August 26, 2007
Ethiopian grooves
We've spent the past four weeks travelling around the UK and Greece visiting family. Most of the travelling has been done on the UK's motorway network - normally a fairly tedious, traffic-clogged experience.
But this time it wasn't so bad. Why? Because we had this to distract us - Ethiopiques - the Very Best of Ethiopiques: Hypnotic Grooves from the Legendary Series. It is the best bits of the much-admired but daunting 21-CD Ethiopiques series, which, according to Wikipedia, features:
Ethiopian and Eritrean singers and musicians. Many of the Ethiopiques CDs compile various singles and albums that Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia released during the 1960s and 1970s in Ethiopia. Prominent singers and musicians from this era appearing on Ethiopiques releases include Alemayehu Eshete, Asnaketch Worku, Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke, and Tilahun Gessesse.
And it is excellent. My favourite so far is the first track - Heywete by Tesfa-Maryam Kidane. I always meant to get into the series, but there were just too many of them.
Where are all the Ethiopiques musicians now? Isn't it time someone organised a Buena Vista Social Club-style reunion?
Posted by aheavens at August 26, 2007 12:12 PM
Comments
Thanks for this post Andrew. I have been listening to pretty much the whole collection these past weeks on Rhapsody [surprisingly they have them all ], for some odd reason amazon.com did not have the Cd you wrote on, only available on the .co.uk, trying to order this from a different site....
The music in these collections compared to the current ethio pop music is like night and day...sad how our music has 'evolved', is 'devolved' a word??
Thanks for the post
-Ps /\ get a recent copy of ubuntu feisty while you are still in Broadband land and give it a second try ;)
Posted by: Haftish-Yimer at August 27, 2007 2:29 PM
It's a great series, though some of them take a little time to get used to. Go for Ethiopiques Vol. 15 - Jump to Addis - a fine mix of traditional voice and modern recording.
Dont foreget Aster Aweke though!!!!
Posted by: ColinMcK at August 29, 2007 12:20 PM
@ColinMcK ; Ethiopiques 15, by far is my favorite from the collection [ Sondeferi and Medohane by Ermyas Tsegaye are master peicies - IMHO ] , "Ethiopiques 20, Either Orchestra and guest, Live in Addis" is pretty decent too.
I wonder what Mulatu Astatke is up to these days.
Posted by: Haftish-yimer at August 29, 2007 3:40 PM
Hi, I know this is shamefull advertising, but I just wanted to let you lot know about:
www.ethiopiques.info
It's a fansite set up to celebrate the release of a 2CD pack of classic Ethiopian groove.
Best wishe
Posted by: Tim at August 30, 2007 9:49 AM
Hi,
It has been scientifically proven that Volume 13 shortens car journeys. I can vouch for this after extensive research in the field.
When Volume 13 has finished, reach for volume 8, which concentrates on the wonderful Alemeyehu Eshete, and the miles will just fly by.
Vol 22 has just come out - also featuring Alemeyehu - can't wait to hear that!
Posted by: Jo! at October 27, 2007 1:13 PM