WOMAD

Ethiopiques & Badume's Band

21:40 26th July on the Open Air Stage

All-star revisiting of Ethiopian music's golden age
In the 12 years since the Buena Vista Social Club record first slipped us a gaze over the parapet, no one world music record has come remotely close to emulating its extraordinary success. A couple of years back, The Very Best Of Ethiopiques compilation gave it a decent go. A double-disc distillation of the impeccable Ethiopiques series devoted to reissuing classic recordings from Addis Ababa's swinging '60s/'70s heyday, it received universally glowing reviews and chalked up none-too-shabby sales figures. Pleasingly, many of those artists featured in the Ethiopiques series are not only still with us but they also needed little encouragement to return to the stage. Artists like Mahmoud Ahmed, the bluesy soulman who tore up WOMAD back in 2005. He's back again this weekend for this mouthwatering revue show, along with fellow luminaries such as Alèmayèhu Eshèté (Ethiopia's answer to James Brown) and super-cool jazzer Gétachèw Mèkurya. Theirs is among the greatest music you'll hear in your entire life. Come give thanks and praise to the creators.

Mahmoud Ahmed Biography

Since the European release of 'Eré Mèla Mèla' (1986 Crammed Discs / expanded and remastered 1999 Buda Musique), Mahmoud Ahmed along with Aster Aweke and Gigi, is without doubt the Ethiopian artist least unknown to the western public. This influential album, originally released in Ethiopia in 1975, was for years the only example of modern Ethiopian music known in the 'west' and has been praised by critics from the New Musical Express to The New York Times.

Music, in particular, plays a strong integrating role in Ethiopian society and Mahmoud is a true veteran of the scene; he began appearing with the Imperial Bodyguard Band in 1962-63 and has never stopped since, accompanied by just about every Ethiopian musician of note. His "melancholy blues, piercingly minimalist country airs, brassy, danceable urban jazz, heart-wrenching, off-key crooners: a rich and stirring patchwork of sounds, crossing afro-beat, latino-swing moves and Eastern arabesques" (Anaïs Prosaïc) have, more recently, been reappraised with acclaimed, energetic performances at Womad, and as a well-deserved and popular winner of the 'Africa' category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2007.
(Biography supplied by artist's agent 2009)

http://www.ethiopiques.info/
Click here to sample their sounds

Alèmayèhu Eshèté Biography

Along with Mahmoud and Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté is one of the most prolific singers in Ethiopian recorded music. Star vocalist of the Police Orchestra from 1960, he became one of the first artists to leave that institution and join the young guard of independent bands. Often described as the 'Ethiopian James Brown' or the 'Ethiopian Elvis', for his style and stage presence as well as for his music, Alèmayèhu has long symbolised modernist Ethiopia: in love with rhythm' n' blues and soul music, but still keeping hold of the unique roots of millennial Abyssinia.
(Biography supplied by artist's agent)

http://www.ethiopiques.info/
Click here to sample their sounds

Gétatchèw Mèkurya Biography

There exists, among Ethiopia's numerous vocal genres, a form of singing that is purely warlike: epic and declamatory, harsh and hoarse-voiced, it is known as shellèla. In the past, and up until the 20th century, it was de rigueur to belt out a shellèla before battle, in order to galvanise one's troops. Anybody could sing a shellèla and the genre, to this day, is well-loved by Ethiopians.

Gétatchèw Mèkurya was not the only one to adapt those furious solos for the saxophone but he remains, in the annals of modern Ethiopian music, the symbol of shellèla. Nicknamed "Negus of Saxophone" and a real giant - both musically and physically - he even wears the symbolic trappings of the genre: a military cape symbolising the pelt of a killed animal, and headgear resembling a lion's mane. Beyond the military references however, here we encounter a musical form that is daring, improvisational, angry and impetuous, where each melisma spirals dizzyingly towards less structure and greater freedom. Without resorting to clichés, shellèla saxophone was a sort of free jazz before its time. Gétatchèw remembers trying out the first heady strains in 1952-53 but still knows nothing of Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler of the 60s.
(Biography supplied by artist management-2009)

http://www.ethiopiques.info/
Click here to sample their sounds