantic for a brief stay at Boston's Berklee College of Music, ultimately winding up in New York City in the mid-60s. There, he was exposed to sounds he simply couldn't have heard back home in Addis Ababa, and his exposure to jazz and Western harmonic concepts led him to formulate Ethio jazz, the perfect hybrid of the traditional and the modern.
His first attempts to forge his new genre occurred in the U.S., and his band members were mostly Puerto Rican. You can tell by listening, too. The several tracks here lifted from his two Afro Latin Soul LPs bear a strong stamp of boogaloo, Latin jazz, and other Americo-Caribbean forms. When he returned to Ethiopia, he arrived at a time when the country was opening up as never before, and Addis Ababa was as cosmopolitan as cities came, boiling with cultural restlessness that fed a vibrant nightlife. Recording resources were limited, but in 1969, Mulatu began cutting tracks for Amha Eshèté's Amha, the first independent label ever established in the country. He worked primarily as an arranger, but frequently wrote and recorded instrumentals to serve as B-sides for vocal songs, some of which are being issued here for the first time outside Ethiopia.
Astatke brought a unique skill set back to Addis with him, where he was able to employ musicians who'd grown up with the music he was so consciously modernizing. The resulting music is simply brilliant, fresh even decades later. The way Mulatu harmonized horns, combining pentatonic Ethiopian melody with Western chord concepts, sounds like no one else-- the music seems both ancient and modern at once, befitting the mixture of raw ingredients. This compilation is utterly intoxicating from the first note to the last-- preternaturally funky, haunting, complex, memorable, exciting, and unique, Ethio jazz easily transcends the era in which it was made.
"Mulatu", from his 1972 LP Mulatu of Ethiopia, recorded in New York with members of Mongo Santamaria's band during a visit to the States, is a brilliant signature track, a darkly funky tune with a hint of Caribbean shuffle, snaking sax solos, Mulatu's own cloudy vibraphone, and a bit of wah-pedaled Wurlitzer. The stately, smoky "Netsanet" is drawn from 1974's Yekatit: Ethio Jazz LP, the very first Ethiopian LP to be conceived as an album in advance (as opposed to a collection of 45 sides). Like the other songs from that album, it has a weighty solemnity to it that betrays the difficult revolutionary period during which it was recorded. My favorite Mulatu track, "Ené Alantchie Alnorem", was previously featured on Buda Musique's Ethiopiques Volume 4 compilation, and it still kills here. It is a song without a solid core: its fluttering electric piano, flute, and drums spin in an ethereal wash, held together by wind sound effects and a heavy sonority, and the descending piano line that outlines the chords feels like it's falling and catching itself on each beat.
A handful of vocal tracks dot the compilation, and they're all outstanding as well. "Ebo Lala" features Seifu Yohannes putting on his best Bollywood-inspired show, huffing and puffing over a heavy Latin beat and blasting horn section. "Wubit", featuring Muluken Melesse, has a cool, funky crime jazz strut, a sick breakdown, and a quintessentially Ethiopian melismatic vocal-- that this song has remained hidden from all but a few collectors in Ethiopia until now is almost criminal. Even Mulatu's very first foray into recording, the Latin-tinged instrumental "Shagu", bears his unmistakable signature, playing its cycling piano riff two octaves lower than in most Latin music and featuring a dark, mysterious vibraphone lead playing between Ethiopian pentatonics and modal concepts nicked from post-bop jazz.
Mulatu Astatke - Yefikir Tizita
Ethio jazz was never a commercial success in Ethiopia. That Ahma and Philips Ethiopia even saw fit to release any of it is a credit to their commitment to art over commerce, and even today it remains little-heard in its homeland. But Mulatu was a master craftsman and one of the most supremely inventive composers of a time when an awful lot of creative music was being made around the world. He's still going today, guesting on radio shows and teaching in Addis, and he released a great album with London's the Heliocentrics as his backing band earlier this year. But even if he'd disappeared after 1975, his legacy would be sealed.
Feedel Band is a Washington DC based Ethio-Jazz Band and has been performing as a self contained unit, as well as supporting Ethiopian artists like Tilahun Gessesse, (The king of Ethiopian pop music), very recently with Aster Aweke (The queen of Ethiopian soul music) on her current “Ewedihalehu” or "I love you" US tour.
Feedel band’s is founded in 2010 by Araya Woldemichael, and weeks later, his current band members joined him and together they have formed the first native Ethiopian group in north America as an Ethio -jazz music-oriented band that starred Moges Habte on Sax, Alemseged Kebede on Electric bass, Araya Woldemichael on keyboards and Samson Juffar on drums. After Samson Juffar’s departure to Ethiopia, drummer and percussionist Mikias Abebayehu took Samson’s place. In addition to guitarist Kaleb Temesgen and drummer J, Trombonist Ben Hall and krarist Minale Bezu, the band found Its own and a very unique Ethio - jazz sound.
