Getatchew Mekurya
Getatchew Mekurya and His Saxophone
L’Arome Productions (France) 2011
LAP014LP (LP)
sleeve : EX-(some small spots.)
media : EX+/EX+(some slightly surface noises, still good condition.)
After making his professional debut at the age of 13, Mekurya played for many famous singers such as Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Beqele, and Ayalew Mesfin in the 1970s, when Ethiopian jazz was flourishing. Mekurya released this compilation album in 1972. This is the reissued French version released in 2011. The music is a mixture of Ethiopian ethnic jazz with mysterious and emotional melodies in pentatonic sucale, as if it were a direct reflection of the culture and traditions of Ethiopia, a country of many different ethnicities. The pentatonic scale melody used in Japanese enka, which is said to have been brought back by Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, can also be heard at key points.
A1: Ambassel
A5: Yegenet Muziqa