{"id":84631,"date":"2021-07-22T15:52:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T13:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/musiques-ethiopiennes-d-hier-et-d-aujourdhui\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T11:15:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T09:15:08","slug":"ethiopian-music-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/ethiopian-music-past-and-present\/","title":{"rendered":"From Franck Descollonges\u2019 record collection: Ethiopian Music, past and present"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before going any further, I would like to point out that this makes for a tiny bit of self-promotion as it is Heavenly Sweetness that is releasing this catalog on vinyl in collaboration with Buda Musique. But the richness of the music is so crazy that it would be a shame not to talk about it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I envy you readers who now have the chance to discover these albums for the first time. Their beauty grabbed me from the first listen. These vinyls have been with me for many years.  Thank you again David Jaloux and Arome production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S: we are talking about reissues here because the original vinyls are extremely rare and worth a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mulatu Astatk\u00e9 – Ethio Jazz<\/em> (Amha records) 1974<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though still active today, we\u2019ll start with the leading artist of Ethiopian music in the 60s and 70s.It was Mulatu who invented (or at least popularized) Ethio jazz, the mixture of traditional Ethiopian music with American jazz and Latin music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After studying music in London and the USA (at the prestigious Berklee college), and releasing two American albums, Mulatu returned to his native country to record with local musicians in sessions which produced several tracks including this fundamental “Ethio jazz” album for Ahma Eshete’s label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music recorded on this album is very unique as it contains purely Ethiopian harmonies, (reminiscent of \u201cOriental music\u201d) married to more jazz or even funk arrangements\/ orchestration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound of this purely instrumental Ethio jazz is very singular, combining organs, pianos, fuzz guitars, contemporary modern sounds and more traditional brass themes with the participation of saxophonist Feqadu Amde-Mesquel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the perfect music to transport spirit to distant countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that Mulatu’s albums are a little like the color-coded Beatles’ compilations: there is the “Blue” and the “Red.” Indeed, we find 6 tracks from Mulatu on the 10 that feature in the compilation Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits<\/em>, released in 1972, which can almost be considered another album from the vibraphonist. Also, it is on this red album that we find one of Mulatu\u2019s Hits, the famous “Y\u00e9gell\u00e9 Tezeta,” sampled by Nas & Damien Marley on “As we enter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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