This year’s Ethiopian Music Festival was yet another rich exhibition of both local and international bands all bound together by a love for Ethiopian music. All events were open to the public free of charge, including events at the Goethe Institute, Alliance Ethio-Francaise, National Theatre, and even Club Alizé. Ethiopia is known for its uniqueness in history, language, geography, flora, fauna, and food. Its music is no less unique and special, as has been demonstrated by the growing number of performers that come to the festival. When the festival was first launched in 2001 by Heruy Arefeaine, Francis Falceto and Lucien Roux (then the Alliance Ethio-Francaise director), the purpose was to protect and promote Ethiopian music. Now Heruy and Falceto are the artistic directors, with the Alliance still providing most of the logistical support. Since 2004, the Ethiopian Music Festival has been inviting foreign bands with Ethiopian influence in the music they play. For example, uKanDanz, one of the bands from France in this year’s festival, blends ethiogroove with modern rock and jazz creating an explosive, throbbing sound. Fred Escoffier alternately provides the background tunes or melodies on the keyboard, while Lionel Martin really stands out and sets the band apart by giving it a unique sound with his sax playing. He does it with so much gusto that anyone who dares to stand in front of him would be blown away. It is downright spectacular to watch him play. Damien Cluzel is almost as powerful on the electric guitar and plays a mean guitar solo when Martin needs a break from all his hard work on the sax. Even Guilhem Meier steps in for drum solos at times and otherwise maintains the beat with certitude and flair among such high power players. The guest of uKanDanz for the festival this year was Asnaqe Gebreyes from Addis Abeba, who provided swelling, powerful vocals that fit the ebb and flow of the band’s music. ETH, another band from France, headed by Singhke’o Panya, a Frenchman of Laotian and Vietnamese heritage, blends 1970’s urban music from Addis Abeba with “dub, Indian ragas, funk, rock and of course Nigerian Afro-beat…drawn in by the guembri gnawa, Tuareg blues and Javanese gamelan.” When Panya, who plays the sax, seprano sax, and kalimba, first heard Ethiopian music 10 years ago, he thought he was listening to Africans playing Japanese music. This is partly due to their common pentatonic scale, though the beats are much different, he explained. Also a music teacher, Panya really gets into the music being created on stage in a Jack Black-esque way (for those who have seen the movie “School of Rock”). His partner, Anne Moret, also dances on stage playing the trumpet, while Alexandre Debuchy adds a calm and confident guitar, Charlie Dubois a playful bass, and Baptiste Deslandes some serious drumming, which rounds out the quintet. Their music can be just as powerful as uKanDanz, but what sets them apart is their music’s emotion and sense of suspense. These two bands demonstrate the influence that Ethiopian music can have on the international stage, which is almost exclusively introduced to the genre through Ethiopiques, now in its 25th edition. Since the addition of international musicians in 2004, having the local bands is all the more important to show where these musical compilations and infusions get their inspiration from. This year, the duty of sharing the traditional roots fell primarily on Ethiocolor with such classical instruments as the washint (Ethiopian flute) played by Abu Gebre, the kebero (Ethiopian drums) played by Misale Legesse, the mesenqo (single stringed fiddle) played by Yesak Moges and Indris Hassen, kirar (acoustic harp) played by Fasika Hailu, and the bass hhh played by Anteneh Teklemariam. Vocals from different languages were shared by Bekele Arega, Selamnesh Zemene, Tesfaye Taye, Hawa Kalen (Somali), Tokato Menna (Waliyta), and Timnit Kiros (Tigray). Group leader Melaku Belay headed up the amazing dance troop of Ethiocolor including Zinash Tsegaye, Dagmawi Negash, Fregenet Alemu, and Frehiwot Teshome. Luckily, even though the next festival is a year away, Ethiocolor can be seen every other Friday night at Fendika Azmari Bet in Kazanchis (the rotation skips this week). Many foreign bands interested in Ethiopian music are inspired as much by the less traditional, now famous ethiojazz of the waning imperial era. This delightfully supreme style of jazz was represented at the festival by Nubian Ark: Henock Temesgen (bass), Nati Tessema (drums), Girum Mezmur (guitar), Yishak Dawit (trombone) Misale Legesse (percussion) and Johnny Aklilu (sax) featuring Jorga Mesfin (also on the sax). Another way the festival aimed to preserve and promote Ethiopian music was through acknowledging the past. The festival itself was a tribute to singers Getachew Debalqe and Merawi Setot, who received recognition for their lives’ work at National Theatre on Monday night. There was even an exhibition opened at the Goethe Institute in Addis Abeba on Saturday, March 13, commemorating the historic recordings of azmari Tessema Eshete. Recorded 100 years ago, they were the first audio recordings by an African nation except for a few possible recordings made by colonial governments only a few years earlier. Not only are 16 of the 17 recordings around, they are being produced on CD complete with sound enhancement, to the delight of grandson Tadele Tessema who was part of the international panel and presided over the opening of the exhibition. The whole festival is conducted nonprofit style, according to Heruy, with support this year from the Spanish Embassy, French Embassy, CFEE, Goethe Institute Addis Abeba, CulturesFrance, Spedidam, Total, BGI, Groupe Castel, Club Alizé, National Theatre, National Museum, UNESCO, and the Minister of Culture and Tourism. Heruy’s vision for the Ethiopian Music Festival is to set up a year-round association that can more adequately help artists develop programmes, rent larger venues for the festival, and expand its overall size. He wants more people to be involved, from musicians to attendees to organizers, especially young people. |
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