Mahmoud Ahmed sang at weddings and family gatherings from a very early age, but while he was still a child, his family became homeless when his father lost his job. Forced to work as a shoeshine boy, the young Ahmed’s education inevitably suffered and he was expelled from school for poor attendance. Following his headmaster’s advice that his only possible salvation lay in music, Ahmed soon became known locally for his powerful voice as well as his skills as a dancer of the twist and calypso. He worked as a painter’s assistant and kitchen porter at the Arizona Club, a fashionable Addis Ababa nightspot. One evening, he begged his way into performing a song with a band at the club, receiving rapturous applause and launching his musical career. He became the vocalist with the Imperial Bodyguard Band in the early 60s, subsequently remaining with them for 11 years.
Ahmed’s first album was released in 1972 and he has since made numerous recordings for the local market as well as performing with many of Ethiopia’s top bands and musicians. In 1986, the Belgian record label Crammed Discs released Erè Mèla Mèla, a compilation of Ahmed’s recordings from the 70s and one of the first albums of modern Ethiopian music available in the west. Critical response was highly favourable and a European tour followed a year later. Soul Of Addis was originally released in Ethiopia in 1985 and, while not as intense as the 70s recordings, nevertheless offered a fine showcase for Ahmed’s spellbinding voice. The Paris, France-based label Buda Musique has also released several Ahmed albums in their Éthiopiques series.
Something of a local institution, Ahmed still performs regularly in Addis Ababa, as well as owning and running a record label and a nightclub. He sings in a variety of local and international styles but consistently returns to the tizita (a slow and intense local form of the blues). His multi-octave voice is similar to that of Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (who died in 1997), a veritable force of nature that combines the ecstatic devotional pleading of qawwali with the precise tone and phrasing of Western jazz singers.
Founded in 1985 by saxophonist & composer Russ Gershon, the ten-piece Either/Orchestra, based in Somerville MA, is one of the jazz world's most long-lived and distinguished groups. Alumni include jazz stars such as John Medeski, Matt Wilson, Miguel Zenon, Jaleel Shaw & Josh Roseman.
The E/O, featuring a six piece horn section, piano, bass, drums and congas, has put its stamp on just about every style of jazz, from big band, swing and bop to Latin jazz, electric and avant-garde. The last decade or more has found the band absorbing an Afro-Caribbean influence through a succession of Latino members.
Teshome Mitiku with Either/Orchestra
More unusually, the E/O has become deeply involved with Ethiopian music, touring there and collaborating with many Ethiopian greats of the outstanding 1960's generation. Mulatu Astatke, Mahmoud Ahmed and Teshome Mitiku are among the band's favorites. The Ethiopian connection includes the double CD Ethiopíques 20: Live in Addis and the DVD Ethiogroove: Mahmoud Ahmed and Either/Orchestra.
Over the years, the E/O has been recognized with five Boston Music Awards, perennial placement in the Big Band category of the Down Beat International Critics Poll, and leader Gershon was nominated for an arranging Grammy for his composition "Bennie Moten's Weird Nightmare," included in The Calculus of Pleasure.
The E/O began performing original arrangements of Ethiopian songs, inspired by a compilation called Ethiopian Groove: the Golden 70s. In 2000, after three of these songs appeared on the album More Beautiful than Death, Francis Falceto, the producer of Ethiopian Groove, contacted Gershon and eventually arranged an invitation for the E/O to play at the Ethiopian Music Festival in Addis Ababa in 2004.
Along with Indo-British singer Susheela Raman the same year, the E/O was the first non-Ethiopian artist to appear in the festival, and was the first US big band to appear in Ethiopia since Duke Ellington's in 1973. Their concert at the festival was recorded and ultimately appeared in Falceto's Ethiopiques series on the French Buda Musique label. Five Ethiopian guests appear on the recording: Mulatu Astatke, Getatchew Mekurya, Tsedenia Markos, Bahta Hewet and Michael Belayneh. This tour and recording have led to an ongoing collaboration with Astatke, the primary founder of Ethiopian jazz, concerts with Ethiopian expatriates singer Hana Shenkute, krar player Minale Dagnew, masinko player Setegn Atanaw, and the great Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed with whom E/O released a DVD in 2007.
