Dereje Degefaw is an Ethiopian born Amharic singer currently residing in Washington, USA - whose songs include "Sima Yebekashal", "Literater" and "Yelijinet Hilme" familiar to many Ethiopian in the diaspora and at home.
Ayoe Angelica (b. 1988), is a Danish-Ethiopian female jazz / soul singer. She débuted with her ”I’m Amazed” album, in co-operation with producer / composer Mads B. B. Krog (aka Plateaux Techniques). Ayoe delivers an exciting combination of soulful vocals, acoustic elements and crunchy electronics, complemented by a touch of lo-fi jazz.
Ayoe is one of those young talents you unsuccessfully could travel around the world looking for. And then it turns out that she walks around in Scandinavia in the small country of Denmark. The 20-year-old Danish/Ethiopian singers’ debut I’m amazed is an album that sets new standards for what modern pop, jazz/soul can, and wants to do. Ayoe Angelica wants to do quite a lot. Besides presenting us to some of the most intelligent music with hit guarantee heard in a long time, she is also a young woman with great social and human indignation. Ayoe
Angelica is determined that 10 percent of the profit from I’m Amazed goes to relieve poor children in her second home country of Ethiopia.
Ayoe Angelica is a natural talent, who started singing before she could speak. She grew up in the countryside of Denmark, and from her parents she received musical input stretching from Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to Spice Girls. To her parents free musical and creative upbringing and large record collection was added singing and music teaching, all though many of her song teachers had to - after first being overwhelmed - recognize that a talent of Ayoe Angelicas calibre was difficult to combine with an ordinary Scandinavian song teaching tradition. In school she became interested in jazz music, formed her own jazz band, while at the same time becoming lead singer in the local big band. This brought her to a traditional Riverboat jazz festival, where she during a jam session met the Danish producer Mads B. B. Krog. He was completely thrilled by Ayoe Angelicas voice and stage performance and immediately suggested that they worked together.
The producer, musician and composer Mads B. B. Krog had, through a 10 year period with more than 100 releases behind him, finally developed his completely personal musical sound and musical language called Plateaux Techniques. The meeting between them sparkled. Immediately after ending high school Ayoe Angelica left home and moved to Copenhagen. Here she and Mads B.B. Krog began the work on what later would become the album I’m Amazed.
This is the result. 11 completely irresistible songs that all move around in a musical borderland, one can attempt to characterize as a mixture of crunchy electronics, lo-fi jazz and melodic soul. But one should be careful to label Ayoe Angelica and I’m Amazed with too many designations. Because this is first and last a musical mix of creative genre defining and refreshing character, that leaves one speechless - and you really just have to listen, sense and experience it with an open mind.
01 - Ayoe Angelica - Dr. Jekyll (4:00) 02 - Ayoe Angelica - Left Side (3:08) 03 - Ayoe Angelica - Get A Hold (4:07) 04 - Ayoe Angelica - Everybody Loves You (4:15) 05 - Ayoe Angelica - Sugar (3:48) 06 - Ayoe Angelica - God Bless The Child (3:39) 07 - Ayoe Angelica - Also On A Tuesday (3:03) 08 - Ayoe Angelica - Face With Nobody (4:40) 09 - Ayoe Angelica - I Want You (4:07) 10 - Ayoe Angelica - Never Drown (4:43) 11 - Ayoe Angelica - I'm Your Piano (6:18)
Danish press reviews:
Woman 5/6 (Record of the month)
“Wow! You are overwhelmed by how beautifully, atmospherically, and tastefully this debutant singer melts together with the sound picture.”
Costume 5/6
“…An ultra charming version of Billie Holiday mixed with Portishead on a happy day.”
Q 4/5
“Great Sunday music! Denmark’s new jazz diva”
Bazar 4/6
“…A delicious mixture of pop, soul and jazz, which is the perfect sound tapestry for a quiet Sunday.”
Copenhagen Magazine 4/6
“…A great offer for this summers warmest and crispest soundtrack.”
Chili 4/6
“The only 20year old Ayoe’s vocal is eminently delicious, soft, natural and pleasant.”
Sirene
“Rarely does a debut sound more seductive and inviting than on Ayoe Angelicas new CD, I’m Amazed”
Teshome Mitiku has had a legendary 40-year career at the heart of Ethiopian music, forming the massively popular Soul Ekos Band in Addis Ababa in the 1960s. The Soul Ekos Band was the first to combine traditional Ethiopian music with the sounds of electric soul and popular music from the West. They were absolute superstars, playing regularly in front of crowds of 60,000 in Ethiopia, Sudan & Kenya.
