Ethiopiques, Vol. 8: Swinging Addis [Import]

Ethiopiques (Buda Series), Swinging Addis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 3, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Buda Musique
• ASIN: B00004WKDC
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,438 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #2 in Music > World Music > Africa > Ethiopia

Track Listings

1. Ené Nègn Bay Manèsh (Who is that Saying 'It's Me'?) - Girma Beyene

2. Mar Tèb Yelal Kafesh (Your Word is Honey) - Mahmoud Ahmed

3. Hasab (My Worry) - Ayalew Mesfin

4. Tchero Adari Nègn (I Get by on My Own) - Alemayehu Eshete

5. Betchayén Tègodahu (Alone and Unhappy) - Alemayehu Eshete

6. Tèssassatègn Eko (I'm Going Nuts) - Bahta Gebre-Heywet

7. Gizi (Time) - Bahta Gebre-Heywet

8. Astaweslèhu (Unforgettable) - Lemma Demissew

9. Adrashash Tèfabegn (I Lost My Address) - Lemma Demissew

10. Lèzèlalèm Nuri (Live Forever) - Lemma Demissew

11. Yètèsfa Tezeta - Tesfa-Maryam Kidane

12. Aynotchesh Yerèfu (Stop Flirting) - Samuel Belay

13. Qèrèsh Endèwaza (You Are No More) - Samuel Belay

14. Sét Alamenem (I Don't Trust Girls Anymore) - Girma Beyene

15. Yebèqagnal (I Give Up) - Girma Beyene

16. Enkèn Yèlélèbesh (You Are Flawless) - Girma Beyene

17. Betchayén Tèkezi (Alone and Melancholy) - Getatchew Kassa

18. The Afèr Yemègneshal (Earth Longs for You) - Alemayehu Eshete

19. Eskègizéw Bèrtchi (Be Brave, Hang On) - Alemayehu Eshete

20. Ayalqem Tèdèngo (Boundless Worship) - Alemayehu Eshete

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With ties--most of them clearly nonbinding--to the sanctioned musical institutions of Ethiopia in the 1960s (police bands and the like), the singers and players on the Ethiopiques series of reissues were in a funky bind. They had pledged some allegiance to Emperor Haile Selassie I and his imperial declarations, but their muses picked up distant signals from North America, including jazz's horn charts, funk's on-the-one rhythms, and an overriding sense of urgency in music made by youth. Here's volume 8 of the Ethiopiques series, testimony in 70-plus minutes to the winning power of the youth culture's music. With the series' most unabashed nod to James Brown in Alèmayèhu Eshèté's six tracks, volume 8 goes further than its predecessors in documenting a jazzy, soulful, electric-keyboard-fueled scene that simply ignores conventional musical borders. Eshèté's vocals bark and then soar over the webbed rhythms with all the force of Brown's--and an additionally rich range of guitars and keyboards that race around and through each other like polyrhythmic drums. What volume 8 shows is that the impact of soul, jazz, and funk (try Lèmma Dèmissew on for size) provided so much quiltwork to be syncopated together in these hip, danceable tunes. Listening to Samuel Bèlay's band kick the horns over an artfully hanging-back rhythmic tide, it's hard to imagine that a musical culture this rich could be stymied by the late 1970s--just a few years after Selassie's regime was crushed. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars totally surprising, April 1, 2001

By 

nadav haber (jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ethiopiques, Vol. 8: Swinging Addis (Audio CD)

The most immediate effect of listening to this CD for the first time is surprise. The rhythms on all songs are not traditionally Ethiopian, but closer to American R&B from the 50's and 60's. Even a traditional singer like Ayalew Mesfin joins with a funky song. Girma Beyene is a complete original, borrowing very little from his own roots. Lemma Demissaw sound best to my ears. I feel he is very comfortable with the American R&B and sounds real "cool". His songs are the high point of the CD. All songs by Alemayehu Eshete display his R&B style - very successfully. This is not authentic Ethiopian Music, but it is good Ethiopian music and I recommand it to lovers of this genre.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Ethiopiques Volume, May 10, 2007

By 

Stephen K. Reeder (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ethiopiques, Vol. 8: Swinging Addis (Audio CD)

The Ethiopiques series is an amazing series of re-issues of Ethiopian nightclub music from the 60's and 70's.
Something special was going on in Addis Ababa, in the swinging 60's and 70's. Ethiopian musicians were mixing American Soul, Funk, Jazz, R 'n B, and their own Ethiopian musicianship into a unique creation. The music is somehow familiar and exotic at the same time, most of the music features (at least to western ears) atypical, time signatures, scales, horn arrangements, and vocalizations. But the music is still swinging soul and funk ala, The Meters, James Brown, and Herbie Hancock. If you have any preconceived notions of "World" and "African" music, this CD will definitely challenge those ideas.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this as a starting point to anyone who's been curious about this series; it will blow you away and open your mind!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars way up with my favorite cd's, November 5, 2002

By 

chimpmonkey (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ethiopiques, Vol. 8: Swinging Addis (Audio CD)

I brought this record to a friend I was staying with out of town--he had a party that night and played it three times in a row. The whole Ethiopiques series rocks & this one with the combination of the Ethiopian pop thing and white-boots go-go grooves is just about pure pleasure.