Time Out
April 26, 2006

Music – Live preview – Mahmoud Ahmed – Hammersmith Palais; Thursday

by John Lewis

Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie may have been the subject of
thousands of Rasta anthems, but his own favourite music was a brass
band that he heard on a state visit to Jerusalem in 1923. So taken
was the Lion of Judah that he hired a group of Armenian saxophone
players as his official musicians, unwittingly introducing Ethiopia
to jazz instrumentation. As a result, Addis Ababa became host to a
burgeoning jazz and R&B scene; a scene that exploded in the early
’60s when Haile Selassie welcomed 6,000 US ‘peace corps’ into the
country.

Mahmoud Ahmed is the most famous product of this ‘golden age’ of
Ethiopian jazz that thrived until Selassie was deposed in 1974.
Ahmed’s legendary early ’70s LPs like ‘Ere Mela Mela’ still sound
remarkable today – hypnotic funk beats, wah-wah guitars, Stax-style
horn riffs and snake-charmer saxophones, all rumbling under Ahmed’s
passionate, wailing Arabic-inflected vocals.

Despite making music for nearly 50 years, his spellbinding show at
last year’s WOMAD festival was his first ever in the UK. This London
debut sees him share the bill with El Tanbura, a highly rhythmic Sufi
outfit of Egyptian fishermen. The concert celebrates music of the
Nile, but Mahmoud Ahmed’s lopsided funk really does sound like
something from a parallel universe – think a Bollywood singer jamming
with Fela Kuti on Motown and you’re nearly there. Amazingly, all the
best things about his ’70s albums are still intact. The bass and
drums are still hypnotically funky; the rasping horn section still
sound like they’re playing in a nearby toilet; and even at the age of
65, Ahmed’s voice is still sensational.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress