Gogol Bordello bass player, Tommy T’s debut solo album, The Prester John Sessions, is available today online and at traditional retail outlets via Easy Star Records.
Tommy was born and raised in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s capital city) and the knowledge of global rhythms he brings to Gogol Bordello is reflected in Sessions, an aural travelogue that ranges freely through the music and culture of Ethiopia.
The album is a collection of 11 songs including a remix of the track “Oromo Dub (Cushitic Dub),” featuring fellow Gogol Bordello band mates Eugene Hutz and Pedro Erazo and mixed by Michael Goldwasser of the Easy Star All-Stars.
Tommy explains, “The Prester John Sessions will give people an idea about the musical diversity of Ethiopia, which includes influences and ideas borrowed from the sounds of the 70’s with the added bonus of up-to-date production values…In the 70s, funk, wah-wah pedals, and jazz had a huge impact on Ethiopian music.”
As part of the writing process, Tommy started digging through Ethiopian folk music, choosing melodies he could improvise on. He also wrote his own compositions based on traditional modes. “A lot of popular Ethiopian music is based on a 6/8 beat called chikchika, but there are also many other rhythms in Ethiopia that have their own unique characteristics,” Tommy states.
Tommy wouldn’t settle for less than taking a hands-on approach with every aspect of this album. He wrote, arranged, played bass among other instruments and offered his vocals for the first time on an album. Most of the album was written at Tommy’s home studio, cut live in studios around Washington, DC, and overdubs were laid down in real time with a final mix by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, Gogol Bordello) giving it the feel of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters jamming with Ethiopian godfathers The Imperial Bodyguard Orchestra. The music blends Ethiopian modes with dub reggae, funk, and jazz, for a sound that’s at once familiar and mysterious.
Tommy discovered the story of Prester John in Graham Hancock’s book The Sign and the Seal. “Hancock was looking for the Biblical Ark of the Covenant,” Tommy says. “His quest led him around the world, from the Middle East to Europe and back to Ethiopia.” In the 12th and 13th centuries, Prester John was an unknown Christian king with massive troops that got the attention of European kings. Prester John is the character I use to symbolize the man who will bring Ethiopian culture to the rest of the world.”
Someone tell me something, anything about this chick called Samrawit on YouTube.
I have received the link from a friend of mine who is into music, and once there, i was like – ok relax, don’t get impressed so easily. If anything i can’t see her singing in the video, but i could see her picture (I presume) posted, with the song title, and Samrawit as the artist.
Not wanting to make a quick judgment, i researched a bit on line, and i also found out that she has a Facebook profile, and once there my doubts were erased.
Now, I have no clue where she is from but she looks like an Ethiopian or Eritrean, and if she is I must say, i have seen and heard so many Ethiopians trying to sing in English, but not a single one could completely shake-off his/her accent.
You can always tell an Ethiopian singer even if he/she is singing in English. And, of course, Samrawit could very easily have been born else where outside of Ethiopia, but even if that was the case, i have to admit i am in love with her distinct voice that is captivating from the initial introduction.
I am dying to know if anyone has heard of her or knows more about her than i do, and if so . . . let’s talk about it. Share what you know with the rest of us. I personally couldn’t find anymore songs of hers, except the two posted here.
Early year children at the enhanced outreach strategy for child survival intervention sites. The project is piloted in 14 weredas in Sidama and Woliata zones of Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Regions funded by CIDA.
Children’s fundamental rights remain a major challenge in Ethiopia. Poverty deprives children in their early years of life to adequate food, clean water, and medicine. Preliminary results from the 2000 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2001) indicate roughly that:
• one out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life
• one out of ten die before reaching their first birthday
• one out of six die before reaching their fifth birthday
The major diseases affecting children under-five, such as acute respiratory infection, diarrhoeal diseases, measles, malaria and malnutrition are responsible for 70 per cent of childhood morbidity and mortality.
Diarrhoeal disease that could be treated with simple solution accounts to about 46 per cent and acute respiratory infections to 24 per cent of under-five mortality.
Measles is one of the major childhood illnesses. Measles-related cases fatality rates range from 3-5 per cent in normal circumstances and 15-20 per cent during outbreaks
Malaria prevalent in 75 per cent of the country represents another important threat to children’s rights to survival and health. It accounts for seven per cent of diagnoses for under-ones visiting outpatient departments. It is also estimated that only 20 per cent of under-fives who experience malaria episodes come into contact with the existing clinics.
Malnutrition is associated with poverty, household food insecurity and inadequate care of children.
Malnutrition weakens children’s ability to resist attacks of the infectious diseases. It also has a negative impact on children’s cognitive development. Fifty two per cent of children in Ethiopia are stunted, 11 per cent suffers from wasting, and 47 per cent suffer from severe and moderate underweight. 15 per cent of infants are with low birth weight. Low birth weight closely associated with maternal nutrition.
