Ten piece jazz/Latin/African ensemble from Massachusetts is the first US artist invited to the Ethiopian International Music Festival in Addis Ababa

The ten-piece Either/Orchestra (E/O) will be the featured artist at the Ethiopian International Music Festival in Addis Ababa, January 12-24, 2004. In its third year, the Festival is produced by the Alliance Ethio-Francaise, who expand its scope beyond Ethiopian musicians this year by inviting the E/O. The E/O will be the first American large jazz ensemble to play in Ethiopia since the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1973. Concerts will include Ethiopian music, American jazz and a collaboration between the E/O and Ethiopian musicians. The trip may also feature a visit to Kampala, Uganda, for a concert at the National Theater. Details on the Kampala concert are pending.

"We feel very fortunate that forces on three continents have come together to make this trip possible," says E/O leader Russ Gershon. "Everybody in the band is looking forward to visiting Africa, hearing Ethiopian music at the source, and meeting Ethiopian musicians and civilians."

The Somerville Mass. based E/O, founded in 1985 by saxophonist/composer Gershon, has gained the attention of the Ethiopian and Ethio-phile music community by interpreting Ethiopian popular music. Gershon came to Ethiopian sounds through singer Ahmoud Ahmed's Ere Mela Mela and by the compilation Ethiopian Groove: The Golden 70s, assembled by French producer Francis Falceto, who also curates the well-received 15 volume Ethiopiques series for Buda Music.

After the E/O included the Ethiopian Suite, composed of three popular songs from the early 1970s, on its 2000 release More Beautiful than Death, Falceto contacted Gershon, beginning a relationship between French promoter and American bandleader. Since the mid 1980s, Falceto has harbored a desire to honor and revive the classic Ethiopian big band tradition of the 1950s through 70s. The popular music scene in Addis was halted under the Derg dictatorship of 1974-1991 and sputtered during the subsequent period of the Eritrean war of seccession in the 1990s. In the Either/Orchestra, Falceto found a group of high-caliber musicians who were already taking this music as a source of inspiration. Gershon and the E/O have been drawing material from Falceto's extensive collection of out-of-print LPs and cassettes, and Falceto has introduced the E/O's work to a number of the major Ethiopian artists.

Gershon has also received several calls from expatriate Ethiopian musicians living in the Washington DC area, where there is a large Ethiopian community, including calls from the composers of songs the E/O has recorded. "The response from the Ethiopians has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive," he reports. "A couple of these older expatriates actually heard our versions of their songs on the radio and just flipped out. They ask, when can I come and play with your band? And other Ethiopian musicians living in the US, including members of the Admas Band, the top Ethiopian band here, have been really impressed by the way we have captured the essence of the music." Falceto says the older Ethiopian artists in Addis are "almost literally speechless" when they hear the E/O's renditions of their music.

Falceto elaborates, "the Either/Orchestra has been the first US artist invited because they are among the first Western musicians to have considered Ethiopian music as part of the 'World Groove Heritage' (together with other international artists like Kronos Quartet, Susheela Raman...), to play and record it - and in a wonderful manner. They will be a big and unimaginable surprise for the Ethiopian audiences (and foreign too, since being the capital of African Union, Addis Ababa is also full of foreigners from all over the world. The biggest density of embassies in Africa). Last but not least, the meeting between American musicians paying tribute to Ethiopian music, and Ethiopian musicians should be a fantastic adventure, hopefully full of lessons for both sides."

"Ethiopian music works really well as jazz, " says Gershon, "because rhythmically it is anchored in the wider African sense of polyrhythms, of 3 against 2 time, often expressed in 3/4 and 6/8 meters. Also, one of the most characteristic elements of Ethiopian traditional music are the particular pentatonic scales they employ, which for the Western ear range from familiar sounding to quite exotic. When these modes are used as the basis for harmony, you wind up with lots of the chords that are common in modern jazz. Because of the particular history of modern music in Ethiopia, there is a strong tradition of pop bands with big horn sections, and even a very unique and definite Ethiopian saxophone style. A man named Getachew Mekurya transposed a kind of war chant onto the tenor sax in the 50s and came up with a style that actually prefigures Albert Ayler's by a few years but shares a lot with his. Getachew will be playing at the festival, and I hope to play with him. In the end, it connects with us because all jazz and Latin musicians are deeply connected to African music through the history and tradition of what we do."

Ethiopia possesses an ancient, rich and somewhat insular culture, in part because its dominant central region features inaccessible, mountainous terrain, isolating and protecting the country over the centuries. Ethiopia is the only African country never to have been colonialized by a European power, except for six years of nominal Italian rule during the Mussolini era. "Ethiopia has had a very hard time over the last thirty years, leaving the country in tatters, " says Gershon. "I have been told by Charlie Teller, an American aid worker who spent eight years there, that there is a sense of hopelessness, particularly among the young people. Charlie feels that the image of a professional American ensemble treating Ethiopian music with care and respect will be a very positive piece of diplomacy for our country at this point in history. We are also hoping to do some teaching at the Yared Music School in Addis while we are there, and looking for other ways to interact with the community."

The E/O's most recent CD is Neo-Modernism (Accurate 3284), which is currently at #4 in the College Media Journal jazz chart. All About Jazz: New York writer David Adler includes it among his 10 "Best New Releases for 2003." Kevin R. Convey writes in the Boston Herald that Neo-Modernism is "a now-searching, now-searing display of swing, drive, precision, power, individual expression and ensemble dynamics. It's a potent cocktail, especially when the band heads toward outer dimensions."

In the All Music Guide, Alex Henderson calls it "yet another reason to be excited about the Either/Orchestra," and Irwin Block of the Montreal Gazette declares that it "sizzles with energy and begs for more from this cracker-jack unit."

Participation of the Either/Orchestra in the Ethiopian International Music Festival has been made possible in part through support from The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, a public-private partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Department of State, and The Rockefeller Foundation, with additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and administered by Arts International.

For more information, please visit either-orchestra.org.

Ethiopian Songs Played by the Either/Orchestra

1. Amlak Abet Abet (Teshome Sissay)

2. Musicawi Silt (Girma Beyene)

3. Feker Aydelmwey (Ayalew Mesfin)

4. Yezamed Yemaed (Teshome Meteku)

5. Alchalkum (associated with Tlahoun Gessese)

6. Awash (Ali Birra)

7. Ambassel (traditional)

8. Keset Eswa Bichet (Muluqen Mellesse)

9. Bati Lydian (Mulatu Astatque)

10. Beber Ayegazam (Bizunesh Bekele)

11. Anchim Endelela (Bakta G. Hewot)

12. Anchi Hoyer Lene

13. Wetetie Mare (traditional)

1, 2, 3 featured on More Beautiful than Death (Accurate Records 3282)

4. on Afro-Cubism (Accurate Records 3283)