Mahmoud Ahmed and fellow legendary Ethiopian singer Alemayehu Eshete played Lincoln Center Out of Doors in 2008 backed by E/O. The group debuted a collaboration with vocalist Teshome Mitiku in the summer of 2010, including a headlining appearance at the Chicago Jazz Festival.
Either Orchestra - 01 - Introduction (3:03) Either Orchestra - 02 - Tigrigna,Oromigna,Guragigna (14:06) Either Orchestra - 03 - Arehibi (9:34) Either Orchestra - 04 - Ethiopia (5:20) Either Orchestra - 05 - Yamnaw Bedele (6:55) Either Orchestra - 06 - Yeqir Beqa (6:07) guests : Minnale Danew - krar Setegn Atanaw - masinko Hana Shenkute - vocal
Endris Hassen (The Ex, Ethiocolor, Imperial Tiger Orchestra, Nile Project, MistO-MistO etc) and Cory Seznec (Groanbox, Seznec Bros, solo, MistO-MistO, etc) joined forces in late 2014 to fuse sounds from east and west Africa. Hungry for a fuller sound, they brought in Misale Legesse (Ethiocolor, Addis Acoustic Project, etc) on kebero and Cass Horsfall on bass (Black Jesus Experience, Jazmaris, etc) to flesh things out and create Damakase, a name which comes from a plant used in traditional medicine in Ethiopia to heal "gunfan" (cold/flu) and other ailments.
By late 2015 they had enough songs for an album, and asked Kenny Allen to come in as producer.
Gunfan Yellem! (translated roughly as Fever No More!) is an album recorded live in Cory's Glasshouse Studios.
Guest artists were invited to add a little spice here and there, and Kenny fine tuned and tweaked the mix to perfection.
The music is comprised of 6 originals and two covers (Wuba by the Eritrean composer Tewelde Redda, and Mother's Love by the Ethiopian pianist Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou).
The Feedel Band’s sound can best be described as an east African jazz, a merging of 1960s R&B and funk with traditional Ethiopian songs and instruments, the band features artists and music from the hugely popular Éthiopiques series on the Buda CD label that has helped turn Ethiopian music from the 60s and 70s into a hipster obsession.
The band consists of many of Ethiopia's greatest artists who create original songs inspired by the Golden Age of Ethiopian popular music in the late 1960s and 70s— a time that had Addis Ababa littered with groups playing brass-heavy concoctions influenced by American soul and jazz. The band’s pentatonic melodies are repurposed with mutated instrumentation like 60s and 70s-era Ethiopian grooves played on congas, electric guitar, bass, saxophone, krar, mesenko, piano, organ, trombone and drums.
Feedel Band - Araya's Mood
The members of Feedel Band are all acclaimed
musicians in their own right Feedel’s sax player Moges Habte
can be heard performing the funky James Brown Bandinfluenced
cut “Muziqawi Silt” on Éthiopiques’ Volume
13 with his ’70s group the Walias Band. Their bass
player Alemseged Kebede's groovy bass lines could be
found in many of Aster Aweke and Tilahune Gessesse's
music. Also in the band is Araya Woldemichael who is
the founder of the band, composer, Keyboardist and a
producer. They will be joined by Mikias Abebayehu on
drums/congas, Kaleb Temesgen on electric guitar, Kenneth
Joseph on drums, Omar Little on trumpet, Minale Bezu
on krar (stringed lyre)/vocal, Setegn Atenaw on
mesenko/vocal, Feleke Hailu on alto sax, Thomas
Young, Fasil Bezabeh and Almaz Getahun on traditional
No more significant than the term "jazz" but funny and percussive, "Ompa Bompa" becomes the name of the formation after being the title of a piece. Inaugurated around the compositions of the pianist, Ompa Bompa was born in June 2001 with five musicians who, through this training, will exploit their taste for exploration and creation. This repertoire gives rise to a first disc: "Clap Mental" (2003).
