Ethiopia has a long and at times tormented history, with an equally long and fascinating history of arts and culture. Ethiopia and its folk music and culture have a long step in the history of civilization. The music of Ethiopia is a reflection of all the historical and social episodes, such as the military campaigns that various warlords or chiefs had to launch.
Music in the country can be traced back to the Ethiopian highlands, where the strong oral-literary custom was born. In this area, traditional music is played by mostly itinerant musicians called azmaris, who are regarded with respect in their society. As this form of music slowly spread across the country, it appropriated aspects of the regions it infiltrated, depending on the local customs, culture, and religion.
The music and culture of Ethiopia has been influenced by Christianity, Islam, and Judaism among other factors. Music from the highlands of Ethiopia has a modal system called qenet which consists of four main modes: tezeta, bati, ambassel, and anchihoy.
Until the advent of industrialization and the slow but steady spread of western influence in the form of colonialism, music remained in this state, forming the bedrock for history, culture and news, but remaining in a semi-static form. However, during the early 1900s, music in the land was changed from the most unlikely sources.
An Armenian brass band playing in Jerusalem inspired then-leader Halie Selassie to import a range of western instruments, which was given to the first Ethiopian Orchestra in 1924. By the end of World War II, large orchestras accompanied singers; the most prominent orchestras were the Army Band, Police Band, and Imperial Bodyguard Band.
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A long-standing popular musical tradition in Ethiopia was that of brass bands, imported from Jerusalem in the form of forty Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch) during the reign of Haile Selassie. This band, which arrived in Addis Ababa on 6 September 1924, became the first official orchestra of Ethiopia.
Ras Teferi visited Jerusalem in 1924. While there, he was entertained by music played by orphan Armenian boys who had lost their parents in the 1918 Armenian Genocide. He offered to take some boys to Ethiopia to form a marching band. Ras Teferi took forty of them. They became known as the Arba Lijoch, which means the “40 children” in Amharic, the official language in Ethiopia.
Ras Tafari arranged for the musical education of the youths, and they became the royal imperial brass band of Ethiopia. Arba Lijoch’s band leader was Kevork Nalbandian. He was also orphaned in the Armenian genocide. On November 2, 1930, when the crown prince Ras Teferi became Emperor Haile Selassie I, Nalbandian performed the national anthem he composed called Tereri Marsh, Ethiopia Hoy (Ethiopia, Be Happy), which remained the national anthem until 1975.
Nalbandian subsequently led Arba Lijoch as the Ethiopian National Orchestra. The success of the group eventually led to a music renaissance. When Nalbandian retired, his nephew Nerses Nalbandian took over as the head of the group. When Emperor Selassie commissioned him to compose music for the Ethiopian National Theatre, he began to fuse traditional Ethiopian music and Western instrumentation.
The roots of Ethiopia’s jazz tradition can be traced back to the 1950s with Nerses Nalbandian. When tasked to compose music for Ethiopia’s National Opera Theatre, Nerses Nalbandian had to figure out how to harmonize local sounds in big band arrangements without destroying the music’s authenticity.
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This is considered the basis for the evolution of Ethio-jazz, which was further developed by Mulatu Astatke. From the 1950s to the 1970s, popular music in the country grew, adopting other western standards, culminating in the formation of the genre, Ethio-Jazz.
Ethiopian jazz is a fusion of traditional Ethiopian rhythms and harmonies with the techniques and instruments of Western jazz. One of the key figures in the development of Ethiopian Jazz was Mulatu Astatke. As a teenager, Mulatu was able to leave Addis Ababa in 1959 to study music at the Trinity College of Music in London.
Astatke was born in western Ethiopia in 1943. He studied aeronautic engineering in North Wales in the late 1950s and classical music at Trinity College in London, where he played with many leading British jazz musicians. Fascinated with jazz, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1958. He moved to New York City in the 1960s to further develop his idea of Ethio-jazz.
There he received training on how to use Western instruments such as the piano and clarinet. After London, he moved to New York to pursue his passion of jazz and Latin pop. Using the five-note pentatonic scale and asymmetrical rhythm from Tizita Qenet and his technical skills from New York, allowed him to create a unique sound he called "Ethio-Jazz".
Mulatu Astatke later expanded upon these developments by combining the unusual pentatonic scale-based melodies of traditional Ethiopian music with the 12-note harmonies and instrumentation of Western music. Mulatu Astatke gave birth to Ethio-Jazz or Ethiojazz, a fascinating combination of modal melodies and diminished harmonies with a funk six-beat groove.
