_ ___________________ __________________ _
................... ..................
. ___ : jAZzMan :
.... / ::::::::::::::::::::: : : ::::::::::::::: ____ ..........
: __\__/_ _____ ____ ____ ____ _______ ____\ \_____ .
. \ /__\_ \___\ \ ___\ \ / \__\ \ / _ / \___ t^
! _/ _/ _ / __/__/ __/__\ _ \ / / / _ \_ :
|\\___/ / _/_____/ ____/ /___/ \_ \\_______\ ___/ //.
'-----\________\- ----\______)---\______\--\______/ \ __ __ _ _ \______\ '
. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\______\\_\\. .
| ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
_ _____________________________________________________ _
\ \.) (./ /
| |
| artist.....: Mulatu Astatke |
| vibe/s.....: New York-Addis-London The Story Of Eth|
| |
| year.......: 2009 |
| archiveisms: Strut Records |
| STRUT051CD |
| source.....: CDDA |
| |
| moodswing..: Ethnic |
| |
| releasesize: 75,5 MB |
| tracks.....: 20 |
| length.....: 76:59 min |
| |
| encoder....: Lame 3.97 (-V2 --Vbr-New) |
| quality....: avg. 132kbps |
| | .
. | scenealized: 04.03.2010 | .
| |
..: |_____________________________________________________| :..
____ ____ _____ . / ____ ____ _____
..... ...\ \/ / _____/ /__(_/_/ \____/ /_/ /.. .....
..:...// / // / / / _ \_ / / |:..:..
: \____\_________\_____/____/____/ /____\ _____|:
._____________________________ _ \______\ ___________.
| |
| "Ethio jazz. That's what Mulatu Astatke called |
| his style of music when he invented it back in |
| the 1960s, and it means exactly what it implies: |
| Ethiopian melodies played on Western instruments |
| with room for improvisation. Astatke was a |
| pioneer for his country's modern music. His |
| concept of instrumental music as an end in itself |
| was a bit foreign in his homeland, where singers |
| rule the popular music sphere, and he was among |
| the very first musicians from Ethiopia to learn |
| about music while abroad. He started playing as a |
| teenager at school in Wales, and after a stint at |
| London's Trinity School of Music, he jumped the |
| Atlantic for a brief stay at Boston's Berklee |
| College of Music, ultimately winding up in New |
| York City in the mid-60s. There, he was exposed |
| to sounds he simply couldn't have heard back home |
| in Addis Ababa, and his exposure to jazz and |
| Western harmonic concepts led him to formulate |
| Ethio jazz, the perfect hybrid of the traditional |
| and the modern. |
| |
| His first attempts to forge his new genre |
| occurred in the U.S., and his band members were |
| mostly Puerto Rican. You can tell by listening, |
| too. The several tracks here lifted from his two |
| Afro Latin Soul LPs bear a strong stamp of |
| boogaloo, Latin jazz, and other Americo-Caribbean |
| forms. When he returned to Ethiopia, he arrived |
| at a time when the country was opening up as |
| never before, and Addis Ababa was as cosmopolitan |
| as cities came, boiling with cultural |
| restlessness that fed a vibrant nightlife. |
| Recording resources were limited, but in 1969, |
| Mulatu began cutting tracks for Amha EshΦtΘ's |
| Amha, the first independent label ever |
| established in the country. He worked primarily |
| as an arranger, but frequently wrote and recorded |
| instrumentals to serve as B-sides for vocal |
| songs, some of which are being issued here for |
| the first time outside Ethiopia. |
| |
| Astatke brought a unique skill set back to Addis |
| with him, where he was able to employ musicians |
| who'd grown up with the music he was so |
| consciously modernizing. The resulting music is |
| simply brilliant, fresh even decades later. The |
| way Mulatu harmonized horns, combining pentatonic |
| Ethiopian melody with Western chord concepts, |
| sounds like no one else-- the music seems both |
| ancient and modern at once, befitting the mixture |
| of raw ingredients. This compilation is utterly |
| intoxicating from the first note to the last-- |
| preternaturally funky, haunting, complex, |
| memorable, exciting, and unique, Ethio jazz |
| easily transcends the era in which it was made. |
| |
| "Mulatu", from his 1972 LP Mulatu of Ethiopia, |
| recorded in New York with members of Mongo |
| Santamaria's band during a visit to the States, |
| is a brilliant signature track, a darkly funky |
| tune with a hint of Caribbean shuffle, snaking |
