Ethiocolor
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Ethiocolor

Addis Ababa, Ādīs Ābeba, Ethiopia | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE

Addis Ababa, Ādīs Ābeba, Ethiopia | INDIE
Established on Jan, 2014
Band World Folk

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"Sång- och dansfest med Ethiocolor"

Jag har en teori som säkert skulle visa sig vara felaktig om man undersökte den på djupet, och som jag därför inte underkastar en sådan granskning. Det är att de allra bästa, mest distinkta och helt enkelt svängigaste trummisarna känner man igen på att de ser ut att bara leka in slagen. Löst och lite på skoj. Mitt bästa exempel är afrobeatens grå eminens Tony Allen. Men för att argumentera för idén skulle man lika gärna kunna använda Misale Legesse i Ethiocolor.

Bandet är en del av ett musikerkollektiv som spelar vad som i Sverige skulle betraktas som folkmusik, men som i Etiopien på ett helt annat sätt är invävd i den samtida kulturen. Det syns också på scen, där den speciella etiopiska dansen, med sina hopp, ledlösa axelskakningar och whiplashryck med huvudet tar minst lika mycket plats som själva musiken. Där sångarna och dansarna hinner med ett tiotal klädbyten. Och där instrumenten är lätt moderniserade varianter av traditionella etiopiska instrument som kirar och mesenqo.

Konserten är en del av Selams 15-årsfirande. Organisationen har under åtminstone den senare halvan av den tiden fyllt en ganska unik plats som arrangör, mitt emellan institutioner som Södra teatern och andra som riktar sig direkt till olika exilbefolkningar i Stockholm. På köpet har de också gett ett otal stora afrikanska artister som Oumou Sangaré, Salif Keita och Youssou N’dour en scen här. På senare år även sydamerikanska storstjärnor. I den utvecklingen har en del mindre intressanta mainstreamakter slunkit med, men det minskar inte Selams betydelse för ett i verklig mening internationellt musikliv.
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Det var också på ett Selamarrangemang jag första gången hörde Ethiocolor, på en festival de sedan några år arrangerar i Addis Abeba. Ett par dagar senare fick jag se bandet på hemmaplan, på folkmusik-nattklubben Fendika, en bit från centrum.

Kvällens spelning är överlägsen de båda tidigare. För även om dansen, under ledning av den briljante Melaku Belay, fortfarande har en central plats är Ethiocolor nu mycket mer av ett riktigt band. Och ett riktigt bra band. En av anledningarna är just Legesses trumspel, men också att han tillåts dominera, så att det som hade kunnat kännas folkloristiskt nu i stället blir urbant och närmast klubbigt. Extra storstadskänsla ges av det instrument som jag inte vet namnet på men som i sitt lägre register låter ganska exakt som ett bilhorn.

Efter att ha provat sig igenom hela garderoben har leadsångaren Tesfaye Taye till slut bestämt sig för en klargrön t-shirt. Konserten närmar sig tvåtimmarsstrecket och Nardos Tasfaw gör ytterligare ett perfekt sånginhopp. Belays upphopp är fortfarande lika vältajmade. Men det är Legesses trumspel som driver allt vidare och som svetsar samman beståndsdelarna, musiken, sången, dansen och den växande känslan av allmän fest. - Svenska Dagbladet


"BBC folk- Ethiopia-26 February 2010"

Another inspirational individual we met was a man called Melaku Belay. Melaku was a Sudanese refugee. His family was dispersed, and he ended up as an orphan and street kid in Addis Ababa. To survive he danced for tips at a music club, where he asked if he could sleep on floor. He managed to earn enough tips to eventually buy the club - an amazing feat! He is now a world famous dancer, performing with the Ethipiques, yet he always comes home to dance in his club and invest in the community.
Fendika, his club, is the only place in Ethiopia to pay dancers and musicians, the rest earn a living from tips. We got to visit a school that Melaku supports, where over 900 underprivileged kids attend. They are children whose parents have sent them from the countryside thinking that they will have better lives, but unbeknown to their parents they become owned and are set to work. The school provides them with an education and health care, whilst also trying to prevent them ending up as street kids, trying to repatriate them with their families, and educating the people in the countryside of what is really happening to their children. We visited this school and when we arrived they sang to us, it was very moving. I taught them a couple of Geordie songs and some of the other musicians rocked out for them, which brought delight and giggles to their faces.

