Records and Revolution: Digging for "Ethio-jazz" in Addis Ababa
Ethio-jazz blended Ethiopian musical traditions with American jazz and soul, but a military coup in 1974 put an end to the scene, and records from back then are now as rare as they come.
In the old red-carpeted, wood-panelled restaurant of Addis Ababa's Itegue Taitu Hotel, Ernesto Chahoud – a Beirut-based DJ visiting the Ethiopian capital – placed a vinyl copy of Ethiopian funk-soul legend Alemeyehu Ashete's "Ya Tara" on a portable record player. The needle dropped and a soulful horn section broke in. Sitting alongside Chahoud, Mohammad Ahmed Abdu, a local record trader and enthusiast, smiled in appreciation.
In the 1960s and early-70s, Ashete – a teenage Elvis impersonator, sometimes referred to as the James Brown of Ethiopian music – rose to national acclaim as one of the stars of Addis Ababa's burgeoning music scene.
During that era, graduates of music academies patronised by then Emperor Haile Selassie experimented with formal training and scales, blending them with Ethiopian musical traditions inspired by the distinct rhythms of jazz, r'n'b and soul that permeated Addis' airwaves from the American military radio station in Asmara, in modern day Eritrea.
Standout artists from the era include Ashete, Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmud Ahmed, Mulatu Estatke, Hirut Bekele, Aster Aweke and the Walias band. Original recordings of the genre – generally known as Ethio-Jazz – were principally made by the local Amha and Kaifa labels, as well as Philips Ethiopia, in locations including India, Lebanon, Greece and West Africa, before being shipped to Ethiopia.
But in 1974, Haile Selassie was toppled in a military coup amid protests triggered by famine and accusations that the imperial regime was pocketing state funds. The Derg, a pro-Soviet junta said to have been responsible for between 500,000 to 2 million deaths, imposed a 16-year nighttime curfew on Addis that all but demolished its music scene.
(To continue reading please follow the link: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/qb5pa5/digging-for-ethio-jazz-in-addis-ababa-399)
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