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LP
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MUZLP 002LP
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$35.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/8/2026
At first listening, Jorga Mesfin's The Kindest One leaves the audience uncertain of time. This is a long foray into Ethio-jazz that draws bits of inspiration from all kinds of situations in Ethiopian music, jazz music, and specifically Ethiopian jazz music that precedes it. Jazz is at once avant-garde and rooted in tradition. Of this the very concept of "jazz standard" bears witness. But invariably, change occurs. In two ways, the most obvious is that new, radical, or almost iconoclastic renditions of traditional songs add to the treasure of jazz. Or new songs are added to the canon. Mulatu Astatke wedded Ethiopia to jazz as far back as the 1960s, a synthesis that provoked attention, awe, and admiration in its time, but also a fair share of skepticism because of how the ingenious mixture of traditional Ethiopian scales, songs, and melodies were so modernized in the idiom of Latin jazz. Unsurprisingly, Ethio-jazz ushered in a new canon of standards. If Astatke's Ethio Jazz fused vibes, piano, and percussion heard in the Afro-Cuban vein Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie had fleshed out with millennia-old Ethiopian themes and pentatonic scale, Jorga Mesfin's 2008 album The Kind Ones: Degagochu and now The Kindest One takes this courageous syncretism further. An unnoticed album when it was released, it revels in the sort of modality brought to the fore by John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Bill Evans. Just as Astatke, the acknowledged godfather of Ethio Jazz ushered in a new idiom of music through mastery of a wide range of instruments, Mesfin mildly attacks the listener with a minimal array of sounds used to the most dramatic effect imaginable, simply by masterfully building tension and releasing it sparingly. In his rendition of Tizita -- arguably one of the most recurringly played themes in Ethiopian music, and by now inscribed in the canon of standards -- it is as if he reaches the mythological world painted by Miles Davis on Concierto de Aranguez from a secret East African path previously unknown. The Kindest One is so captivating that its tones, fluidly moving from tranquility to held-back frenzy with increasing intensity, will give you inner visions.
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2LP
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MUZLP 003LP
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2026 repress. Gatefold. The legendary musical outfit Ibex Band (later metamorphosed into The Roha Band), has played a central role in defining the sound of many of the greatest stars on the music scene of Ethiopia from the mid-seventies onwards -- but their golden output has never really waned. The story of the origins of the band that provided the musical backbone for greats such as Aster Aweke, Girma Beyene, Tilahun Gessesse, backing the solo career of group member Mahmoud Ahmed as well as backing Mulatu Astatke and many others has yet to be properly told. Ibex emerged out of the ashes of the sixties group the Soul Echos band, adding Giovanni and Selamino to their ranks and taking their cues from a slew of influences, such as Motown and The Beatles, fused with traditional music. A tighter-knit unit than most bands at the time -- Ibex has remained six to seven members throughout their whole career, compared to many bands that were as large as fifteen or sixteen men strong when Ibex set out. The detailed history of Stereo Instrumental Music is in many ways unique. To begin with, it couldn't have been recorded earlier (there were no four-track recorders available) and it really couldn't have been recorded afterwards either, at least not in the years directly following, because of the toll the musical scene took from the unfavorable political climate that followed when the nascent Derg regime and rival groups tried to assert themselves, the musical equipment lent from The Voice of Gospel Radio simply disappeared from Ethiopia when the radio station folded in 1977. Whilst leaders might have professed to be revolutionary, the work ethic of the Ibex Band can truly be described as that. They never called it quits, but adapted, toured extensively abroad in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and found ways to work even in the face of the curfew that curtailed a lot of musical life. They even played major arenas in the nineteen eighties, despite said curfew and restrictions. The whole extent of their legacy has never been told, but their music speaks louder than words, so therefore -- tune in to the Ibex Band's Stereo Instrumental Music.
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2LP
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MUZLP 004LP
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Gatefold. Tilaye Gebre is one of Ethiopia's most soulful saxophone giants, with a musical legacy that's hard to surpass. A founding member of the Equators, later renamed the Dahlak Band, he was a key figure in Ethiopia's vibrant hotel music scene and a sought-after musician and arranger for artists like Aster Aweke, Mahmoud Ahmed, Tilahun Gessesse, and Muluken Melesse. In the quiet storm of Ethiopian music in the mid- to late-1970s, Tilaye Gebre was some-thing of the eye at the center. Even though much of the music from that period has been ridiculously hard to excavate from history, chances are that if you pick up any gem recorded in Addis Ababa during those times, it features Tilaye on saxophone and his arrangements. Tilaye was a central figure in Ethiopia's vibrant hotel music scene, where creativity and innovation flourished. He later joined the legendary Walias Band, with whom he toured extensively across the United States. It was during one of these tours that Tilaye made the pivotal decision to remain in the U.S. and further develop his musical craft. His artistry has since taken him around the world, with performances in major cities across Europe, Canada, and the Virgin Islands. From the late sixties onwards, Dahlak Band lit up Addis Ababa with a mixture of James Brown and Wilson Pickett tunes, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and the sound of the disco era -- mixed with modern Ethiopian styles -- serving up majestic concoctions with full-range instrumentation, featuring trumpet, keyboard, saxophone, bass, drums, and guitar. Through their hotel sessions, Tilaye developed further as an arranger, arranging fellow band member Muluken Melesse's first solo album, Muluken Melesse with the Dahlak Band, recorded during the turbulent years of 1975-1976, following the fall of Haile Selassie. Some of the Dahlak Band's releases featured Tilaye as frontman, such as Tilaye's Saxophone with the Dahlak Band from the late 1970s -- typical of a rare groove on the Ethiopian scene -- with excursions into reggae territory, including the band's characteristic sound featuring Tilaye Gebre (tenor and alto saxophone), Dawit Yifru (organ), David Kassa (electric guitar), Shimelis Beyene (trumpet), Moges Habte (tenor saxophone), Abera Feyissa (bass guitar), Tesfaye Tessema (drums), and Muluken Melesse (cowbell). The Dahlak Band's output was so prodigious that they simply couldn't be pigeonholed.
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