This is my friend Nick Page's project (he is called Dubulah for musical purposes) and he's put together a charming and refreshing group of musicians- I believe their CD, A Town Called Addis, got to number one in the European World Music charts.
The line-up is two sax players, tenor and baritone, mostly, two singers (a famous Ethiopian pop star and a restaurant-owner both with beautiful voices) a traditional instrumentalist who plays a one-stringed instrument strung with horsehair, a drummer, a reggae/classical/jazz keyboard player from Ethiopia and Nick on bass and guitar sometimes (but not the night I was there).
Their music is a combination of traditional Ethiopian religious music from the religious season ( a particularly beautiful piece was played just on the one-stringed bowed instrument with a vocal that joined it in unison and then wound off on its own), and reggae, because of course all those Rastas went to Ethiopia in search of Haile Selassie, and many stayed there. One number featured the sax players and vocal ululation and seemed to encapsulate the sound of the African sun- it was beautiful and sent shivers down my spine. The sax players were at one with each other, both with eyes closed and unconsciously mimicking each other movements down to the tiniest almost imperceptible tilt of the shoulders. Another song featured Mimi, the restaurant owner, singing over Nick's reggae bass groove (much influenced by Winston Blissett but taken into a different sphere by Nick), with the baritone sax echoing the bass.
The show was full of humour and natural good feeling- one of the singers joked about the market in Addis Ababa, the biggest in Africa, where it is possible to buy one shoe and one sock! I watched the keyboard player's fingers skipping and springing, and the two singers came into the audience and got us all up dancing, even the most stuffy Edinburgh lot. The drummer was shit-hot, the arrangements were brilliant and it was a lovely evening that shone a light into the dark corners of my day. I even led the conga round the room....
You must go!
One thing bothered me. What were the bunk beds doing there?
perhaps the bunk beds were there for when you were so overcome by the wonderful music that you had to lie down....
ReplyDelete