April 22, 2019

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. She’s an Ethiopian composer, pianist, nun, and political refugee. We’re listening to her 1962 solo piano album. Her original compositions show influence from predecessors like Chopin and Debussy, but also make use of a pentatonic mode distinct to Ethiopian music. Guèbrou now lives in Jerusalem at age 95. In today’s edition we also included another Ethio-jazz album on the same label, Buda Musique. It’s the first volume of the label’s “Éthiopiques” collection; it showcases some amazing blues/psychedelic music that came out of Ethiopia in the early ‘70s.

Éthiopiques, Vol. 21: Piano Solo by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (70m) Spotify / Apple Music / Google Play / YouTube

Éthiopiques, Vol. 1: Golden Years of Modern Ethiopian Music by Various Artists (50m, 🗣️ throughout) Spotify / Apple Music / Google Play / YouTube

Have a really good day today.

🐰 🐰 🐰