The early life of children in Ethiopia is mostly rural-based. Only16 per cent of the population live in urban area.
Tesso Fikade, 6, Desta Witessa, 5, Aster Hotesa, 5, and Mirtu Gemeda, 5, walking back home after filling their containers with clean water from a protected spring in Borena zone, Oromia Region like many other school children in Ethiopia.
The primary school age population is estimated to be almost 14 million in 2002/2003 which is about one fifth of the total population.
About 36.6 per cent of the school age population is not enrolled in primary schools.
Primary school years in Ethiopia are characterised by:
• Low enrollment and attendance; high repetition and drop outs o Though primary schooling in Ethiopia is free for the average Ethiopian living below one dollar a day it is difficult to cover their families’ school expenses like uniforms, exercise books and school maintenance cost
o Families may be reluctant to send their children to school, since they depend on their children’s labour for survival. Family do not understand the value of sending their children to school.
o About 72 per cent of school-age children have no access to formal education.
o The net primary enrollment ratio at the national level was 54 per cent in 2002/2003 with an average growth rate of 11.3 per cent over the last 5 years. The net enrollment ratio is 47.2 per cent for girls and 60.6 per cent for girls. Net primary attendance is even lower.
• Disparities
o More than 60 per cent of primary school children did not have the chance to continue to grade 5. Girls’ repetition and drop out rates are higher than boys.
o Girls’ participation is lower than boys for all regions except the capital city Addis Ababa. Nationally the female and male enrollment in 2002/2003 is 0.7.
• Resources and facilities
o Nationally, only 3 per cent of Ethiopia’s schools have clinics serving students. About 75 per cent of the population suffer from some form of communicable disease.
o Primary school children have to walk long distances and through difficult terrain to attend school often in crowded classroom, inadequate trained teachers, school materials. Without proper sanitation, in four out of 10 children will not reach their full educational potential.
o Play grounds are basically nonexistent in Ethiopia, though play have a significant role in the primary years of life and helps children develop socially, emotionally and intellectually.
o A demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2000 found that 55 per cent of Ethiopian children under the age of five are stunted due to malnutrition.
Bidire Sinku is a 14-year-old adolescence child bride who lives in the village of Meskel Iko, North Gondar Zone, Amhara Region.
Adolescence is a critical stage of development, a transition from childhood to adult, a period marked by physical, emotional and social changes. Ethiopian face the challenges of adolescence.
• An estimated 2.3 million Ethiopians are infected with HIV and close to 1.2 million are HIV/AIDS orphans
• Poverty, about 82 per cent of the population survives on less than 1dollar a day.
• Harmful traditional practices (HTPs). Abduction and early marriage are widely practiced in most parts of rural Ethiopia. Female genital mutilation (FGM) contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Nearly 4.9 million adolescents aged 15-18, of which 2.4 million are girls, are not enrolled in school due to various economic and social reasons
• For the entire working population, unemployment rates are highest in the 15-19 age groups. For all age groups, females constitute the majority of the unemployed. The high level of unemployment has serious implications for the types of lifestyle choices made by adolescence, increasing the risk of alcohol and drug abuse, unwanted pregnancy, multiple sexual partners, and HIV infections.
• There are between 150,000–200,000 street children nationally, with a further one million vulnerable or at risk of ending up on the streets. Girls who work and live in the streets face sexual abuse by adults, rape, unwanted pregnancy and early motherhood – sometimes as young as 12. These girls are likely to join the rank of child prostitutes or street mothers and continue the vicious circle of street life. Inevitably they are highly at risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that there are 10,000 street mothers in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian Music:- is extremely diverse, with each of Ethiopia’s ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds.
Some forms of traditional music are strongly influenced by Muslim and folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia.
However, Ethiopian religious music also has an ancient Christian element, traced to Yared, who lived during the reign of Gabra Masqal. In northeastern Ethiopia, in Wollo, a Muslim musical form calledmanzuma developed.
Sung in Amharic, manzuma has spread to Harar and Jimma, where it is now sung in the Oromo language. In the Ethiopian Highlands, traditional secular music is played by itinerant musicians calledazmaris, who are regarded with both suspicion and respect in Ethiopian society.
Music theory
The music of the highlands uses a unique modal system called qenet, of which there are four main modes: tezeta, bati, ambassel, and anchihoy.
Two additional modes are variations on the above: tezeta minor and bati major. Some songs take the name of their qenet, such as tezeta, a song of reminiscence.
When played on traditional instruments, these modes are generally not tempered (that is, the pitches may deviate slightly from the Western tempered tuning system), but when played on Western instruments such as pianos and guitars they are played using the Western tempered tuning system.
Highland music is generally monophonic or heterophonic. Outside of the highlands, some music is polyphonic; Dorze polyphonic singing (edho) may employ up to five parts, Majangir four parts.
