999,859: Mulatu Astatke — Yekermo Sew

Between iTunes, bit torrent, and Shake It Records, I haven't been to a mall record store in years. Back when I was forced to make the occasional foray, though, I remember thinking that the International section was the most dismal place in the whole store- and possibly the whole mall- full of crappy steel band comps, the Clannad back catalog, and scores of watered down calypso collections whose covers failed to evoke the feeling of Festive Island Fun so miserably that they ended up evoking the much more sinister feeling of Festive Island Clinical Depression.

Since I am genetically predisposed toward Festive Island Clinical Depression, I never spent too much time in the International section, so don't know if, buried behind the Frankie Yankovic tributes and the double disc "Folk Songs of the Andes" sets, my local record store stocked anything from the long-running Ethiopiques series of comps. If I ever find out they did, I will be forced to change my opinion of the International section from "the armpit of the mall" to "the armpit of the mall, which inexplicably cups a rare and wonderful gem."

Focusing mostly on Ethiopian singles from the 60s and early 70s- the twilight of Haile Selassie's 43 year reign- the Ethiopiques collections are like... uh... hmm. Okay, try this: remember that classic Star Trek episode when the Enterprise goes to that planet where someone long ago had left a book about 1920s gangsters? And the entire planet had modeled its society to resemble a slightly weird version of B movie gangland?

Well, imagine if instead of a book about gangsters, someone had left behind a Best of Glenn Miller LP, and a couple of James Brown singles collections. If the planet infused these new sounds with their own unique indigenous music, instead of impersonating a gangster Spock might have ended up having to blow a scorching pentatonic trumpet solo over an off kilter but driving percussion groove.

Sadly, the musician behind this track isn't Spock, but rather Mulatu Astatke, inventor of Ethio-Jazz and the sole subject of the 4th Ethiopiques comp.

yekermo sew - Ethiopiques Ense...