{ "slug": "ethio-jazz", "name": "Ethio-Jazz", "aliases": [ "ethiopian jazz", "ethiopiques", "swinging addis" ], "description": "Mulatu Astatke's invention: Ethiopian pentatonic modes and Amharic song set against soul-jazz arrangements, made in Addis Ababa in the years before the 1974 revolution closed the clubs and the studios.", "origin": { "place": "Addis Ababa, Ethiopia", "year": 1969 }, "lineage": [ { "genre": "jazz", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/jazz/", "inherited": "The training and the format. Astatke studied in London and Boston and came home with a vibraphone and a soul-jazz rhythm section, then bent both to modes that do not fit a Western scale." } ], "bpm": { "min": 70, "max": 130 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/ethio-jazz/", "trackCount": 7, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "mulatu-astatke--yekermo-sew", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mulatu-astatke--yekermo-sew/", "title": "Yèkèrmo Sèw", "artist": "Mulatu Astatke", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mulatu-astatke/", "year": 1969, "label": "Amha", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A vibraphone, a fuzz guitar and a mode that refuses to resolve. Jim Jarmusch later used it in Broken Flowers and introduced the whole tradition to a generation who had never heard of Addis.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mulatu%20Astatke%20Y%C3%A8k%C3%A8rmo%20S%C3%A8w", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2qIJv6XGejc", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "mahmoud-ahmed--ere-mela-mela", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mahmoud-ahmed--ere-mela-mela/", "title": "Ere Mela Mela", "artist": "Mahmoud Ahmed", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mahmoud-ahmed/", "year": 1975, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Recorded with the Ibex Band as the political weather turned. Ahmed sings with an ornamentation that has no equivalent in soul, over a band that is unmistakably playing soul.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mahmoud%20Ahmed%20Ere%20Mela%20Mela", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=eO7JJGwPTq0", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "mulatu-astatke--tezeta", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mulatu-astatke--tezeta/", "title": "Tezeta", "artist": "Mulatu Astatke", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mulatu-astatke/", "year": 1972, "label": "Amha", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Tezeta is both a mode and a word for nostalgia, which tells you how the two are related here. The most purely beautiful thing in the Ethiopiques series.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mulatu%20Astatke%20Tezeta", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=te9CHZCKWkU", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "mulatu-astatke--yegelle-tezeta", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mulatu-astatke--yegelle-tezeta/", "title": "Yègellé Tezeta", "artist": "Mulatu Astatke", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mulatu-astatke/", "year": 1969, "label": "Amha", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The organ line is the hook and the bass never settles. Astatke's own tezeta, and the one most often lifted by hip-hop producers who found the reissues.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mulatu%20Astatke%20Y%C3%A8gell%C3%A9%20Tezeta", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=TDfadvkNfIg", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "girma-beyene-and-the-walias-band--musicawi-silt", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/girma-beyene-and-the-walias-band--musicawi-silt/", "title": "Musicawi Silt", "artist": "Girma Bèyènè and the Walias Band", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/girma-beyene-and-the-walias-band/", "year": 1977, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A riff so strong it became the standard every Addis band had to play. Rhythmically closer to Lagos than to New York, which is the point.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Girma%20B%C3%A8y%C3%A8n%C3%A8%20and%20the%20Walias%20Band%20Musicawi%20Silt", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=r9pLeol6A9s", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "tlahoun-gessesse--almaz", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tlahoun-gessesse--almaz/", "title": "Almaz", "artist": "Tlahoun Gèssèssè", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tlahoun-gessesse/", "year": 1973, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The great male voice of the era, backed by the Imperial Bodyguard Band — literally a state orchestra playing dance music. The scene's institutional strangeness in one record.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tlahoun%20G%C3%A8ss%C3%A8ss%C3%A8%20Almaz", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=haDNhXyrJ4M", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "alemayehu-eshete--heywete", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/alemayehu-eshete--heywete/", "title": "Heyweté", "artist": "Alèmayèhu Eshèté", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/alemayehu-eshete/", "year": 1972, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Ethiopia's answer to James Brown, and not much interested in being dignified. Proof the scene had range beyond Astatke's cool.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Al%C3%A8may%C3%A8hu%20Esh%C3%A8t%C3%A9%20Heywet%C3%A9", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xkmj2WF3tA0", "exact": true } } } ] }