Monday, October 04, 2004

What Will You Gain If I Die Of Love?

The music scene in Ethiopia in the late 60s-early 70s was rich and fertile. There were many lively, vivid scenes and a wild variety of music flourished. The amazing Ethiopiques CD series has done a fantastic job documenting the music from this era that might otherwise has been lost to the ages. It seems a particularly brutal and opressive regime controlled Ethiopia beginning in 1974, and sought to eliminate night life and censor all artistic output, among other atrocities. Luckily for us, there were copious releases before 1974, many of which are of ridiculously high quality. Volume 8 of the Ethiopiques series focuses on the (mostly) soul releases of Amha Records between 1969-1974. The beautifully swinging song at the bottom of this post is from this volume. It is funky, relaxed, assured, has a great melody and a sparkling horn arrangement. The entire CD is just as good. In fact, the entire Ethiopiques series is incredible and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

Bahta Gébré-Heywét "Téssassatégn Eko"

Buy Ethiopiques Vol. 8- Swinging Addis CD here.

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