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In 1966, as The Ethiopian Quintet, he recorded two terrific Afro-Latin Soul albums released on Worthy Records, a short-lived independent jazz label founded in Brooklyn by American producer Gil Snapper. Mulatu's first Ethio-Jazz album Afro-Latin Soul 1 & 2 was released in 1966 with his Ethiopian Quartet. His Ethiopian Quartet were actually predominately Puerto Ricans under the small New York Label Worthy.
In 1972, again on Worthy Records, Astatke recorded Mulatu of Ethiopia. With this record, he started to perfect his new sound. Astatke was in New York City during the mid-‘60s at the same time as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Fela Kuti, and all played an important part in putting Africa on the contemporary jazz map. In the early 1970s, Ethiopia experienced a golden age of popular music with the rise of Ethio-jazz.
Addis Ababa in 1974. Source: Wikimedia Commons
However, the 1980s ushered in an iron curtain around the country. Strong censorship was introduced, held in place by the Derg regime and propped up by the Soviet Union. Many of the stars of Ethiopian music fled, fearing political persecution, however smaller artists stayed due to the closed borders.
After the coupe of Haile Selassie and the rise of the Derg in 1974, the exciting Addis Ababa city life was put on curfew and most music was censored or limited to patriotic songs. It became more difficult for Ethio-Jazz artists to continue on in Ethiopia, leaving them to flee to the country or stop making music. However, due to Ethio-Jazz being primarily instrumental, many bands could technically continue to make music under the Derg. Authorities allowed Mulatu and his band to continue performing at official ceremonies and The Walias released their first album Tezeta in 1975.
These musicians who stayed would shape the next decades worth of music, with thinly veiled protest songs common throughout the country. These songs revived the long-dead tradition of the poetic sem-enna-werq (wax and gold), an old tradition of double entendre to fool the censors, or at least enable them to turn a blind eye without incurring the wrath of the military chiefs.
By the mid-1970s, the Derg-led by Mengistu Haile Mariam-overthrew the monarchy of Ethiopia. Under the dictatorship, music that did not uplift the Derg was prohibited and a strict mandatory curfew was placed-consequently diminishing the nightlife and music scene in Ethiopia. During the next decade, Ethiopian citizens faced many hardships such as the Red Terror (Ethiopia) from 1975 to 1977, and a widespread famine from 1983 to 1985.
'Wax and Gold'--popularized in 1985 by Neway Debebe-is a traditional Ethiopian double entendre. It is an analogy to literal wax and gold-where the 'wax' is the superficial layer that covers the hidden 'gold' underneath. Through this form of artistic communication, artists were able to escape the heavy censorships emplaced under Mengistu. Thus, artists were able to have multiple meanings in their music. The sound of the music itself did not necessarily change, as artists of the time were heavily influenced by their Ethio-Jazz veterans.
From 1985 on, one singer championed this new style of singing, Neway Debebe. His brand of traditional ballads helped to inspire a downtrodden country through a seemingly unending period of doldrum. By the mid 90s, self-exiled musicians, such as Gigi, Munit Mesfin, and Meklit Haders, returned home, and begin importing the western influences that fuelled their time away.
After The Dreg regime was overthrown in 1987, the modern era of Ethio-jazz began, reintroducing artists who were silenced or forced to leave during the regime’s reign. An important part of that reintroduction was the French record Buda Musique, which in 1997 released a series of CDs beginning with Éthiopiques 1 - Golden Years Of Modern Ethiopian Music 1969-1975. These records are known as Éthiopiques-a collection of discs later discovered and re-released by French producer Francis Falceto in the 1990s.
Nowadays, music feels omnipresent in Addis Ababa, blaring out of knackered radios in taxis, drifting from stores and markets and pumped out loud at the innumerable little cafés and guesthouses dotted across the sprawling backstreets. As musical homogenization continues to infiltrate every corner of the globe, modern genres have begun to influence traditional Ethiopian music, with EDM, rock and hip hop.
Modern Ethiopian Sounds: Tradition and Technology. Contemporary musicians like Teddy Afro, Betty G, and Rophnan have introduced modern interpretations of traditional sounds, blending Ethio-jazz, hip hop, and electronic influences.
Musical acts like Jano Band play a new style of music progressive rock, with a mix of Ethiopian music. Hip hop music started influencing Ethiopian music in the early to mid 2000s and culminated with the creation of Ethiopian hip hop, rhymed in the native Amharic language.
The electronic dance music in Ethiopia was not fully developed until mid-2010, although some electronic music employment with hip hop element began in the 2000s. In 2018, a DJ and recording artist named Rophnan introduced the country to his own version of electronic dance music, winning the album of the year award and changing the mainstream music scene further.
