ETHIO- JAZZ

The living Legend and The father of Ethio Jazz - Mulatu Astateka

video http://www.diretube.com/sunday-special/the-living-legend-and-the-father-of-ethio-jazz-mulatu-astateka-video_3debdf7be.html



Mulatu Astatke (surname also spelled Astatqé) (Amharic: ሙላቱ አስታጥቄ) is an Ethiopian musician and arranger. 

He is known as the father of Ethio-jazz. Born in 1943 in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston, where he was the first African student at Berklee College of Music.

 He would later combine his jazz and Latin music influences with traditional Ethiopian music.

He has worked with many influential jazz artists such as Duke Ellington during the 1970s. After meeting the Massachusetts-based Either/Orchestra in Addis Ababa in 2004, Mulatu began a collaboration with the band which continues today, with the most recent performances in Scandinavia in summer 2006 & London, New York, Germany, Holland, Glastonbury (UK), Dublin and Toronto in summer 2008.


In the autumn of 2008, he collaborated with London-based Psyche-Jazz collective, The Heliocentrics on an album 'Inspiration Information Vol. 3' which included re-workings of his earlier Ethio-Jazz classics with new material by The Heliocentrics and himself. Mulatu's signature instrument is the vibraphone.

In 2005, his music appeared on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers. In addition, Volume 4 of the Ethiopiques series is devoted entirely to Mulatu's music. 

Mulatu has also produced songs for many artists from East Africa, including Mahmoud Ahmed.Mulatu released a two-disc set to be sold exclusively to passengers of Ethiopian Airlines, with the first disc being a compilation of the different styles from different regions of Ethiopia and the second being studio originals.

In 2007 and 2008, Mulatu completed a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University where he worked on modernizations of traditional Ethiopian instruments and premiered a portion of a new opera, "The Yared Opera."1 Mulatu also recently served as an Abramowitz Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

 In addition to a lecture and workshops, Mulatu served as an advisor to the MIT Media Lab on creating a modern version of the krar, a traditional Ethiopian instrument, for which he will return to MIT briefly in spring 2009 to check on its progress.

On February 1, 2009, Mulatu Astatke performed at the Luckman Auditorium in Los Angeles with a band including such notable jazz musicians as Bennie Maupin, Azar Lawrence, and Phil Ranelin.

Ethiopia's 'cupcake divide' in Addis Ababa

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Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing non-oil economies in Africa, but while a growing middle class aspire to symbols of modernity - such as cupcakes - for most, this new Africa is not a reflection of real life.

Red Velvet. Caribbean Breeze. Vanilla Fever. Brunette. The choice was overwhelming.

I was standing at the counter of a cafe in Addis Ababa and I was looking at cupcakes. Piled high with icing in unnatural shades of turquoise, lime green and a devastating pink.

The Cupcake Delights Bakery, as it is called, was full.

Smartly dressed Ethiopians sipped tea and nibbled on the colourful cakes.

An Indian woman swept in and placed a large order. Chinese men in business suits asked the waitress to bring them fresh fruit cocktails.

Across the road, a place named The Beer Garden was also popular with the Chinese.

Ethiopia: sounds of the present, past and future

Gamo singers and artists from the circus in Debre Berhan are among the recordings. Photograph: Jacob Kirkegaard

Have you ever wondered what a country sounds like? Which distinct sounds characterise a place? The Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard has. And according to Kirkegaard, Ethiopia has many surprises to offer a curious ear. He first visited the country in 2010 and recorded returning in 2012 with independent French filmmaker Vincent Moon (Collection Petites Planétes, La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows etc.). Together they recorded six portraits in 10 days. We asked Kirkegaard about his experiences:

Some of your most famous works are recordings of the sound of sand in the Oman desert, of Icelandic geysers or ambient sounds in now empty Chernobyl villages. Your recent recordings in Ethiopia are of people, singers, a circus etc. Why this change in approach?

I am generally interested in exploring sound from other sides than the immediate way we hear it. To question the sounds we hear; maybe the sound doesn't only sound as we first hear it. Or perhaps it can tell us something else than what we expected. Maybe a bit like what the Giant in Twin Peaks tells Agent Cooper in a dream; "The owls are not what they seem". Recording abandoned rooms in the abandoned city of Pripyat in Chernobyl proved to me that these places were so "full" of absence. What is immediately thought as some of the most silent cities in the world was so full of sound. The same applies for the desert, a place which we think of as a quiet place. But in fact some dunes produce deep massive sound by themselves.

My interest in exploring the sound of Ethiopia was first motivated by the lack of knowledge that I feel most northern Europeans have of Africa in general. And if we want to find out about, say, Ethiopia we Google it. What do we find? Text and pictures. But how does Ethiopia sound? It is unknown to most around here. Can listening to a place tell us something we cannot obtain through texts and pictures?

You have worked various places across the globe. Is there anything that makes recording in Ethiopia distinct?

