Mesele Asmamaw (krar) is a composer and arranger from Ethiopia.
He joined the music industry for the past 20 years, and released many albums and traveled throughout Europe and Africa performing the traditional music of Ethiopia.
In the last eight years, he has been a favorite guest of the influential punk band called The EX, and he has recorded several albums with the experimental Norwegian drummer Paal Nillson-Love. Also, he toured and recorded with his experimental rock group Trio Kazanches and worked extensively with Mulatu Astatke, both in the studio and on stage. Mesele uses several interesting techniques in band Qwanqwa, including a wahpedal, a distortion pedal, a coke bottle and a plastic tube.
Instrumental album of Hailu Mergia. These tracks came to me without tags, only with 1983 as year of release (ethiopian or western calendar, I dont know).
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 ...)
Ethiomystic is a fusion of traditional and contemporary jazz, reggae and rock that makes you want to listen to it again and again. I tried to offer simplicity using just a few instruments. Yet, there’s a layered approach, with rhythm, melody, and harmonies that unlocks a unique, refined sound. - Paulos Tadesse
Instrumental music situated at the crossroads of many of influences- traditional song, afro-beat, reggae, jazz and funk.
Mulatu Astatkemight be most known to international audiences through his tracks on the excellent Ethiopiques CD anthology series of Ethiopian music. Long before those tracks were compiled for that series, however, he had an American release with this 1972 instrumental album, on which he's billed as"Mulatu of Ethiopia."
Like much of the best of the circa-early-'70s contemporary Ethiopian music on Ethiopiques, it's a fine, at times captivating blend of late-'60s American soul and jazz with Ethiopian music, resulting in something not quite comparable to anything else.
It is undeniably funky, with wah-wah guitar and organ aplenty. There's plenty of contemporary jazz in the arrangements, too, the sax runs sometimes showing the influence of the likes of John Coltrane. Yet there's a melancholy minor cast to the melodies that marks this off as something quite different, and the rhythms likewise have irregularities that are more African than American. The only major strike against the LP is its short running time, with the seven tracks adding up to a mere 26-and-a-half minutes or so.
Dereje Mekonnen began his career in the early 1980s as a keyboardist in the Ibex band, who accompanied the R&B singer Mahmoud Ahmed on three albums. He then founded the formation Dallol, a reggae band with whom he played in Chicago and accompanied Ziggy Marley on his albums Conscious Party (1988) and One Bright Day (1989), which were awarded the Grammy.
After numerous tours with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, he founded the band Gizzae in 1991, with whom he performed primarily in Chicago and the Midwest of the USA. He also worked with Ethiopian musicians such as Tilahun Gessesse and Ephrem Tamiru. He also produced the first album of Ejigayehu Shibabaw, One Ethiopia (1998).
Dereje Mekonnen died at the age of 49.
Dereje DJ Makonnen - Alemen Zorialehu [ደረጄ መኮንን አለምን ዞሪያለሁ]
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 01 - Etitu Beredegn (6:13)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 02 - Yagere Lidje (6:34)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 03 - Selewebetu Sadenk (5:02)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 04 - Atawerulegn Lela (4:33)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 05 - Laley Laley (Tegregna (6:14)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 06 - Temar Lidje (5:49)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 07 -Emu Eadigere (Guragegna) (4:23)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 08 - Besebara Fole (6:23)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 09 - Shilela (3:52)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 10 - Hagerua Wasa Megera (4:43)
Dereje Mekonen with Shebele Band - 11 - Yaleselesea (Oromegna) (4:27)