We also went to Malaku's club and his dancers made our eyes pop out of their heads with their shoulder popping, neck snapping audacious moves. The next day we were treated to a rare dance workshop with Malaku, where we discovered just how amazing he was as we struggled to get our limbs to move in unfamiliar ways, although we all came out feeling miraculously lighter and energised.

I could go on forever about all the people we met and amazing music we experienced. Discovering the music of a different culture sets the mind travelling in new creative directions and makes you want to learn more. I think you always learn a little bit about youself when you travel, and for me it confirmed my own pride in our own traditions. - BBC folk


"EL MUNDO- Música etíope de la mano de Casa África- February 9 2012"

La tercera edición del Encuentro Profesional entre Programadores Culturales Españoles y Músicos Africanos, celebrado en Etiopía, concluyó con la victoria del grupo Ethiocolor y la cantante Munit (en su dúo con el guitarrista Jorg Pfeil. Serán ellos quienes protagonicen una gira por diversos festivales españoles.

El siguiente paso tras la celebración del Etiopía Vis a Vis es concertar con los grupos una posible agenda de actuaciones en España. Uno de los momentos en que con toda seguridad se podrá conocer la propuesta de los grupos etíopes será el Gran Concierto África Vive, que organiza Casa África cada año en Madrid en el marco de las celebraciones por el Día de África el próximo 25 de mayo.

El tiopía Vis a Vis, organizado por Casa África en colaboración con la SGAE, permitió que los diez promotores culturales españoles desplazados a Etiopía, la gran mayoría de ellos responsables de la programación de los principales festivales musicales españoles que prestan atención a las músicas africanas, tomasen el pulso a lo que están haciendo los nuevos talentos musicales del país. Finalmente, el grupo de música y danzas tradicionales Ethiocolor y la cantante Munit Mesfin (que participó acompañada por el guitarrista Jörg Pfeil) fueron los grupos más aclamados.

Creado por el bailarín Melaku Belay, Ethiocolor sorprendió a los programadores por la intensidad y modernidad de su música tradicional, el nivel de su baile y la energía que transmiten en sus conciertos y actuaciones. Por su parte, la voz de la etíope Munit Mesfin sólo necesitó del acompañamiento de una guitarra (la de Jorg Pfeil) para seducir a los programadores. Con canciones en amárico y en inglés, Munit crea momentos mágicos, con giros de voz nacidos de la tradición de los grandes cantantes etíopes. - EL MUNDO


"NEW-YORK TIMES-Where Feet, Beat and Joy All Soar Funkily- 12 August 2011"

At the end of a day of perfect New York summer weather on Thursday, the mood established by the Lincoln Center Out of Doors two-part event of dance and live music at the Damrosch Park Bandshell was just right: generous, warm, high-spirited real entertainment for a big audience. But while the first half of the evening — featuring Debo Band with the special guests Fendika — was characterized by startling and thrilling particulars, the dance and music in the second half — David Dorfman Dance with the Family Stone — was little more than exercises in mood.
Debo Band is a Boston-based collective, founded in 2006, that cultivates “the vintage sounds of 1970s Ethiopian pop,” which, according to its program notes, include “the searing horns, crooning vocals and slinky funk grooves that brought renown to the Ethiopiques series.”

Every number it played deepened my delight. The sound is wind-weighted: trumpet, two tenor saxophones, trombone and sousaphone all swing in together alongside accordion, five-string violin, electric violin, electric bass, drums and — less regularly — vocals and bongos. The rhythm alone is so layered that you can hear some numbers as fast and slow at the same time.

Two pilgrimages made by the band to East Africa have led to collaborations with the traditional Ethiopian artists Fendika, described as “a group of young torchbearers led by star Ethiopian dancer Melaku Belay.” They regularly returned, individually or together, to the stage in Thursday’s performance. The singer Selamnesh Zemene always enriched the spell; Asrat Ayalew’s playing of kebero (traditional drums) had complexity and brilliance; and Mr. Melaku and Zinash Tsegaye, the two dancers, provided most of the program’s most remarkable highlights.