Teshome Mitiku is featured on volumes 1, 4 and 10 of the celebrated Ethiopiques series from Buda Records, featuring thrilling discoveries from the vibrant Ethiopian music scene of the 1970s. His songs have also appeared on the popular Rough Guide series of world music compilations.
In 2002, Boston's popular Either/Orchestra released Afro-Cubism, a six-track album that contained Teshome Mitiku's "Yezemed Yebaed."
Teshome Mitiku's 1995 release Yegna Neger was voted the Best Ethiopian Album Recorded Since 1990 in a recent poll by Netsanet, Le Ethiopian Radio, of Ethiopians living worldwide.
Now based in Washington DC, Mitiku formed the first Ethiopian Music Association in 1996. About forty artists from the association performed in front of 3,000 people at the Kennedy Center for a benefit concert that raised money for two orphanages in Addis Ababa and Debra Berhane.
Topia's Deluge is essentially a mainstream pop recording. Its synth lines and other melodic instrumentation, its orchestrations and beats -- both danceable and smooth -- will sound familiar to any listener of contemporary radio, and Mitiku's robust yet subtle vocals and rounded-edges production is easily accessible. English translations are provided, allowing the listener more of an opportunity to understand that these songs of love and spirituality, equality and freedom from hate and war, are universal, language barriers be damned. Mitiku's clear and strong voice, and these uncomplicated songs, would no doubt translate beautifully to a live situation as well.
01. Teshome Mitiku - Ambati (Ere Ney, Ere Ney) (5:12) 02. Teshome Mitiku - Topia's Deluge (Egzio) (8:11) 03. Teshome Mitiku - Love Me As I Am (6:23) 04. Teshome Mitiku - Song of Songs ("Wubnesh Mahaleye Mahaleye Ze Solomon") (7:57) 05. Teshome Mitiku - Senseless War (Badme Shiraro) (6:57) 06. Teshome Mitiku - Hallelujah (Hallelujah) (5:44) 07. Teshome Mitiku - Song for Alem (Alemeye) (6:20) 08. Teshome Mitiku - Lies (Mot Yalesh Manew) (5:40) 09. Teshome Mitiku - Ballad of Amariah (Menew Zem A (5:38) 10. Teshome Mitiku - Leader-Less People (Ande Sew) (6:10) 11. Teshome Mitiku - Far Away But Near (5:52) 12. Teshome Mitiku - Why (Ere Menew) (6:41)
Black Jesus Experience is an 8-10 piece band playing an irresistibly danceable blend of traditional Ethiopian song and 21st century groove. With backgrounds as diverse as the 5 continents the members of 'BJX' hail from, their music reflects the multicultural vibrancy of the band's hometown, Melbourne, Australia.
When not touring BJX run a weekly session at cultural hub The Horn where BJX create new songs live on stage. The comfort BJX has with this practice lies in the improvising traditions of that feed BJX including hip hop, jazz, azmari and rutu pa'u.
The music is also fed quite literally before each performance by the ritual of a group meal prepared by singer Enushu and MD Peter Harper in the Ethiopian tradition, "those who eat from the same plate will not betray each other". This inspires and reinforces bonds musical, social and spiritual, bonds BJX invite their audiences to join.
Enushu began entertaining her local community as a child in Addis Ababa. Forced to leave Ethiopia, Enushu migrated to Australia bringing hauntingly beautiful compositions inspired by her remarkable life story and the unique vocal traditions of Ethiopia. Enushu is joined on vocals by poetic giant and lyrical miracle The Monk, Zimbabwe born and Outback bred.
Highlights for BJX include two tours of "the Motherland" Ethiopia, performing sellout shows with Ethiojazz legend Mulatu Astatke in Europe and Australia (an association which won BJX and Mulatu "The Age Best Tour" award) Glastonbury, Big Chill, City Of London Festival, WOMADdelaide, the Big Day Out, Golden Plains and Melbourne International Jazz Festival and supporting Tony Allen among other great festivals.
The rhymes and chimes of Black Jesus Experience deliver the power and beauty of Africa through the vocal prism of Hip-Hop and freedom of Funk.