Musical instruments
1. Chordophones
In the highlands, traditional string instruments include the masenqo, a one-string bowed lute; the krar, a six-string lyre; and the begena, a large ten-string lyre.
Thedita (a five-string lyre) and musical bows (including an unusual three-string variant) are among the chordophones found in the south.
2. Aerophones
The washintis a bamboo flute that is common in the highlands.
Trumpet-like instruments include the ceremonialmalakat used in some regions, and the holdudwa (animal horn; compare shofar) found mainly in the south.
Embilta flutes have no finger holes, and produce only two tones, the fundamental and a fourth or fifth interval.
These may be metal (generally found in the north) or bamboo (in the south).
The Konso and other people in the south playfanta, or pan flutes.
3. Idiophones
In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, liturgical music employs the senasel, a sistrum.
Additionally, the clergy will use prayer staffs, or maqwamiya, to maintain rhythm. Rural churches historically used a dawal, made from stone slabs or pieces of wood, in order to call the faithful to prayer.
The Beta Israel use a small gong called a qachel as liturgical accompaniment, though qachel may also refer to a small bell.
The toom, a lamellophone, is used among the Nuer, Anuak, Majangir, Surma, and other Nilo-Saharan groups.Metal leg rattles are common throughout the south.[2]
4. Membranophones
Thekebero is a large hand drum used in the Orthodox Christian liturgy.
Smaller kebero drums may be used in secular celebrations.
The nagarit, played with a curved stick, is usually found in a secular context such as royal functions or the announcement of proclamations, though it has a liturgical function among the Beta Israel.
The Gurage and other southern peoples commonly play the atamo, a small hand drum sometimes made of clay.[2]
Popular music
Ethiopia is a musically traditional country.
Of course, popular music is played, recorded and listened to, but most musicians also sing traditional songs, and most audiences choose to listen to both popular and traditional styles.
A longstanding 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 September 6, 1924 became the first official orchestra of Ethiopia. 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. Most of these bands were trained by Europeans or Armenians.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Ethiopian popular musicians included Bezunesh Bekele, Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Bekele, Ali Birra, Ayalew Mesfin, Kiros Alemayehu, Muluken Mellesseand Tilahun Gessesse, while popular folk musicians included Alemu Aga, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, and Mary Armede.
Perhaps the most influential musician of the period, however, was Ethio-jazz innovator Mulatu Astatke.
Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia were prominent Ethiopian record labels during this era. Since 1997, Buda Musique’s Ethiopiques series has compiled many of these singles and albums on compact disc.
During the 1980s, the Derg controlled Ethiopia, and emigration became almost impossible. Musicians during this period included Ethio Stars, Wallias BandandRoha Band, though the singer Neway Debebe was most popular.
He helped to popularize the use of seminna-werq (wax and gold, a poetic form of double entendre) in music (previously only used in qiné, or poetry) that often enabled singers to criticize the government without upsetting the censors.
Contemporary scene
One of the most popular musicians from Ethiopia is the Los Angeles–area expatriate Aster Aweke.
More recently, music from Tigray and Eritrea has become popular in Ethiopia and among exiles, especially in Italy.
One of the biggest new trends, however, has been the rise of bolel, a sort of blues-like music, played by sarcastic azmari playing in parts of Addis Ababa, especially Yohannès Sefer and Kazentchis.
Bolel musicians include Tigist Assefa, Tedjeand Admassou Abate.
Currently the most prominent Ethiopian singer internationally is Gigi.
Through her performing with top jazz musicians like Bill Laswell (who is also her husband) and Herbie Hancock, Gigi has brought Ethiopian music to popular attention, especially in the United States, where she now lives.
Other popular performers include Tewodros Tadesse,Teddy Afro, Neway Debebe, Tadesse Alemu, Hamelmal Abate, Martha Ashagari, Yohannes Berhanu, Kuku Sebsebe, Aster Aweke, and Manalemosh Dibo. Neway was very popular among the youth of the 1980s and early 1990s with such songs as Yetekemt Abeba, Metekatun Ateye, and Gedam; amongest others.
Ethiopiques producer Francis Falceto criticizes contemporary Ethiopian music for eschewing traditional instruments and ensemble playing in favor of one-man bands using synthesizers.
Harvard University professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, on the other hand, maintains that there is genuine creativity in the contemporary music scene.[4] She further points out that Ethiopian music is not alone in shifting to electronically produced music, a point that Falceto acknowledges.
I’d love to hear your perspectives on this- leave a comment if you have anything to say…
, choosing melodies he could improvise on. He also wrote his own compositions based on traditional modes. “A lot of popular Ethiopian music is based on a 6/8 beat called chikchika, but there are also many other rhythms in Ethiopia that have their own unique characteristics,” Tommy states.