In 2004, Ompa Bompa revisits the music of Duke Ellington and creates the "Duke, Jungle" repertoire, on the occasion of "Jazz en scène" (federation of jazz scenes and improvised music). ". Two new instruments (trumpet and alto saxophone) add to the copper section. This repertoire marked an important shift in the style and play of the group.
"To Our Dearly Beloved" was created in 2009. The compositions of this repertoire offer the listener a personal and original reading of the famous novel by Toni Morrison "Beloved". This project gave rise to many performances and a record (2011) which you can purchase on this site (cf homepage).
The band has performed in several festivals (Rhino Jazz Festival, Charlie Jazz Festival, Les Jazzeries d'Hiver in Saint Etienne, Alphonse in Madness in Prissé, Festival du Haut Livradois, Jazz au Sommet, Jazz in Vienna, Jazz en Scène ...), theater productions (The Peristyle of Lyon Opera, Cavajazz in Viviers, Presles Inns, Médiathèque de Firminy, Jazz Club de Savoie, Le Périscope in Lyon, Moulin à Jazz in Vitrolles, Pax in Saint Etienne, Le Puy de la Lune in Clermont-Ferrand, the Hot Club of Lyon) or cultural seasons (Miramas, Saint-Victor on the Loire, Horme, Saint Quentin Fallavier ...)
For the past three years, Tommy T (Thomas T Gobena) has been the bass player for gypsy punk powerhouse Gogol Bordello, the New York City-based band known for their blend of Gypsy, punk, dub reggae, metal and flamenco.
Tommy was born and raised in Ethiopia and the knowledge of global rhythms he brings to Gogol’s sound has become part of their unclassifiable approach to music making. With the encouragement of his Gogol Bordello band mates, Tommy has produced his first solo effort, The Prester John Sessions, an aural travelogue that rages freely through the music and culture of Ethiopia.
"In the 70s, funk, wah-wah pedals, and jazz had a huge impact on Ethiopian music," Tommy explains. "The Prester John Sessions will give people an idea about the musical diversity of Ethiopia, which includes influences and ideas borrowed from the sounds of the 70's with the added bonus of up-to-date production values."
Tommy discovered the story of Prester John in Graham Hancock’s book The Sign and the Seal. “Hancock was looking for the Biblical Ark of the Covenant,” Tommy says. “His quest led him around the world, from Middle East to Europe and back to Ethiopia. While doing his research, Hancock discovered the legend of Prester John. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Prester John was an unknown Christian king with massive troops that got the attention of European kings. Prester John is the character I use to symbolize the man who will bring Ethiopian culture to the rest of the world.”
To fulfill his vision, Tommy started digging through Ethiopian folk music, choosing melodies he could improvise on. He also wrote his own compositions based on traditional modes. “A lot of popular Ethiopian music is based on a 6/8 beat called chikchika, but there are also many other rhythms in Ethiopia that have their own unique characteristics. I play with The Abyssinian Roots Collective on the album. They are sometimes known as The ARC, which coincidentally ties into the Ark of the Covenant and the Prester John story. We’re mostly Ethiopian, so getting the music down was easy. I gave them the tunes, and then we improvised the arrangements so the music has an organic feel.”
Tommy composed and produced the music, with his brother Henock contributing to the tunes “Brothers” and “East-West Express.” The tracks were written at Tommy’s home studio and cut live in a couple of studios around Washington, DC and overdubs were laid down in real time with a final mix by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, Gogol Bordello) that gave it the feel of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters jamming with Ethiopian godfathers The Imperial Bodyguard Orchestra. The music blends Ethiopian modes with dub reggae, funk, and jazz, for a sound that’s at once familiar and mysterious.
