Hailu Mergia (ET) | Musikcaféen at Huset-kbh

Hailu Mergia releases Yene Mircha, a new collection of songs featuring an expanded band and new original compositions, building on the worldwide success of his comeback album Lala Belu.

It has been a long, winding road to Hailu Mergia's sixth decade of musical activity. From a young musician in the 60s starting out in Addis Ababa to the 70s golden age of dance bands to the new hope as an emigre in America to the drier period of the 90s and 2000s when he mainly played keyboard in his taxi while waiting in the airport queue or at home with friends. More recently, with the reissue of his classic works and a re-assessment of his role in Ethiopian music history, Mergia has played to audiences big and small in some of the most cherished venues around the world....

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Hailu Mergia releases Yene Mircha, a new collection of songs featuring an expanded band and new original compositions, building on the worldwide success of his comeback album Lala Belu.

It has been a long, winding road to Hailu Mergia's sixth decade of musical activity. From a young musician in the 60s starting out in Addis Ababa to the 70s golden age of dance bands to the new hope as an emigre in America to the drier period of the 90s and 2000s when he mainly played keyboard in his taxi while waiting in the airport queue or at home with friends. More recently, with the reissue of his classic works and a re-assessment of his role in Ethiopian music history, Mergia has played to audiences big and small in some of the most cherished venues around the world.

Mergia’s new album Yene Mircha (“My Choice” in Amharic) encapsulates many of the things that make the keyboardist, accordionist and composer-arranger remarkable—elements that have persisted to maintain his vitality all these years, through the ebb and flow of his career. The rock solid trio with whom he has toured the world most recently, DC-based Alemseged Kebede (bass) and Ken Joseph (drums), forms the nucleus around which an expanded band makes a potent response to the contemporary jazz future Lala Belu promised. Yene Mircha calcifies Mergia's prolific stream of creativity and his philosophy that there is a multitude of Ethiopian musical approaches, not just one sound.

Enlisting the help of master mesenqo (traditional stringed instrument) player Setegn Atenaw, celebrated vocalist Tsehay Kassa and legendary saxophone player Moges Habte from his 70's outfit Walias Band, Mergia enhances his bright, electric band on this recording with an expanded line up on some songs. Mergia produced the album which features several of his original compositions along with songs by Asnakesh Worku and Teddy Afro.

An artist still reinventing his sound every night on stage during his marathon live sets, this 74-year-old icon refuses to make the same album twice. His creative process in the studio—starting with the core band, then after listening extensively over weeks and months adding more sounds and instruments—is as urgent and risky as his concerts can be, pushing the band to the outer limits of group improvisation and back with chord extensions during his exploratory solos. "Yene Mircha" captures this live experience and fosters an expansive view of what else could be in store for this tireless practitioner of Ethiopian music.

Listen:
Bandcamp: https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3gdb2yf
Live: https://bit.ly/yenemircha

The concert is presented together with Beyond the Beats.

Ethio-jazz legenden Hailu Mergia vender tilbage til Musikcaféen efter en udsolgt koncert til Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2018!

Med sig har han det nye album 'Yene Mircha', der udkom i marts via Awesome Tapes From Africa med en række nye kompositioner og blev indspillet med et udvidet band.

Hailu Mergias liv er fortællingen om en enestående musikalsk rejse fra starten af 70'ernes sprudlende musikscene i Addis Ababa som bandleder i Walias Band, til et liv som migrant og taxichauffør i Washington D.C. og nu omsider tilbage på scenen siden pladeselskabet Awesome Tapes From Africas genudgivelse af 'Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument' i 2013 og comeback-albummet 'Lala Belu' fra 2018.

Med keyboard, synthesizer og accordion formår Hailu og hans trio med Ken Joseph på trommer og Alemseged Kebede på bas, at komme med et friskt bud på lyden af etiopisk musik i dag med en blanding af etiopisk folkemusik, funk og jazz. 'Yene Mircha' rummer både rørende ballader, som får dig helt ned i tempo og medrivende melodier hvor den udvidede instrumentation med blæsere og elektrisk guitar kommer til sin ret. Saxofonisten fra Walias Band, Moges Habte, medvirker bl.a. på titelnummeret og det melankolske åbningsnummer 'Semen Ena Debub' præsenterer lytteren for den enkeltstrengede bøjede lut masenqo.

Vi glæder os til at præsentere Hailu Mergia på dansk grund igen med hans fremragende trio!

Lyt her:
Bandcamp: https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3gdb2yf
Live: https://bit.ly/yenemircha

Koncerten er præsenteret i samarbejde med Beyond the Beats.
Event organized by Huset & Beyond The Beats

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