Discography :
Dark Light (2009)
Yeluinta (2010)
Migration (2014)
band members are : Enushu Taye - vocals Peter Harper - tenor saxophone, composer Ian Dixon - trumpet, flugelhorn, composer Liam Monkhouse - mc/vocal Chris Frangou - electric bass Matt Head - drums Hue Blanes - keyboards Nashua Lee - electric guitar
Gabriel Teodros (born 1981), is a hip hop artist and a member of the groups Abyssinian Creole and CopperWire. He is of Ethiopian, Scottish, Irish and Native American descent,and was raised on Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington. Teodros' music often features socially conscious themes, and he was a catalyst in the surge of dynamic underground rap acts from the Pacific Northwest during the first decade of the 2000s.
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington to an Ethiopian mother and a father of Scottish, Irish and Native American descent. His parents met through anti-war organizing in the 1970s, and they split up around the time Gabriel was born. He stayed with his mother, where he met grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins as they first emigrated to the United States and all stayed in the same house.
His relationship with hip hop culture began at a young age within the South Seattle neighborhood of Beacon Hill. “A lot of kids in my neighborhood were affected by gang culture. And I kind of had a death wish. I felt like, at an early age, that I wasn’t going to live to 21” he said in an interview with Sheeko Magazine. He spent his high school years in Las Vegas, Nevada where as one out of approximately 30 students of color in a predominantly white school, something within him changed. “It was the first time I understood that there was a system in place that wanted kids like me to want to die. And understanding that in high school made me want to live.” he says in the same interview.
The former breakdancer, graffiti writer and closet-emcee finally began to take his career path seriously at age 16, using hip hop to both understand and explain his world.
In December 2009, Teodros released GT's Ethiopium: A Jitter Generation Mixtape. This release shined a light on the realities of Ethiopia, touched on America’s own imperfections & stressed the importance of exploring one's own intelligence and spirituality. It was made completely using instrumentals from Oh No's Ethiopium, which was made completely using old-school and rare samples of Ethiopian music.
Discography
Albums
Sun To A Recycled Soul - Gabriel Teodros (independent, 2001)
Born in the land of heritage and culture, Rasselas has been fortunate to grow up familiarized with tradition. He was the only son out of three children. His father traveled very often on business. When he returned home from his business trips, he would always bring along many souvenirs from the country he has visited.
Rasselas - Abesha Party
Rasselas was most interested in the records that his father would bring. These records grew into a considerable collection of a variety of music from around the world. As a result, he was familiarized with many genres of music and he enjoyed all of them very much. Among the records he used to listen to as a child were The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and many other Ethiopian and African artists like Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmoud Ahmed, Ephraim Tamiru, Aster Aweke, Mariam Makeba. Some of his favorite Hip-Hop artists include Tupac, Snoop Dogg, KRS-One, Rakim.
During his school years, he grew up exposed to different cultures and languages other than his mother tongue Amharic. He had the opportunity to learn English and French. In high school, he was known as the class musician, always entertaining his friends with a new rap verse he has learned. His English teacher was very impressed by his rap and often called him to the front of the class to demonstrate his art.
In December of 1997, Rasselas moved to Canada with his family. They first landed in Montreal, where he had his first chance to record his independent album, Pure Science. He also joined a local Ethiopian band called the Tis Abay Band. They played in many community events, entertaining with traditional songs from Ethiopia. This gave him the idea of blending hip-hop with traditional Ethiopian music.
Even though the band separated, Rasselas did not give up on his dream of making music. Since he is the type who is actually fueled by challenge, he worked very hard to make his dream come true. He moved to Toronto, where he became well known performing at the Ethiopian night club, then known as Cottage. At this club, he was able to sell-out his second independent CD, Here I Come, which included the title track, well accepted by his community.
On his newly released album, Injera Music, he has teamed up with producer Gezahegn Mamo, a well-known producer and keyboardist in his community. Also featuring is many authentic Ethiopian traditional musicians who add a unique flavor to the Hip-Hop style of Rasselas.
Emilia Rydberg also known as Emilia Mitiku (born 5 January 1978, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish pop music and soul singer, mostly known for her hit, “Big Big World”. Emilia was discovered in 1996 by Lars Anderson, son of ABBA’s manager, Stig Anderson.
