...dream collaboration between the King of Ethiopian Sax and the hardest-working band in showbiz, much anticipated by myself and yes, it works.
As the liner notes explain, The Ex's collective mind was blown by the CD of Getatchew Mekuria's records from the early '70s, part of the wonderful Ethiopiques series by the French label Buda Musique. Not surprising really; 'Negus of Ethiopian Sax' (Vol 14) is one of the spookiest, most exotic and out-of-time records I've ever heard. Anyway, the liner notes also explain how the collaboration came about, so I won't here. It's a nice story. The CD booklet is easy on the eye and factoid-crammed, with an interview with Getatchew talking about his life and career, accompanied by lots of cool pictures from his archive, raising the roof with the Municipality Band and the Police Orchestra in Addis Ababa, Gonder, Asmara...
Joining our heroes is Colin Mclean, formerly of the Dog Faced Hermans, on bass and an international horn section of players from Ex-collaborators like the Instant Composer's Pool and Silent Block, I think - Xavier Charles, Brodie West, Joost Buis. Cor Fuhler contributes keyboards on some of the studio tracks. To be honest I think the horn section are the secret ingredient here. The recording is clear and bright, a mix of studio and live takes from this troupe's mini-tour round Europe last year (Which myself, The Doktor & Plaistow Dave travelled to Paris to see).
The Ex's sound has always been about relentless rhythm and building up suspense, with the guitars piling on extra percussion, noise and dynamic to the attack. Here though, they're not the focus but the rhythm section, so the horn section bring together their arrangements of these Ethiopian melodies to allow the lead voice, Getatchew's rich and lyrical playing, to shine.
Instrumentals like the war song 'Che Belew Shellela' gallop along and sounds more celebratory rather than martial. When The Ex slow down, they open up space for some lovely, evocative interplay between Getatchew and the horn section, then the whole band bring in the big band choruses and rock-out climaxes. The closing 'Aha Begena' has a great call-and-response of punk vocals (in Amharic!) and a loopy, catchy horn refrain over a driving beat which'll confuse your body into wanting to shoulder dance, Ethiopian-style, and pogo at the same time. Yah-Ho!
One of my favourite tunes from the original Ethiopiques CD is featured on 'Aynotche Terabu/Shemonmwaneye', with it's monumentally sad, plodding bass melody carrying the waves of chiming guitars, wailing horns and singer G W Sok's plain vocals to levels of incredible power which is as exicting and as the original recording, a beautiful meld of moody post-punk guitar and Ethiopian melancholy. On repeated listens I like it all, there's so much going on but it never turns into a mess, which is another tribute to the talent of all concerned here.
You can tell that everyone is having a great time and love what they're doing, which definitely makes this a collaboration rather than a fusion. About two-thirds through, Getatchew's solo spot 'Tezeta' allows him to step into spotlight and it it's a reminder why The Ex wanted to find the man in the first place and let more people hear his singular voice.

The mysterious afro-soul of Shaolin Afronauts first echoed across the dance floors of Australia in late early 2008. Heavily inspired by the sounds of 1970′s West Africa, Ethiopia and the pioneering avant-garde jazz artists of the same period the Shaolin Afronauts draw on the this highly innovative and sometimes volatile era in music, using it as inspiration to create music with the same fire and intensity. Their spirited performances have fast gained a reputation as some of the most exciting live shows around. Though there is something refreshing and original about the Afronauts, their music could be described as somewhere in between the heavy Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the Ethio-Jazz of Mulatu Astatke.

”From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine” is reedman Byard Lancaster's personal aesthetic mantra, something that recalls the theme of the Charles Moffett tune “Avant garde Got Soul Too”.
Free jazz and creative improvisation historically have not often been viewed as the music of the people, but the idea behind the term 'avant garde' is that it is a paving of the way by a few forces for a large wave of cultural and aesthetic change to come sweeping along behind them. It is unfortunate that broad change doesn't always happen as completely as one might hope, but as certain catalyzing forces line up, one can smell movement in the air.