Ethiopia is perhaps the most deep place I've ever visited. By deep I mean multifaceted and surprising. Not only is the Christian church very old and rich – and there are of course also many tribes with different cultures. But perhaps it has even more to do with my personal experience as well. I feel very welcomed, as if I can just dive into it and communicate with people. I've met musicians, circus people, steel workers, Lalibelocc, farmers, priests and shoe polishers… Yet I feel that my ears have so much more to explore. And when being an open person, Ethiopia has surprises to offer to the curious ear.

How and what do you listen for when arriving at a new destination? How do your soundworks usually come about?

Usually something catches my attention. I hear a story about an intriguing phenomenon in a place. Like the Singing Sands in the desert. Just the name, the Singing Sands, triggers so many sounds in my head. And if my research inspires me more I might fly out there with my microphones. But when arriving to a place I always try to be blank; important for me is to free myself from preconceptions and expectations of something that I want to find. I know that I will only find something interesting if I let go, open up and breathe with the world. It is an important balance that I try to find; never to become too stubborn about what I want to find. I don't see myself as a conductor or composer but more of a collaborator of sound.

You first visited Ethiopia in 2010 where you recorded Ears of the Other. What expectations did you have going back this year?

Ears of the Other was made from a curiosity to hear what Ethiopians hear with their ears. As a foreigner you always hear a new place differently from how the locals hear it. Maybe you hear things that locals have heard every day in their entire life – and therefore don't pay attention to anymore. Or maybe there are sounds you don't hear because you haven't learned to understand the meaning of them. Therefore I asked Ethiopian people what sounds they find characteristic of their day. I wanted to know what sounds they pay attention to and what is Ethiopian sound for them. We would then record the sounds together: a coffee ceremony, the morning prayer, their children's voices, the bird in the tree or the hyena man near the forrest in Harar.

During this trip my friend Tadesse introduced me to the recycling place in Merkato. I was completely blown away. When I returned to Addis this year I wanted to make a portrait of that specific place where they reshape the oil barrels. With all the timbres of oil barrels and long iron sticks it sounded to me very much like a gigantic percussion orchestra! I introduced my colleague Vincent Moon to the place and suggested we did a portrait there. He was just as blown away. We decided to spend one entire day there – from before sunrise till evening. Besides from the interesting sound scape at this particular place in Merkato, I was completly moved by the friendliness, cohesiveness and solidarity among the people living and working there.

How did your collaboration with Vincent Moon come about? And how do the two of you supplement each other?

We did six portraits together in only 10 days. It was very intense and interesting. It was the first time we'd worked together. On some portraits I was more the sound recordist for the films. On other projects we shifted the roles. At Entoto Mariam, for example, we both recorded alone and would pair the recordings afterwards. I am therefore currently putting together a sound piece based on my recordings from Entoto Mariam. Vincent Moon will then edit his footage recordings according to my sound piece.

You are collaborating with Vincent Moon on a work centered around an Ethiopian orthodox exorcism ritual. Could you elaborate a bit on this?

We visited Entoto Mariam twice and made recordings of the orthodox exorsicm ritual there. I can't reveal much about this yet as we are still creating the piece. But I can say that I have never recorded anything this intense and touching before in my life. It was both scary and beautiful at the same time.

One of your most distinct work from Ethiopia is with Tilahun, a singer of the Lalibalocc tradition. How did you approach this recording? And was doing a recording with a Lalibalocc and not the related but more famous azmari singers an elaborate choice form your side?

We both became very interested in the Lalibelocc tradition from the stories we heard. People were saying different things. Some claimed that people were afraid of them and others said they possessed a certain kind of magic. Certain was that they could sing! So we set out to find one. We literally walked into an area in Addis which we had heard was a place for Lalibelocc, and asked some people on the streets if they knew some. Most people thought we wanted to go to Lalibela. But we were very lucky to get in touch with Tilahun.

He took us on one of his trips though an area of Addis before sunrise. It was completely dark as we walked through the windy streets. He would then choose a house and start singing. The dogs would bark like crazy and I was getting scared of what the people might do when he woke them up with his powerful singing. But people seemed happy and gave him money. They then received his blessing. Tilahun is one of the most special and warm people I met on this journey. He told us that he had never been properly recorded. So I offered him to do a private recording of him singing.

Finally, how does Ethiopia sound like to you? Perhaps you can characterise two or three distinct soundscapes that you have discovered?

Ethiopia sounds delicate, mesmerising and timeless to me. The delicate sounds of a valley where you can hear the cow bells, birds, voices and prayer in the distance. The primary sound of Ethiopia is to my ears the distant beat of the orthodox drum. You hear it when traveling through the landscapes. When you are quiet ... you hear the beat in the distance. The pulse of Ethiopia. It mesmerises! And above that, Ethiopia has such a different time, not only is the year and clock different from ours, it just sounds and smells like another time, an unknown yet fascinating present, past and future – all together.

Listen to Kirkegaard's sounds of Ethiopia
http://fonik.dk/works/earsoftheother.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Climate change threat to Arabica coffee crops

Wild Arabica is important because crops grown in plantations have limited genetic diversity

Climate change could severely reduce the areas suitable for wild Arabica coffee before the end of the century.

