"Etu Gela"

The Éthiopiques series is not only the most thorough and informative source of Ethiopian music available, but it is one of the most spectacular bodies of recordings in the annals of African pop.  Volume 19 of an expected 30 volumes returns to a central figure in the development of Ethiopian groove, the fabulous crooner Mahmoud Ahmed.  A natural singer, Ahmed left school to become a shoe-shine boy in Addis in the early 60s.  He was discovered while working as a handy man at a bar. One night the singer couldn't make the gig and he stepped up to the mic to sing brilliant covers of the day's popular hits.  Adapted into the Imperial Body Guard Band, he made his first single in 1971, and recorded heavily during the next four years, until the rise of the Derg dictatorship put an end to Amha records and drove Ahmed into the seclusion of exclusive, luxury hotels, the only venues for live pop music during the 18 long years of the Derg.

Ahmed put Ethiopia on the world music map with his 1986 Crammed Disc release  Erè Mèla Mèla.  That album was originally recorded in 1975, and re-released in an expanded version as Ethiopiques, Volume 7.  Volume 6 gave us Ahmed's earliest recordings for the legendary, short-lived Ahmed Records label.  The current set of nine tracks comes from a 1974 Amha release recorded with the Ibex Band, which later became the Roha Band.  The music is absolutely of a piece with the revolutionary blend of rural folklore, jazz arranging, and wailing vocal passion that animated "swinging Addis" during this brief, dynamic period.   "Alèmeyé"  ("My Whole World") sets the mood with its grand, heavy sound--a fat bass line, an organ drone, beefy horns blaring out dark melodies trailed by a restless flute, and then the knife edge of a clear young man's voice slicing through the mix with quavering passion.  The song's lyrics reveal the distinctive poetry of Ethiopian blues, where romantic pain reaches epic dimensions:  "The hyenas don't dare to come close to your father's fence/But my heart has spent the whole night prowling and pacing around."

Sophisticated jazz overtones color the mellow ballad "Wègènié," an adaptation of a traditional lament about poverty.   Many of these songs roll with the distinctive 12/8 feel of Ethiopian pop, a seductive hybrid of rock n roll 4/4 and traditional triplet rhythms.  Ahmed's voice is unique for its zeal, passion, and clear-eyed melancholy and we get the full range of its cool despair and full-throated heart cry over the course of this varied set.  On the near-ominous ballad "Gubelyé," Ahmed plumbs the depths of melancholy.  The set concludes with an extended, 12-minute version of"Tezeta," the quintessential expression of emptiness and gloom, covered obsessively by Ethiopian musicians to this day.

Overall, the tunes here may not be quite as compelling as those found on Volumes 6 and 7, so if you are new to Ahmed, best to start there.   Old hands, on the other hand, will find this set a must.  And there's more to come.   Éthiopiques will eventually cover nearly all of Ahmed's extraordinary output during these crucial years.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org