Rydberg’s father is Ethiopian singer Teshome Mitiku, and her mother is Swedish. She used an alias of Emilia in the first years of her career but in 2012 she has started to perform under the name of Emilia Mitiku using her father’s surname.
She was exposed to a unique mix of cultures throughout her youth, reared by a Swedish mother and Ethiopian father. The traditional Ethiopian music and jazz that filled the house, thanks to her musical father, introduced Emilia to the joys of singing and performance early on. She decided on a life in music at the age of ten after one of her father's concerts, and was accepted into the Adolf Fredriks Music School in Stockholm shortly thereafter.
She studied classical music there for eight years, playing soul and pop music on the side. Emilia was discovered by Lars Anderson (son of ABBA member Stig Anderson) in 1996. Together she and Anderson set to work writing and recording what would become her debut record. Though finding time between work and her studies at university was difficult, the hard work paid off with the release of Emilia's debut single, "Big Big World," in September 1998.
The song became the fastest-selling single in Swedish history, attaining gold status after six days on the air, and platinum status five days after that. The song quickly went on to win fans all over Europe, dominating charts from Norway to Turkey. The full-length record Big Big World hit shelves in 1999, ultimately selling over a million copies. Her self-titled follow-up drew a producer and songwriters from the highest levels of the pop music industry. Though Emilia did not rule the pop charts as its predecessor had, the artist enjoyed the high sales and first-rate touring that come only with international stardom.
After a long period of silence, Emilia returned to the spotlight in 2007 with her third original release, Sma Ord Av Karlek, on the the independent Bonnier label rather than the behemoth Universal, which was responsible for her two previous records. In 2009, Emilia entered a competition to represent her country at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Music was a part of my life very early on. I began to sing
in a choir when I was five years old. My family moved from Sweden to Kitwe,
Zambia for a couple of years before continuing to Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. There
I started playing the piano, an instrument I've always returned to through the
years. Haile Selassie was deposed by a military junta so my parents quickly
decided to take us children back to Sweden where I began taking classical
guitar classes. I continued playing the guitar for more than a decade before
realizing that my voice was my main instrument! I was 20 years old and studying
at the Academy of music in Malmoe, Sweden when it became clear to me.
Since my graduation as Master in fine Arts I've been working
on a freelance basis as an artist, conductor and as a teacher. The projects
through the years have been many and varied; some of which you can find amongst
the records at sale.
01 - Almaz Yebio - Merry go round – M.Godée/A. Yebio 02 - Almaz Yebio - Further to fly – P.Simon 03 - Almaz Yebio - Hearts and bones – P.Simon 04 - Almaz Yebio - En dag var hon borta – K.Jonsson/J.Willén 05 - Almaz Yebio - Dancing – M.Ingvarsson/A.Yebio 06 - Almaz Yebio - Down to earth – P.Gabriel,T.Newman/P.Gabriel 07 - Almaz Yebio - Have a good time – P.Simon 08 - Almaz Yebio - The little things – F. Lundin/T-L.Væring 09 - Almaz Yebio - Solsbury hill – P.Gabriel 10 - Almaz Yebio - Washing of the water – P.Gabriel
The latest recording "Down to earth" is the
project closest to my heart at the moment! A sort of Almaz Yebio trio project
that expanded towards more musicaians; an urge to give every song it's own
sound within the record. I'm the producer of this record together with Mats
Ingvarsson and it's also the first release on my own label!
Member of Stroman/Jönsson vocal project, a Sweden/England
collaboration discovering a suite written for five singers and five
instrumentalists: Lena Willemark, Linda Pettersson-Bratt, myself, Scott
Stroman, Cleveland Watkiss, all singers, and Maggi Olin-piano, Lisbeth
Diers-percusion, Mattias Hjorth-bass, Cennet Jönsson-saxophones, Henrik Frisk-
saxophones. A highly interesting and lovely piece of music with a lot of space
for improvisations.
Guest soloist on the latest record by Kjeld Lauritsen trio
"In the zone". Kjeld is an institution all by himself in the Danish
jazz community with his swinging Hammond organ playing!
Since the release we have done quite some gigs together and
it's really a thrill for someone like me who needs an injection of soul/jazz
once in a while, that Hammond provides a sound to jump off of, every single
time! In the trio you also find: Per Gade-guitar and Sören Frost-drums.
