The Life and Times of Menelik Wossenachew December 24, 2009 marked the one year anniversary of the passing of the wonderful, incredibly talented singer, music writer and lyricist, Menelik Wossenachew. Below is a piece I wrote for Horizon Ethiopia’s November issue. What makes one artist a legend and another with equal or more talent obscure? [...]
Published by December 30th, 2009 in African, Music and Podcast.Author Archive for Ethio Jazz
In recent years I have been bewildered by the route Ethiopian music has taken. There have been a few bright lights here and there but those are the exception to the rule. The rule has been to market over produced and over synthesized music. And then, I came across Tommy T’s (Thomas Temesgen Gobena) CD [...]
Published by November 10th, 2009 in African, Music, Podcast and Shameless Plug.Gofere Gofere or Afro in English, is one of my favorite hairstyles on a lady. The first thing that comes in my mind when thinking about gofere are the women patriots (arbegnoch) that fought the Italians during the war and occupation of Ethiopia (1935-1941)Â These freedom fighters fought side by side with their male counterparts [...]
Published by February 13th, 2009 in African, Music, Podcast and Series.Back in February of this year, I decided to take a ten day trip to Addis in May. When I told my family and close friends about my planned trip the immediate question I got was, “why ten days, is everything ok?” Well everything was ok but I did not divulge the honest truth. I [...]
Published by August 8th, 2008 in Music, Podcast and Thoughts.Aka Could I have been any luckier? My love for Ethiopian music started at a very young age. Both my parents loved music, my mother was a huge fan of traditional music whereas my father loved the modern. Between the two of them I was made aware of the sounds ranging from Kassa Tessema and [...]
Published by October 12th, 2007 in Music, Noteworthy and Podcast.
