Description

1LP Vinyl – MUZLP004

The Dahlak Band honed their sound as the resident musicians at the Ghion Hotel, a historic building in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa that was first constructed by long-time ruler Emperor Haile Selassie as an intended residence for his son. At the band’s red-hot core was Tilaye Gebre, a heavyweight of Ethio-jazz, whose story intersects with many of the close-knit scene’s key players. As press notes to this new reissue of Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band assert, “Chances are that if you pick up any gem recorded in Addis Ababa during those times, it features Tilaye on saxophone and his arrangements.”

The Selassie era was brought to an end by the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and the dawning of a new military regime that imposed restrictions on cultural performance. Yet it was through this political instability that Gebre developed as both a player and arranger. He helmed Muluken Melesse’s album Muluken Melesse with the Dahlak Band and was a member of the famous Walias Band, led by the legendary Hailu Mergia. It was with the Walias Band that Gebre later journeyed to America, playing to audiences that included Ethiopians who had fled civil war. A number of group members, including Mergia, took the opportunity to stay; to this day, Gebre lives in the U.S. But at some point—the timeline offered is simply “the late 1970s”—he left behind a full-length vision of the sound he’d been helping to create: Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band, ​a one-take, one-mic ​live recording at the same Ghion ​Hotel where he entertained guests night after night.

Joining Tilaye for the session were some of the great names of Ethio-jazz. As well as Melesse (credited on cowbell), the band included Dawit Yifru on organ and Moges Habte on tenor sax. Bringing so many crucial figures together helped create arrangements that encapsulate the sound of the scene: Mid-tempo Sub-Saharan rhythms, funky keys, detectable Caribbean lilts, a focus on solo expression. Anyone lured to Ethio-jazz by the more recent renaissance albums released by Mergia and the equally great “father of Ethio-jazz” Mulatu Astatke will be immediately taken by these fundamentals. But while Mergia’s arrangements are led by his accordion, it’s the saxophone that wields the most control here. Right from the sun-bleached opener “Ālibek’agnimi (አልበቃኝም),” Tilaye’s play is rich, soulful, and capable of conjuring great depth and verve.

Across nine compositions that can stretch to ten minutes, allowing for plenty of space for the band to reveal itself, Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band is a musically varied suite. The jaunty “Ts’igērēda” could almost be a vintage sitcom theme, before a bluesy breakdown enters towards the end of the composition; Yifru’s mean organ play underpins the swaggering lounge exotica of “Ālichalikumi.” The bare-bones recording process gives the music an unvarnished feel; this restoration thankfully retains the lovely raw thump that reflects the cassette tape culture of Ethiopia at the time (it was, in fact, initially released on cassette). Most importantly, it has restored Tilaye’s piece to Ethiopia’s glorious jazz history, where it should remain forevermore.