Their several costume changes alone were vividly entertaining: Ms. Zinash at one point wore a large, funnel-shaped headdress, and Mr. Melaku, in the same dance, a bright yellow pajamalike suit. It was a delight to watch them both, and the rhythmic virtuosity of Mr. Melaku was often astounding. He can turn either the upper or the lower body into an electrifying vehicle of rapid pulsation. One dance was all to do with his throwing his feet out before him (as if on hot coals). Sometimes the feet alternated, sometimes he hopped, and on one occasion, while hopping brilliantly, he mimed strumming on the other leg, which he kept stretched out like a guitar.

In later dances he showed how he could play his shoulders, his neck, his head and his whole torso like percussion instruments. In one number his shoulders kept chiming in like chords in music. Elsewhere he shook or vibrated muscles at the base of the neck — together or with left and right playing against each other — and he also isolated and vibrated his head.

At the climax of one amazing dance cadenza, his own body became a trill — initiated, it seemed, from somewhere around the diaphragm and midspine, but with the whole body shaken into a blur — and then he began to turn in a traveling diagonal across the stage.

All these were dazzling bravura touches. Mr. Melaku’s dancing, however, didn’t consist just of stunts. Simply to see him sway his body to the music was a marvel: the angle of his out-held elbows, the pliancy of his spine, the rhythmic point of those shoulders all made their sensuous contributions. A happily superlative artist.

The general impression of David Dorfman Dance with the Family Stone — in what was the world premiere of “Prophets of Funk, Concert Edition” — was one of good-time funkiness. Every so often, for dramatic effect, someone (often Mr. Dorfman himself) would continue moving when there was little or no music, or stand still while the music was going, or talk to others onstage or in the audience.

These essays in contrast or paradox were, however, merely arch, unserious, posey. In a closed theater they might make more of an impression, but for Thursday’s open-air audience nothing sullied the bright, rock-concert atmo - NEW-YORK TIMES


"ADDIS RUMBLE- Building bridges: the potential of making the contemporary move through tradition"

Building bridges between tradition and modernity is fundamental for Melaku. Not only in his dancing but also in his other cultural endeavours. Melaku is not only Ethiopia’s most renowned and prolific dancer. He is also the founder and leader of the Ethiocolor band and the manager of Fendika, one of Addis’ most famous azmari bets. In Amharic, “azmari bet” means “House of the Azmari” and is a place where people come to enjoy traditional Ethiopian music. As a former street child, Melaku has turned Fendika into a house of both creative and social transformation. He sends his young Fendika dancers to school, opens saving accounts for them, and provides them with accommodation. - ADDIS RUMBLE


"EL PAIS-Etiopía Vis à Vis: en busca de nuevos talentos musicales- February 13 2012"

Más tarde, de vuelta en Fendika, surgió la otra sensación del festival para los programadores españoles: la actuación de Ethiocolor, un grupo liderado por Melaku Belay,
quien precisamente administra el Fendika. Es un proyecto que reúne a
varios bailarines, músicos y cantantes etíopes tradicionales. Lo más
llamativo es la danza en la que dos mujeres y dos hombres -incluido
Belay- realizan un despliegue físico abrumador en la que destaca la 'eskista', un movimiento muy enérgico de hombros y cuellos.
A través del baile, los artistas representan escenas de la vida rural
etíope -como una gallina que camina en busca de agua- y también muestran
escenas de la vida social, como una 'lucha' entre los dos bailarines
por el favor de una mujer. - EL PAIS


Discography

Ethiocolor is about to release their first album, everything is ready to go to the pressing plants. The release will be in October 2014 and published on Selam Sounds.

Photos

Bio

Ethiocolor is a traditional band consisting of five traditional instruments, 3 vocalists and 3 dancers.
Led by the traditional dancer Melaku Belay, its the cream of the crop of cultural musicians and dancers of the country that share the common priority to represent the traditional styles in an accurate, lively and new way, as well as to spread their music all over the world.
Since its inception in 2009, word has spread fast for this young group. They have won a wide audience in Addis Abeba and the country, through that each member of Ethiocolor possesses, extensive national and international experiences.

Band Members