That is the conclusion of work by a UK-Ethiopian team published in the academic journal Plos One.

It supports predictions that a changing climate could damage global production of coffee - the world's second most traded commodity after oil.

Wild Arabica is important for the sustainability of the coffee industry because of its genetic diversity.

Arabica coffee and Robusta coffee are the two main species used commercially, although the former provides about 70% of production.

The Arabica crops grown in the world's coffee plantations are from very limited genetic stock and are thought to lack the flexibility to cope with climate change and other threats such as pests and diseases.

The researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum (ECFF) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, examined the future distribution of wild Arabica using climate modelling.

Arabica accounts for 70% of commercial production

They looked at how wild Arabica might be affected under three different carbon emission scenarios and over three time intervals (2020, 2050 and 2080).

When the researchers looked at what would happen in the locations where Arabica was currently grown, the best-case outcome was a 65% reduction in suitable sites by 2080.
The worst-case outcome was a 99.7% reduction by 2080.

A different analytical approach yielded a 38% reduction as the most favourable outcome and a 90% reduction as the least favourable by 2080.
Cause for concern

Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, said: "The extinction of Arabica coffee is a startling and worrying prospect. However, the objective of the study was not to provide scaremonger predictions for the demise of Arabica in the wild.

"The scale of the predictions is certainly cause for concern, but should be seen more as a baseline, from which we can more fully assess what actions are required."

The researchers said the results should be regarded as "conservative", because the modelling does not factor in the large-scale deforestation that has occurred in the highland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan (the natural home of Arabica coffee).

Moreover, because of the lack of suitable data, the models assumed intact natural vegetation, whereas the highland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan are highly fragmented due to deforestation.

Ethiopia remains a big producer of the Arabica variety, but Brazil and Colombia are now the two largest countries for commercial Arabica growing.

Other factors, such as pests and diseases, changes in flowering times, and shifting bird numbers (which disperse the coffee seeds), were also not included in the modelling.

Co-author Tadesse Woldemariam Gole, from the ECFF said: "As part of a future-proofing exercise for the long-term sustainability of Arabica production it is essential that the reserves established in Ethiopia to conserve Arabica genetic resources are appropriately funded and carefully managed."

http:www.bbc.co.uk/

Media practitioners urged to play role in efforts to improve nation’s health care service

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The Ministry of Health (MoH) called on media practitioners to play their role in the efforts to improve health services in the country.

The call was made at half-day training the Addis Ababa Health Journalists Forum organized to its members with the financial support of Timret Lehiwot Ethiopia.

“Journalists need to play their role in supporting the ongoing efforts to improve the country’s health care service,” Hospital Service Quality Improvement Project Officer of MoH, Dr. Isaias Messele, said.

He said journalists are expected to play a major role in the campaign the ministry set to launch to reduce child and maternal mortality as well as prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Journalists, health professionals and invited guest attended the training focused on gender and development, population and development and health and development.

http://www.waltainfo.com/

Any Kind of Physical Activity Tends to Increase Life Expectancy

No matter how thin or fat you are, if you exercise daily for ten minutes or on an average for 75 minutes per week, then your life expectancy tends to increase by two years, as revealed by U. S. researchers.

For conducting this study, researchers collected data of 650,000 men and women all aged 40 and above in Sweden and the U. S. Their respective activity levels were recorded.

This study was carried out by Steven Moore of the U. S. National Cancer Institute along with his co-authors. All of them emphasized regular activity to be an effective way of boosting life expectancy.

As a result, researchers found that all of them who were indulged in any kind of physical activity for at least 75 minutes a week or just over 10 minutes a day, had an 1.8 years increased life expectancy than those who did not had any kind of leisure-time doings.

Similar to this, by brisk walking for 450 minutes a week which means an hour daily results into adding another 4.5 years to life.

As said by researchers in the November issue of the journal PLOS Medicine, published by the Public Library of Science, "More leisure-time physical activity was associated with longer life expectancy across a range of activity levels and body mass index groups".

http://topnews.us/

Ethiopia at the World Travel Market

KONSO MONUMENTS

Ethiopia is participating at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London and visitors have been flocking to the Ethiopian stand, designed to reflect its ancient civilization.

Local tour operators are on hand to display a wide range of tours and Ethiopian hospitality. The stand also provides reminders of Ethiopia's unique stature as the cradle of humankind and a presentation underlining this was held on Monday (November 5th) at the Natural History Museum in London. Paleontologist Dr. Berhane Asfaw spoke on the country's record of human and hominid remains spanning several million years. In his discussion, he noted the plethora of rare species and fossils to be found in landscape of volcanic lakes and mountains, which he said made Ethiopia, a Palaeolithic 'zoo'. Dr. Berhane noted that out of a total of 14 widely recognized hominid species, 11 are found in Ethiopia, making it a unique center for research on the evolutionary records of the last six million years. Hominid remains for example are found in the Omo Shringura at all levels, stretching from about 4 million years ago to 200,000, and other areas of research, including Dikika, Warenso Milla, Middle Awash, Konso andChorora as well as the Omo.


http://allafrica.com