Anna Weister-Andersson is one of Sweden's most acclaimed
gospel singers and choir leaders. She is passionate about black american gospel
music, and is putting her work as a composer, teacher and choir conductor into
spreading and sharing this music throughout the country. 2011 Anna gathered a
choir of ten singers and fie musicians to do the first recording entirely with
her compositions, "One in Christ". I was invited to take part in this
fantastic project, and we still do concerts when there is a possibility to
gather the whole gang. Quite an undescribable feeling to be singing together
with people like Samuel Ljungblahd, Malin Övrell, Ingela Olsson, Frank Ådahl, Malcolm
Chambers, Martina W Möllås, Per Ankarberg, Kristina Talajic and Anna of course!
Debo Band is a 11-piece Ethio-groove collective that has quickly earned an ever-growing and enthusiastic following in the loft spaces, neighborhood bars, and church basements of Boston, MA (USA) performing for American, and Ethiopian and Eritrean communities. Since 2006, Debo Band has been immersed in the unlikely confluence of traditional East African polyrhythms and pentatonic scales, classic American soul and funk music, and the instrumentation of Eastern European brass bands, which produced a unique form of dance music that Ethiopian audiences instantly recognize as the soundtrack of their youth, carried from party to kitchen on the ubiquitous cassette tapes of the time. And increasingly, erudite American and European audiences are also getting hip to the Ethiopian groove, largely through CD reissues of Ethiopian classics on the Ethiopiques series.
With a unique instrumentation – including horns, strings, and accordion – that is a nod to the big bands of Haile Selassie’s time, Debo Band is carrying the torch of classic Ethiopian music by giving new life to these old sounds. Their lead vocalist, Bruck Tesfaye, has the kind of pipes that reverberate with the sound of beloved Ethiopian vocalists like Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete. But Debo Band is not content simply “covering” the older styles – they also perform original compositions and new arrangements of songs from modern and contemporary artists such as Teddy Afro and Roha Band. Their expansive repertoire and spirited performances have earned them respect and recognition, leading to concert opportunities such as opening for legendary Ethiopian greats Tilahun Gessesse and Getatchew Mekuria.
Danny Mekonnen, an Ethiopian-American jazz saxophonist and a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Harvard University, created Debo as a way of exploring the unique sounds that filled the dance clubs of “Swinging Addis” and as an outlet for experimenting with new arrangements, configurations, and compositional techniques. In addition to their dedication to Ethiopian music, the other members of Debo Band are involved in a huge array of musical projects, ranging from free jazz and experimental rock music to chamber and orchestral music. Band members have composed full orchestral works, scored silent films and documentaries, recorded albums with homemade electronic instruments, and for fun, study folk music traditions from around the world, including Balkan folk music, Balinese Gamelan, and Brazilian percussion
ensembles.
For the last several months, Debo Band has committed itself to spreading its music to audiences far and wide. In early 2009 Debo toured the U.S. East Coast taking their Ethiopian grooves to diverse venues in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, Debo Band inspired all kinds of people to get up and dance, whether they had never seen iskista, the Ethiopian shoulder dance, or had been dancing it since childhood.
In May 2009, Debo traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to perform at the 8th Ethiopian Music Festival, an engagement supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. These performances affected Debo Band’s creative and professional development in significant ways, particularly in the collaboration they began with several traditional musicians – vocalist Selamnesh Zemene, dancer Zinash Tsegaye, drummer Asrat Ayalew, and washint (flute) player Yohannes Afewerk. All accomplished musicians in their own right, these musicians have collectively over fifty years of experience at prestigious venues ranging from the National Theater of Ethiopia to Fendika, a leading azmari bet, or traditional music house, in Addis Ababa. Working with these four musicians, Debo Band grows into a forceful, energetic, and authoritative thirteen-piece Ethiopian ensemble capable of delightful, one-of-a-kind performances.
01. Debo Band - Akale Wube (5:01) 02. Debo Band - Ney Ney Weleba (5:30) 03. Debo Band - Not Just a Song (6:06) 04. Debo Band - Yefeker Wegagene (5:30) 05. Debo Band - Asha Gedawo (5:13) 06. Debo Band - Tenesh Kelbe Lay (5:15) 07. Debo Band - And Lay (4:53) 08. Debo Band - Medinanna Zelesegna (4:11) 09. Debo Band - Habesha (6:51) 10. Debo Band - Ambassel (7:06) 11. Debo Band - DC Flower (3:22)
