Oct 27/04
And now we funk East
I promised some more grunting funk today, so here it is. Fresh-off the 8th volume of the popular Ethiopiques series, Swinging Addis, here’s Ethiopia’s Alemayehu Eshete sounding like he’s too-hot-can-you-handle-the-funk?
Volume 9 of the Ethiopiques series is devoted entirely to the man. He’s a big deal in Ethiopia or at least he was during 60s and 70s, otherwise known as the golden age of Ethiopian pop. People call him Ethiopia’s answer to James Brown and I wouldn’t disagree. Apparently he preferred Elvis over James Brown, but we’re lucky that the latter king influenced his music far more.
I’ve seen a few blogs post tracks off Ethiopiques albums lately but I thought I’d add a little context to the music. In the late 60s and early 70s the emperor of Ethiopia, Ras Tafari Makonnen aka Haile Sellassie, was at his peak. One of his many reforms was to relax state regulations that limited music sold and broadcast to “traditional” forms. This created a mini-boom in new Ethiopian pop music. The radios started putting black American music on heavy rotation and a whole generation of aspiring Western-style pop/soul/funk musicians was born.
I’ve also included another Ethiopian classic soul-funk tune by the Alemayno Eshirtay Group. I don’t know much about this tune other than it comes from the same era and I like it. Feel free to fill in the blanks with a comment.
Alemayno Eshirtay – Love is Love
Alemayehu Eschete – Tchero Adari Nègn (I Get By On My Own)
[...] I’m pretty busy today but time for a quick post. I already posted an Alemayehu Eshete track a while back, but I didn’t reall [...]
I played that Eshete track when I was DJing at Burning Man. All that anybody hears out there in the desert is Techno, but people were gettin’ down to this one!
[...] The two songs featured today were two of his earliest and most successful hits. They moved Kusan into the international world music scene and put “Nubia soul” on the map. I read a quote somewhere calling him the James Brown of East Africa. I thought this title had already been given to Ethiopia’s Alemayno Eshirtay, but I guess there’s room for more than one. Nubia’s a big place anyway, sprawling over large parts of modern-day Egypt and Sudan. [...]
[...] shop back in Addis is still top for classic golden era Ethiopia rock and soul. We love that kind of thing here, you [...]