Feedel or (alphabet) are Ge’ez script and a unique Ethiopian characters that are entirely phonetic structured in seven columns. In other words, each character in the Geez Feedel system has seven sounds. Feedel are not only a dazzling of human creativity but also, in practical terms, a powerful medium for communication and social interaction. The power of Feedel resides in the characters ability to represent virtually every sound. The ancient Ethiopians, who invented Ethiopic writing system, were poised, it seems, to capture and harness all sounds in the universe.
Feedel Band - Belhame
Since 1997 the Éthiopiques series has made Ethiopian music a hipster obsession, exposing jazz heads and rockists to the jazzy funkiness that emanated from East Africa in the ’60s and ’70s. (Never heard of the collection? You may have heard songs from Volume 4—there are now 29 volumes in total—in Jim Jarmusch’s 2005 film Broken Flowers.)
Feedel’s sax player Moges who was born in Addis Ababa, and can be heard performing the funky James Brown Band-influenced cut “Muziqawi Silt” on Éthiopiques’ Volume 13 with his ’70s group The Walias Band. On the other hand Feedel's bass player Alemseged Kebede's great groovy bass lines can be found in Aster Aweke and Tilahune Gessesse's music. Feedel Band’s sound can best be described as a merging of ’60s R&B, funk and jazz with traditional Ethiopian songcraft.
Feedel Band - Araya's Mood
Feedel Band is taking Ethiopian music and Jazz, and blending it into a simmering stew of musical genre’s, textures and feeling. These boys have real feel – for their music, for their audience and for each other. Playing with maturity and passion is second nature to all of them ...
Feedel band has devoted much of a creative career spanning almost 20 years to this eternal, inspiring form - the very base and roots of Ethio-jazz.... gather inspiration from The Golden Age of Ethiopian popular music in the late 1960s and 70s— a time that had Addis Ababa littered with groups playing a brass-heavy concoctions influenced by American soul and jazz. So here they are, as enthusiastic as ever - Ethiopian's finest, most skilled practitioners in the art of the Ethiopian music. They take their newly created original pentatonic melodies and repurpose them with mutated instrumentation like 60s and 70s-era Ethiopian grooves: Congas, electric Guitar, Bass, Saxophone, traditional Krar, Masinko, Piano, Organ, Trombone and Drums.
What sets Feedel Band apart from other acts that play Ethio-Jazz style of music is that they commonly hybridize the regular Jazz style with Ethio-Jazz genres, or modernized the sound with out loosing its original traditional texture or feeling. The energy and power is overwhelming. They are creating and in some cases re-creating the musical language of what has been called Ethio -Jazz.
Since the bands inception, the reception that Feedel has received has been extraordinary. At FestAfrica 2011, APAP showcase "Drom" New York City, World cafe live Philadelphia, Global roots festival Minneapolis, MN and most recently at The Kennedy Center in 2014 and the audience was enamored with their warm and engaging style. While their music is inspired by the Golden Age of Ethiopian popular music, but Feedel Band always perform their own original music.
Their newly released CD is called “Ethiopian Ocean”
Ethioda (Montpellier) is a group that revisits the Ethiopian jazz through original compositions, improvisations and electro atmospheres. The Ethio-jazz whose golden age is in the 70s (remember Mahmoud Ahmed and his "Ere Mela Mela") leaves reappear east, funk and reggae sounds.
Ethioda - Araray
"Fly to the rhythms, a round and warm, flights of fancy jazz-electro hair-raising ... sudden urge to move your shoulders? No doubt, this is the call of the highlands of Abyssinia, which sounds in music Ethioda! An invitation to travel through an intoxicating music. "
Inspired by the famous recordings "Ethiopiques' 70s, of the Montpellier Ethioda decide to put their two cents in a musical style that goes well beyond the regions of Addis Ababa.
Group compositions and arrangements of traditional songs to the jungle sauce, any excuse is good in these addicts trance to drive the audience into the dance, amid endless crazy solos and grooves!
It was in September 2013 that the group decided to record his first album "Araray."
The Ethiopian word "araray" (Amharic) denotes a range of five notes you play for big festive occasions.
This word alone can evoke the process of Ethioda Group:
take the audience to dance, while offering a very instrumental and improvised music in a festive atmosphere.
Araray is also the name of one of the group's compositions, where the influence of Ethiopian music crosses syncope Jamaican reggae.
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