Amharic hits; Ethiopia's beats.

A Town called Addis

By Dub Collossus

Real World

Cat: CDRW155

Direct from Addis Ababa, this album is the result of a project that pulls together an extraordinary but little known African musical heritage, a labour of love recording in a makeshift studio in downtown Addis Ababa and then a journey to the UK by some of Ethiopia's finest performers. It is the vision of Nick Page, also known as Dubulah, a composer, guitarist, bass player and programmer.

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Ethiopian music is considered one of Africa's hidden gem. At the end of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, Ethiopia was in the dying years of the imperial decline of Haile Selassie and the early years of a brutally repressive junta led by Mengistu. Yet within the confines of this stifling and constrictive environment there flowered some astonishing music.

The result was one of the most fertile music scenes in Africa, as singers such as Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete recorded a string of hits that held a mirror up to American soul and funk. Yet the scene only flourished briefly, and a military takeover in 1974 ushered in almost two decades of silence, curfew and economic disintegration.

A new audience

In the 1990s, however, as Ethiopia awoke from its nightmare, interest began to grow in this lost music. An award-winning series of recordings, Ethiopiques, unearthed the classic recordings and brought them to the attention of a new audience, including the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who used music by Ethiojazz creator Mulatu Astatqe on the soundtrack to his film Broken Flowers.

The next chapter in Ethiopian music's renaissance has been written with 'A town called Addis'. At times showing Fela Kuti's influences in its big band sax sound, and at other times a different take on traditional Ethiopian music in all its diversity, this is a sound that is accessible to all with a style that ranges from dreamy blues, hypnotic grooves and jazz piano to driving funk brass.

'A Town Called Addis' was inspired by Page meeting, writing and working with singers and musicians in Addis Ababa in August 2006.

It seeks to combine the golden years of ethiopique beats, popular again thanks to the release of a critically acclaimed 'Ethiopique' compliation albums and ethiojazz with the dub reggae styles of the early 1970s; Page names reggae bands like the Abyssinians, Mighty Diamonds, along with a hint of the ultra-experimental jazz pioneer Sun Ra, as being crucial influences.

The first sessions took place in a breeze block hut under corrugated iron roof bombarded by the sounds of the rainy season on the plateau where Addis is built.

"The sound of children playing, dogs barking and women washing clothes all permeate the sessions and help the flavour of the record, albeit as ambient as smoke," Page recalls, adding "a howling cat chasing a rat under the roof destroyed one vocal take completely ...!"

Unknown talents and international stars

These unique urban field recordings were brought back to the UK for more production work at the Real World studios in UK.

Then, in March 2008, a group of outstanding performers from Ethiopia's capital city were invited to the studios to add further input.

Some of these artists are unknown talents who have never traveled outside of their country before, while others already enjoy a huge international reputation. You will find on this unique recording project five Ethiopians who represent five separate strands of their country's music scene.

In her red, yellow and green headdress is Sintayehu 'Mimi' Zenebe, Addis Ababa nightclub owner and known as 'the Edith Piaf' of Ethiopian song. Alongside her, Teremag Weretow playing his masenqo, a one-stringed fiddle--with Mimi representing Ethiopia's folk traditions, like the griots of West Africa.

Pop sensation Tsedenia Gebre-markos, winner of a Kora award as the best female singer in East Africa in 2004, joined them on a break from sessions for her third album, while Ethiojazz stars Samuel Yerga played piano and Feleke Hailu his saxophone.

The project is an audio journey providing a window onto a compelling, alluring, funky and seductive genre of contemporary African music styles.

As Yerga comments, reflecting the thoughts of the whole ensemble: "We took traditional music and turned it around, and people in Ethiopia are starting to listen to the way it swings now.

"Our musical culture is under attack from inside and out, it's all rock bands, hip-hop groups and pop singers, and nobody can afford to run a big band. But this album gave us something new and Ethiopian to work towards."