root salad
Etenesh Wassie Ethiopian voice meets jazz and classical in an
unruly noise. Bas Springer gets excited
Ethiopian singer Etenesh Wassie, the French free-jazz bassist Mathieu Sourisseau and cellist Julie Läderach. The cross-pollina- tion of traditional Ethiopian Azmari vocals, heavy noise on the bass, alternate rock and classical music resulted in brooding and unruly songs that hardly fit any label. You could call it adventurous music that demands the listener’s complete attention. Seeing Etenesh Wassie performing live, at last year’s WOMEX in Las Palmas, the music became even more intense.
O
Etenesh Wassie was born in 1971 in Gondar and lives now in the capital Addis Abeba. She made a name in the azmaribèt cabarets of Addis Ababa in the ‘90s with her daring improvisations of the traditional Azmari repertoire. An azmari (literally ‘one who praises’ in Amharic) is an Ethiopian singer-musician, comparable to the Euro- pean bard or the West African griot. Azmari, who may be either male or female, are skilled at singing extemporised verses, accompanying themselves on either a masenqo (one-stringed fiddle) or krar (lyre). The azmari sings lengthy historical epics and strophic love songs.
“An azmaribèt is a very small place, where you can eat and drink and listen to traditional Ethiopian music. It’s open all night. The singers perform very famous tra- ditional songs which are part of the Ethiopi- an patrimony. Azmari also improvise on what’s happening in front of them in the azmaribèt. So sometimes we make jokes and have fun, speaking about politics. We mock very important people. It’s just like the newsletter from Ethiopia,” explains Wassie.
With her powerfully resonant voice, outstanding personality and an in-depth knowledge of the Ethiopian repertoire, she became one of the most popular Azmari singers in Ethiopia’s capital. Two of her songs were included in Volume 18 of the famous CD series Ethiopiques, called Asguebba.
“I was married when I was thirteen and my husband was a singer and masenqo player. I learned singing from him. In our family there were no musicians and it was a bit difficult for the family to accept that I was performing. I was working all night, seven days a week. I was more or less pro- fessional depending on good tips from the audience. If they liked you they put money on your forehead or in your bra. I was mak- ing enough money to pay for my brothers’
ne of the most exciting albums of last year was Yene Alem (My World), a fascinating collabora- tion between the traditional
and sisters’ studies, who all have very good jobs now. I stopped working in the azmaribèt six years ago.”
In 2007, Wassie met the French guitarist and bassist Mathieu Sourisseau, who invited her to perform with his group Le Tigre des Platanes, a French jazz-fusion band from Toulouse. She contributed to the group’s econd CD, Zèraf (2007). The collaboration between Wassie and Sourisseau resulted in the 2010 album Belo, on which grouped poems are sung and put to music by Souris- seau. Ever since they have been working together closely.
A
fter touring as a duo in France and Europe from 2009 to 2013, Wassie and Sourisseau met again in the spring of 2016 for a French tour, and realised immediately that the same magic from their cooperation was still there. So in 2017 they decided to create a new repertoire as a trio by inviting a classi- cally trained cellist, Julie Läderach, who impressed them with her equally refined and savage playing. This collaboration resulted in Yene Alem.
Läderach was no longer available for the trio, so she was replaced at WOMEX by the French double-bassist Sébastien Bac- quias, who will join them in the future. Lis-
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tening to Etenesh and her musicians you are constantly on the edge of your chair, so much is happening.
With her raw voice – sometimes whis- pering, sometimes ferocious – Wassie gave an intense showcase that will be engraved in the memories of those present for a long time. Sourisseau, who played an electric bass for this occasion, described the music as “outside your comfort zone”.
“I sing about love and Ethiopian histo-
ry,” says Etenesh. “All our songs are tradi- tional but what we do with Mathieu is quite new. I can take a part of a song and take a part of another song. Mathieu records my a capella voice and doesn’t listen to the origi- nal songs. And then he adds his own music to it. So sometimes I have to make an adap- tation and rewrite the traditional song because the speed is not the same.”
“Mathieu only speaks a little Amharic, but most of the time our manager Sophie is around, who speaks it fluently. And then of course we have the language of music. It is very funny when you hear us converse while working because we use a lot of French slang and dirty expressions. It may not be very politically correct but it works!”
eteneshwassie.wixsite.com/eteneshmusic F
Photo: Richard Holstein
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