World music comes to Rock Hall as the groundbreaking Debo Band brings their rousing Ethiopian groove to the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Thursday May 19 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Debo Band is a 10-member group based in Boston, led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by the charismatic vocalist Bruck Tesfaye.
Debo raises the roof on the Ethiopian musical past, picking up where the political upheaval of the 1970s and 1980s quenched the energy of one of East Africa’s most prolific, vibrant music scenes. Known for their groundbreaking, danceable groove, they imagine what Duke Ellington, while on his famed African tour, might have played with the Addis Ababa Police Orchestra (“Blue Awaze”) and invent the jams of the Ethiopians who served in the Korean War and brought back influences from East Asia (the catchy Okinawan song “Hiyamikachi Bushi”).
The large ensemble is known for its respectful reimagining of Ethiopia’s rich musical worlds–from Orthodox Christian liturgy to hot-and-sweaty club sounds. They incorporate traditional scales and vocal styles, alongside American soul and funk rhythms, and instrumentation reminiscent of Eastern European brass bands.
Neglected tracks from obscure recordings inspire Debo Band to do more than simply cover them. They rearrange, up the ante, and add new sections and Amharic lyrics to songs. The same innovative yet respectful approach sparks the band’s originals. Earthy dance floor moves merge with psychedelia, rock drive, and spot-on brass–sounds that have the patina of good vintage tracks yet breathe with new life and purpose. A song like “Yalanchi” takes a traditional snippet as a jumping off point–the bass riff from a traditional wedding song–only to move through unexpected chord changes, shifts in time signature, and wonderfully wigged-out solos.
For Mekonnen and the band, it’s about more than playing with the wealth of modes, styles, and approaches born in Ethiopia. It’s about exhuming and reframing a past that had to be abandoned, but that now feels relevant to global conversations about African identities, regional politics, and the plight of refugees. That many of Ethiopia’s great artists, songwriters, and recordings were lost is part of a larger story of loss, that of flight, resettlement, and broken links in a long, vital chain of musical expression.
“My parents left everything in the middle of the night as teenagers,” recalls Mekonnen, who was born in Sudan. “You don’t take your music collection with you when you flee. You leave all that behind. We’re still trying to reconstruct the past, not simply by discovering good songs that have been forgotten, but through the interpretation process, making the songs anew. Bringing attention to the silenced era, the absence.”
Giving voice to what was silenced has powerful resonance with what’s going on far from Ethiopia, including with the struggle to gain visibility for Black and African experiences and lives.
Take a song like “Goraw.” “Ethiopia is a country with a long and rich history. Unfortunately, this history often gets diluted with stories of extreme poverty, famine and political instability. But throughout history Ethiopians have shown themselves to be a very resilient and proud people,” says singer Bruck Tesfaye, who penned the Amharic lyrics. “This song tries to capture this pride and resiliency of the Ethiopian people and the many heroes that stood up for their country and those that continue to do so today.”
This enduring, defiant pride can energize a party, and it can strengthen all who want to fight the good fight. “During the climax at the end of ‘Goraw’, you hear Bruck sing the word ‘gobez’, a rich word that lends itself to the album title, Ere Gobez. It’s a cry used to rally troops, a call to the lionhearted,” Mekonnen muses. “For me, it’s not about going into battle literally, but about a passionate response to the world in which we live. We all need to be more courageous in our struggle for equality and justice. There is so much xenophobia and extremism, and music can help us find our courage and stand up.”
Debo Band has toured Ethiopia twice, appearing at both the Ethiopian Music Festival in Addis Ababa and Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar, the largest music festival in East Africa. In North America, they’ve shared stages with Gogol Bordello, Amadou & Mariam, Antibalas, The Family Stone, and Ethiopian great Tilahun Gessesse. Recent and upcoming performances include the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Bumbershoot, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, The Kennedy Center, Montreal Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, South by Southwest, globalFEST, Joe’s Pub, International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Montana Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.
For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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