| sax solos, Mulatu's own cloudy vibraphone, and a |
| bit of wah-pedaled Wurlitzer. The stately, smoky |
| "Netsanet" is drawn from 1974's Yekatit: Ethio |
| Jazz LP, the very first Ethiopian LP to be |
| conceived as an album in advance (as opposed to a |
| collection of 45 sides). Like the other songs |
| from that album, it has a weighty solemnity to it |
| that betrays the difficult revolutionary period |
| during which it was recorded. My favorite Mulatu |
| track, "EnΘ Alantchie Alnorem", was previously |
| featured on Buda Musique's Ethiopiques Volume 4 |
| compilation, and it still kills here. It is a |
| song without a solid core: its fluttering |
| electric piano, flute, and drums spin in an |
| ethereal wash, held together by wind sound |
| effects and a heavy sonority, and the descending |
| piano line that outlines the chords feels like |
| it's falling and catching itself on each beat. |
| |
| A handful of vocal tracks dot the compilation, |
| and they're all outstanding as well. "Ebo Lala" |
| features Seifu Yohannes putting on his best |
| Bollywood-inspired show, huffing and puffing over |
| a heavy Latin beat and blasting horn section. |
| "Wubit", featuring Muluken Melesse, has a cool, |
| funky crime jazz strut, a sick breakdown, and a |
| quintessentially Ethiopian melismatic vocal-- |
| that this song has remained hidden from all but a |
| few collectors in Ethiopia until now is almost |
| criminal. Even Mulatu's very first foray into |
| recording, the Latin-tinged instrumental "Shagu", |
| bears his unmistakable signature, playing its |
| cycling piano riff two octaves lower than in most |
| Latin music and featuring a dark, mysterious |
| vibraphone lead playing between Ethiopian |
| pentatonics and modal concepts nicked from |
| post-bop jazz. |
| |
| Ethio jazz was never a commercial success in |
| Ethiopia. That Ahma and Philips Ethiopia even saw |
| fit to release any of it is a credit to their |
| commitment to art over commerce, and even today |
| it remains little-heard in its homeland. But |
| Mulatu was a master craftsman and one of the most |
| supremely inventive composers of a time when an |
| awful lot of creative music was being made around |
| the world. He's still going today, guesting on |
| radio shows and teaching in Addis, and he |
| released a great album with London's the |
| Heliocentrics as his backing band earlier this |
| year. But even if he'd disappeared after 1975, |
| his legacy would be sealed." |
| |
| Pitchfork.com - Joe Tangari, December 7, 2009 |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
. | Psst, more info at www.strut-records.com | .
|_____________________________________________________| :
: ____ .
.:..._______ ..... / _____ ____ .......... _____....:.
::::\ /.______\__/_____\_ )_/ / __________/ /:::::
::. _\ \| / \ /_ \ // / |\ \_::::
: _\\__________\ ____// / __/_________\___________//_::
.-----/|--------------- -/_________/ -- - -----------------|\-----.
| |
| 01 Yekermo Sew 04:13 |
| 02 I Faram Gami I Faram 02:20 |
| 03 Shagu 03:06 |
| 04 Mulatu 05:02 |
| 05 Fikratchin (Ft Menelik Wossenatchew) 03:04 |
| 06 Yegelle Tezeta 03:14 |
| 07 Asiyo Bellema (Ft Frank Holder & Niaaza Alsherif) 02:53 |
| 08 Emnete 03:30 |
| 09 Lanchi Biye 03:08 |
| 10 Yefikir Tizita 04:08 |
| 11 Yekatit 03:54 |
| 12 Ebo Lala (Ft Seifu Yohannes) 03:34 |
| 13 Wubit (Ft Mulunken Melesse) 05:31 |
| 14 Dewel 04:14 |
| 15 Mascaram Setaba 01:51 |
| 16 Girl Form Addis Ababa 03:49 |
| 17 Kasalefkut Hulu 02:42 |
| 18 Netsanet 05:33 |
| 19 Ene Alantchie Alnorem 04:59 |
| 20 Tezeta 06:14 |
| |
'---- -. .- ----'
|_____________________________________________________|
| |
_ ___| __: :__ |___ _
\\ \|:::| |:::|/ //
\ |:::| |:::| /
.|:::| |:::|.
|:::| "After silence, that which comes nearest to |:::|
|:::| |:::|
|:::| expressing the inexpressible,is music." |:::|
|:::| |:::|
|:::| -- Aldous Huxley |:::|
|:::| |:::|
|:::| |:::|
|:::| |:::|
|:::: |:::|
|::::. |:::|
|:::::. ╕a******. |:::|
!:::::::.. ╪ ╪ _mw**w,.
.::::::::::::...... ___`# .╞*"» ░.
.:::::::::::::::::::::::.....╕pñ"»»»"░#╡ _/░ _╪ .
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::╪~ ╪╪╪╪╪__╡µ╡╡µµ╪▒░ :
¼╪╪a___agµ╪╪╪╪╪ »¼*.
µ░ ░╤m,__ t^ _J'
¼╪w________# ¼"░░░""»
»~░ñ░~»
_______________________________________________________