Showing Archived Posts

Debo Band Revisited

Posted June 15th, 2016 at 12:48 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

On Friday, May 20th the Debo Band performed at Tropicalia in Washington DC. I caught up with the bandleader and saxophonist Danny Mekonnen just before soundcheck. I’d met most of the band four years earlier when they came to DC to promote their debut album Debo Band. I was excited to hear them again. The […]

Soulful Sounds from Ethiopia

Posted July 15th, 2013 at 6:52 pm (UTC-4)
19 comments

A colleague told me about a duo act from Ethiopia coming through town by the name Munit & Jörg. I gave their music a listen on bandcamp and, though different than the more traditional or fusion  sound I generally go for, there was something new and fresh in it I liked. A few days later […]

Posted in Ethiopia

An Interview with the Debo Band

Posted August 10th, 2012 at 6:17 pm (UTC-4)
4 comments

On July 14th I had the chance to meet the American-Ethiopian Debo Band. The drove to our VOA studios in Washington, DC, directly from New York to squeeze in an interview before their next concert in the District at the U Street Music Hall. The two pieces that the bare-boned quartet performed in the studio, […]

Ethiopia’s revolutionary sixties

Posted March 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pm (UTC-4)
14 comments

Over the last ten years, thanks largely to the herculean efforts of French researcher Francis Falceto (he’s the man behind the Ethiopiques CD series released by Buda Musique: each of the twenty-three volumes so far released are essential listening), curious music lovers have discovered the glories of 1970s ‘Ethiopian Groove’, a potent brew of traditional […]

Posted in Ethiopia

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About

Heather Maxwell produces and hosts the award-winning radio program “Music Time in Africa” and is the African Music Editor for the Voice of America. Heather is an ethnomusicologist with Doctorate and Master’s degrees from Indiana University specializing in African Music. She is also an accomplished jazz and Afrojazz/Afrosoul vocalist and has been working, researching, and performing in Africa and the U.S. since 1987.

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