anyone else go to the barbican show last night? i thought it was kind of phenomenal. mulatu was ok. nothing that amazing, but good all the same. on the other hand, getachew is one of the coolest men on the face of the earth as far as i'm concerned and alemeyehu eshete was totally entertaining, with quite the al sharpton vibe going on, too. mahhmoud ahmed, just tore that place up, though.
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oh man i can only imagine! damn. hope there will be another opportunity for me to see him. i don't even understand the words and his songs move me to the point of tears all the time. how old is he now? around 55?
He's a bit younger than mulatu, who's 64, so yeah, i'd say maybe late 50s. it was a really upful, fun night. lots of really touching sorrowful songs from ahmed, but some massive call and respose dance tunes, too, which got the whole place on its feet. he's busts a mean move, himself, too.
on that note, i was sitting directly behind three beautiful, incredibly tall ethiopian girls who were doing the eskita shoulder dancing during ahmed's performance, which is kind of great to see (also extremely hard to do well, which they were).
getachew was my highlight, though. he didn't even get on stage for the first five minutes of his set. he just came in from the wings, walked out into the middle of the crowd, planted his feet down like a sumo wrestler, stuck his neck out and played like it was the last time he'd ever get the chance. he absolutely rocked. after that and listening to lost of dean fraser lately, i'm beginning to think that saxaphones are pretty cool after all.
on that note, i was sitting directly behind three beautiful, incredibly tall ethiopian girls who were doing the eskita shoulder dancing during ahmed's performance, which is kind of great to see (also extremely hard to do well, which they were).
getachew was my highlight, though. he didn't even get on stage for the first five minutes of his set. he just came in from the wings, walked out into the middle of the crowd, planted his feet down like a sumo wrestler, stuck his neck out and played like it was the last time he'd ever get the chance. he absolutely rocked. after that and listening to lost of dean fraser lately, i'm beginning to think that saxaphones are pretty cool after all.
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vol. 14 is one of my faves. have you heard that record he cut with the Ex members? it's pretty great also. (other than that Ex vocalist doing bits of the odd Mark Smith imitation here and there)
i'm dying to hear more Ethiopian hiphop...
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
WOFLfor a Belgian instrument, that is. laffs
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
Fookin' nice one!
sufi
lala
yeah i saw them at glasters in the end...
mixed blessing really...
mulatu seemed sadly lost & past it
you can hear the crowd yelling 'turn him up' in that clip cos they totally mixed his solo out of existence - that smug LA feck missed the point totally, then when they turned him up old mulatu noodled without much inspiration & you can see why they sidelined him
his tunes were pretty great but it would have been more respectful if they put him centre stage as conductor or something than give him that pathetic token presence - that pissed me off
alemayhu was pretty good, but almost drowned out by the band, i liked the way he said
"hello glastonbury, lets get together" before the first song then before the 2nd song he said: "hello glastonbury, lets get together" yeah stylish
getachew was definitely star of the show... mahmoud was also pretty special...
i've dled the iplayer version http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00cccl2.shtml which i hope has more of the set - i didnt like the band tho - they played pretty competently but monopolised the show, i don't know how buenavista works but i can see the band have got this aged supergroup together and then give them as little chance to play as possible - couldnt they have found maybe just a couple of ethiopian musicians to back the maestros???
mixed blessing really...
mulatu seemed sadly lost & past it
you can hear the crowd yelling 'turn him up' in that clip cos they totally mixed his solo out of existence - that smug LA feck missed the point totally, then when they turned him up old mulatu noodled without much inspiration & you can see why they sidelined him
his tunes were pretty great but it would have been more respectful if they put him centre stage as conductor or something than give him that pathetic token presence - that pissed me off
alemayhu was pretty good, but almost drowned out by the band, i liked the way he said
"hello glastonbury, lets get together" before the first song then before the 2nd song he said: "hello glastonbury, lets get together" yeah stylish
getachew was definitely star of the show... mahmoud was also pretty special...
i've dled the iplayer version http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00cccl2.shtml which i hope has more of the set - i didnt like the band tho - they played pretty competently but monopolised the show, i don't know how buenavista works but i can see the band have got this aged supergroup together and then give them as little chance to play as possible - couldnt they have found maybe just a couple of ethiopian musicians to back the maestros???
