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-5)
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 […]
An Interview with the Debo Band
Posted August 10th, 2012 at 6:17 pm (UTC-5)
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-5)
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 […]