The Amharic language is the official language of the Republic of Ethiopia. It is also spoken in Eritrea. The Amharic language is popular with many reggae musicians, who are Rastafarians. They learn Amharic because they consider it to be a sacred language.
Symbols and cultural landmarks have outlived the rise and fall of dynasties and regimes in Ethiopia. Emahoy’s dedication to the teachings of St. Yared exemplifies the strong presence of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian music, religious and secular, has traveled around the world with the help of CD compilations, such as the Éthiopiques series by French record company Buda Musique. The extensive series takes listeners on an adventure through Ethiopian musical history, highlighting the various pentatonic scales, instruments, and languages. Some artists featured in the series include Ethiopian music legends Alemayehu Eshete and Ayalew Mesfin, among others.
From Mahmoud Ahmed to Tilahun Gesesse, Mulatu Astatke to Getatchew Mekuria, there have been many beloved musicians throughout Ethiopia’s history. However, there is only one who has combined the musical traditions of St. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was a pianist and singer who lived much of her life in isolation as a nun.
In 1923, she was born Yewubdar Gebru in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Many things took Emahoy away from her homeland: at age 6, she was sent to Switzerland to attend a boarding school, where she studied violin and piano. At age 10, she gave her first violin recital and returned to Ethiopia to continue her studies at the Empress Menen Secondary School. But in 1937, she and her family members were taken as prisoners of war and deported to Italy.
After the war, Yewubdar continued her musical studies in Cairo, Egypt with violinist Alexander Kontorowicz. She finally returned to Ethiopia along with Kontorowicz to serve in the Imperial Body Guard Band under Emperor Haile Selassie.
At age 19, Yewudbar fled Addis Ababa to join the Guishen Maryam Ethiopian Orthodox monastery. She was ordained as a nun at age 21 and took on the title of “Emahoy”, meaning nun, changing her name to Tsegué-Maryam. By the early 1960s, Emahoy lived in the Gondar region of Ethiopia where she studied the music of Ethiopian Orthodox Saint Yared, the father of Ethiopian religious music and chants.
In 1984, she left Ethiopia again to flee the communist Derg regime and went to the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchy in Jerusalem. Until her death in 2023 at age 99, Emahoy lived in a monastery in Jerusalem, but like many other Ethiopians who are expatriated, she retained pride in Ethiopia’s rich culture and history.
Beyond Guèbrou's volume of Éthiopiques, in recent years, American pianist Mary Sutton has launched a project to provide music sheets for Emahoy’s scores.
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou in 2013. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Here is Ellington talking with Emperor Haile Selassie after receiving the medal:
It’s amazing to think that only two years later, on August 27, 1975, Selassie was murdered by military officers of The Derg. This military dictatorship ushered in an era of political turmoil and repression in Ethiopia.
History of Ethiopian music...
Éthiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974, the 1998 compilation that kick-started a renaissance of Ethiopian jazz musician Mulatu Astatke and Ethio-jazz, features Astatke with Duke Ellington on the cover. Ellington and his Orchestra were on their last European tour in late 1973. State Department arranged performances for the group in Africa, including one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The embassy assigned Astatke to be Duke’s escort. While he was there, Emperor Haile Selassie presented Ellington with Ethiopia’s Medal of Honor:
Another powerhouse in the Ethio-jazz world is Gétatchèw Mèkurya. Sometime in the early 1970s, he released this excellent cassette:
You can listen to the cassette here: He was praised for the work on his album The Negus (King) of Ethiopian Sax when it was released in 2004, which contained his most popular song, Muziqa heywété:
Hailu Mergia and The Walias Band’s Tezeta (1975) and Tche Belew (1977) are two more stone-cold classics. I can’t say which I like better. Tezeta (Nostalgia) was originally produced on a homemade cassette in 1975 before it was reissued by Awesome Tapes From Africa in 2021. Therefore, the band played up to three sets until 6:00 AM the next morning. From the same album, here is the wonderful Yemiasleks Fikir:
Ethio-jazz was featured in Jim Jarmusch’s 2005 film Broken Flowers, which starred Bill Murray: The Film’s score was composed by Mulatu Astatke, and he uses music built around four of his compositions. Here are two of the songs he featured. The first is Yèkèrmo Sèw (I’m Sorry) from a 1969 EP released on the B-side by Amha Records, an Ethiopian record label established by Amha Eshete in 1969:
The second is Gubèlyé (My Gubel) from Astatke’s second album, released in 1974, also on Amha Records:
Ethio-jazz intertwines the improvisational spirit of jazz with Ethiopia's distinctive musical traditions, and, like that Big River called Jazz, it is deep and wide.
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