“The Eighth Wonder” has a light, jazzy feel based on the chikchika rhythm, played in the style common to the Wollo province, home to the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. “Much like the pyramids of Giza, much has been made over the 11 stone churches of Lalibela, often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder,” Tommy explains. “This track uses the chikchika beat, but expands it into other directions.” Tommy’s melodic bass weaves through the tune’s horn and Massinqo (an Ethiopian single-stringed instrument played like a violin) lines, while the drummer keeps the beat with a series of tom rolls complimenting the kick drum. Dub effects keep the instruments dancing in and out of the mix. “Beyond Fasiladas” references the Castle of the emperor Fasiladas in Gondar, Ethiopia’s capital in the 17th Century. It uses a fast, driving beat from Gondar and interpolates several traditional melodies. Massinqo, guitar and an energetic bass line give the tune a funky, relentless pulse. Setegne Setenaw plays the melody on Massinqo. “The Response” features vocals from Gigi and Tommy. It’s a love song with an almost unbearable sense of longing. Tommy plays acoustic guitar and bouzouki with a West African feel influenced by the music of Mali, although the melody is purely Ethiopian. “Eden” pays homage to the lush and raw landscapes of Ethiopia. Gigi’s wordless vocal is full of joy. The slow dubby rhythm and a muted blue flugelhorn give the track a timeless feel. “Oromo Dub (Cushitic dub)” is driven by Tommy’s phat bass riddim and revolves around traditional tunes that existed ages ago. Abdi Nuressa sings in Oromo, one of the many languages in Ethiopia, and his voice drifts through intergalactic dub space taking this ancient song into the future. The album’s ten tracks epitomize the Ethiopian ideal of Semena Worq - Wax and Gold. The wax is the surface of the music, bright and modern, with its jazzy, funky accents. The gold signifies the depth of tradition that gave birth to these sounds, nuggets culled from one of the oldest cultures on earth, presented by Tommy and his compatriots in all their shining beauty.
Tommy T was born and raised in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. “There was always music in our house,” Tommy recalls. “When I was five, my older brother Zelalem got an acoustic guitar from my father. By the time I was six I could pick up a guitar and play what my brothers were playing.
Tommy had no intention of becoming a musician, but when his brother Henock moved to Washington DC, Tommy followed. “I looked up to him as a brother and a bass player. After he sent a copy of his first album to us in Ethiopia, I started playing acoustic guitar like a bass. When I came to the States, I got a real bass. There are over 200,000 Ethiopians in the DC metro area, so I was able to make a living playing in Ethiopian bands.”
Tommy completed a degree while playing in bands three or four nights a week. “I played in Ethiopian bands, and then started a reggae band called ADOLA which also backed many well known Ethiopian artists such as Aster Aweke and Gigi to name a few. I was also interested in other styles of music including R&B, hip-hop, and neo-soul. I worked with Wayna [Wondwossen, recently nominated for a best urban performance Grammy for her song “Lovin’ U (Music)”] and produced a couple of tracks on her Moments of Clarity album with my friend Abegasu Shiota.” While collaborating on a project with guitarist Eran Tabib, he heard Gogol Bordello was looking for a bass player familiar with international grooves.
His years with Gogol inspired Tommy to develop The Prester John Sessions, another band with a global outlook. The reggae band he and his friend Zedicus (Zakki Jawad) started in DC had evolved into The Abyssinian Roots Collective; they helped Tommy bring The Prester John Sessions to life. “I believe in music without boundaries,” Tommy says. “Music should be inclusive, not exclusive. We should use sounds from everywhere to create a universal vibe. The music business isn’t friendly to that kind of thing, but the people who hear it respond to it well. Gogol is a rock band, but the sound is global. People who love music know the best music is created without boundaries and limitations. The Prester John Sessions take that idea to the next level.”
01. Tommy T - Brothers (5:03)
02. Tommy T - The Call (4:04)
03. Tommy T - The Response (Featuring Gigi) (4:43)
04. Tommy T - The Eighth Wonder (6:51)
05. Tommy T - Oromo Dub (Cushitic Dub) (4:34)
06. Tommy T - East-West Express (4:21)
07. Tommy T - Tribute To A King (4:11)
08. Tommy T - Beyond Fasiladas (3:16)
09. Tommy T - September Blues (3:29)
10. Tommy T - Eden (Featuring Gigi) (5:53)
11. Tommy T - Lifers (Michael G Easy Star Remix feat.
