Charles Sutton is a master of the Ethiopian masinko [one-string fiddle]. Sutton learned to play the instrument when he was a teacher in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia in the 1960s. He was perforing in Addis Ababa with his fellow traditional musicians under the Orchestra Ethiopia band.
Four former members of the group; including Tesfaye Lemma, Getamessay Abebe, Melaku Gelaw and Sutton teamed up to produce a CD, "Zoro Getem" [reunion] and decided to contribute the proceeds from the sales of the CD to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the Addis Ababa University.
The group so far has contributed 100, 000 birr. Sutton was born in New York City in 1942 and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Harvard University as a freshman but took a two-year-leave of absence to study music in Washington D.C. and at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. In 1964, he returned to Harvard and finished his education with a degree in English. He talks about his music and experience in Ethiopia with the VOA Amharic program’s Alula Kebede.
This old Amharic melodic tune, Sheggitu, Assefa Abate’s classic was sung by an American Charles Sutton at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) last Friday, May 2. It is one of the eleven songs included in a new CD, Zoro Gettem (Reunion), recorded in Washington, DC in September 2006 and premiered here on that night.
The CD that Charles described as ‘a flowering of musical partnership’ was done with his three Ethiopian colleagues Tesfaye Lemma, Getamesay Abebe and Melaku Gelaw of the former Orchestra Ethiopia.
The Orchestra was a prominent performing group from the 1960’ and 70’, financed by the then Haile-Selassie University, later renamed Addis Ababa University. It was based at the Creative Arts Center in the campus. They performed in theaters, hotels like Wabe Shebelle and Hilton, and embassies of Addis Ababa, at parties and weddings, on television, on excursions into the provinces, eventually on tour in the United States.
So how could an American come to be member of the Orchestra?
It all started in 1966 when a fresh-faced young man, straight out of Harvard came to Ethiopia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Most Americans knew little about the country and this young man wasn’t any different. ”The only thing I knew was that Ethiopia was found in Africa and its leader was the famous Emperor Haile Selassie,” Charles says in an Amharic note that he wrote and included in the CD.
Here he started teaching freshman English to science and engineering students at the Arat Kilo campus.
“That is where I saw a poster announcing a concert by Orchestra Ethiopia. I was an amateur musician. At that time, I played the guitar, piano.” he recalls. Ethiopian music instruments started to enthrall him. Tesfaye Lemma, Director of the Orchestra, introduced him to some the musicians. He soon started learning the Mesenko for his own amusement. “I was taking lessons in Amharic form Lemma Taddese, a quick-witted and personable eleventh-grader at Menelik School. Getamesay already a famous master of the instrument was teaching me the mesnko,’’ he recalls.
Learned he did, with a courage and great gusto.
Before he knew it, he was on the bill to sing and play with Orchestra Ethiopia in a program of traditional music at the Creative Art Center. An adventure that continued for four years. A proud shemma wearer Fernji singing in Amahric boosted the band’s appeal, Getamesay Abbebe recalled on that night.
Long after the band disbanded and the members gone their separate ways, an incident in the summer of 2006 in the US brought them together. Charles concluded five years of Peace Corpse service in 1971 and settled in Connecticut, where he has worked a s a jazz pianist ever since. Tesfaye who was granted asylum in the US in 1987 was living in Washington, after retiring from the Center for Ethiopian Arts and Culture that he founded because of ill health.
Getamesay, after completing an illustrious thirty-six-year career at the Hager Fikir Theater in Addis and overcoming a life-threatening illness, traveled to the U.S. in the summer of 2006 to participate in his son’s weeding. Melaku Gelaw, a faculty member of the Yared Music School for nearly thirty years, immigrated with his family in 1997 and took up residence in Virginia.
Reuniting was a joy but it also sparked an idea to make a new CD with a number of old and new songs. The result was a very beautifully done and packed CD, Zoro Gettem (Reunion). The pieces are a soothing mixture of mesenko, washint, krar, ranging in mood upbeat and playful to somber and teary. The orchestral arrangements are alternately forceful and creepy, moody and tender.
And more importantly they have come here to honor the place where they have met.
Charles on that night sang two songs from the CD, Sheggitu and Yazare Sammint. His mastery of the Amharic language is unexpected delight. He has warm and deep sound that communicated tenderness, sorrow and admiration throughout the hall. The crowd filled to capacity was in constant motion and sway. The occasion must have brought the audience lots of nostalgia and reminiscence to those good old and innocent days. It was like the group had never gone away. The 70’s were brought back in a new and improved ways. The old songs were rehabilitated and restored to grandeur. And they sounded better than ever.
Plus, the sale from the CD is all going be given to the IES to support its activities and the library it going to build. Charles said they have already sold 9,000 dollars worth in different places in Dallas, Washington and it is being distributed all over the United States wherever the Ethiopian community is found.
This is a must have album for anyone interested in Ethiopian music and a great introduction for those who wish to learn and support a cause. Their reward was not money or fame; it was integrity, purity, friendship and honoring their pledge.
The big complaint listeners will have with CD is that it is so short but a note in the CD made it clear a compilation of the music of the Orchestra Ethiopia, complete with extensive historical documentation and dozens of handsome photographs, is available on compact disc as Number 23 of the Ethiopiques series published by Buda Musique.
Related story from Sites
Orchestra Ethiopia Endegena-Amharic Reporter
Charles Sutton - 01 - Minew Teleyesghign (4:55)
Charles Sutton - 02 - Shemonmwana (4:16)
Charles Sutton - 03 - Messenko (4:11)
Charles Sutton - 04 - Mikir Filega (3:25)
Charles Sutton - 05 - Ambassel & Eyew Demamu (3:21)
Charles Sutton - 06 - Shegitu (4:39)
Charles Sutton - 07 - Tizita (3:54)
Charles Sutton - 08 - Manew (4:04)
Charles Sutton - 09 - Endegena (4:14)
Charles Sutton - 10 - Yezare Samint (3:12)