Byard Lancaster was born on August 6th, 1942 in Philadelphia. Lancaster's family is from the South; his mother was born near Gloucester, Virg. and “[her] particular family is registered as having started the first slave uprising in 1743, on September 13th. My father was a very good businessman and brought her to Philadelphia.”
Lancaster has three siblings; his brothers are a businessman and politician and an educator, respectively, and his sister, Dr. Mary Anne Lancaster Tyler, is a noted musicologist who studied with Donald Byrd and Nathan Davis.
Byard and his sister were the musicians of the family and played in church starting in 1949. Byard played piano until age five, when his mother bought him his first alto saxophone: “I wanted to play saxophone originally, because there was this junkie across the street who sat on his porch high and played every day.”
Lancaster became an in-demand section saxophonist in school, too: “I played for about two or three years and decided to quit one day, and the director put me back in the next day because she called my mother and said 'I know she wants you to stay in, and your sister is in the band and you're going to be in the orchestra.' I never quit after that, and if I counted up all the time since then that I quit it would be about two-and-a-half months.”
Even at a young age, Lancaster was restless to try new things and new approaches, a value instilled by his mother. “When my mother first bought me a saxophone, I kept it for five or so years and asked her for another one. She said 'no, you must get another type of instrument.' So I played the tenor saxophone after that.”
Lancaster attended the Settlement Music School in 1959, the oldest music school in the country and Lola Junior High and Germantown High with pianist Kenny Barron: “Kenny was into Ellington and things, and I was into James Brown.”
“Kenny [Barron] was into Ellington and things, and I was into James Brown.”
At the behest of his mother, Lancaster attended Shaw University in North Carolina for his first year (”my mother wanted me to attend a black college for a year”), following that with Berklee School of Music, and he was a part of the infamous class that yielded such luminaries of the Second Wave of free jazz as pianist Dave Burrell, trumpeter Ted Daniel and drummer Bobby Kapp. Lancaster studied music education and, with Burrell, orchestrated loft parties and late-night jam sessions that included school musicians as well as visiting jazzmen like Lee Morgan and Elvin Jones.
Following Berklee, Lancaster and Burrell moved to New York and Burrell quickly started another loft space at Bowery and Bond Streets, right in the thick of the scene: “Elvin Jones and Archie Shepp used to come by; Archie lived up the street and Rashied Ali lived not too far away, Amiri Baraka, Marzette Watts. Marzette wanted to learn the saxophone, and Archie wouldn't teach him, so I taught him [Lancaster appeared on Marzette and Company, Watts' first LP (ESP, 1966)].”
In 1969, Lancaster went to Paris and played the Actuel festival with Sunny Murray, whom he met through the loft scene as well. In fact, Lancaster made his first session with Murray - Sunny Murray Quintet (ESP, 1966) - who quickly became an influence on the young saxophonist: “Whatever sounds I heard in my head, he could find a rhythm to balance it. On my first record with him, I used no notes, just sound... I never played as powerfully as I did with Sunny Murray... he plays pulse, not beats.”
Lancaster returned to Philadelphia after the festival, then went back to France with Murray in 1971 and stayed for half a year. Lancaster returned in 1974 on his own and met with pianist-composer Jef Gilson, producer of Palm Records and a catalyst of the Parisian avant garde jazz scene. He recorded nine sessions for Palm, including important duets with percussionist Keino Speller (Exactement, 1975), a trio with bassist Sylvain Marc and drummer Steve McCall entitled Us and a tribute to James Brown.
After Lancaster left France for the final time, he returned to New York in 1978 and then back to Philadelphia shortly after, as a return to his roots. He “always [has] to return to Philly,” and it holds a special connection for those who have come up through its ranks. “Philadelphia is a tribal city... it is the spiritual capital of the United States and rivals Mecca. The laws of the country and its culture were born there, and we are the root of all culture in the world because we're running the world culture now and the root of America is Philadelphia.”
Lancaster's labels Dogtown and Philly Jazz both reference the history of Philadelphia and its height as the cultural capital. “Even though we call it 'Philly Jazz', it really means music,” and Lancaster wants to bring jazz, R&B, rock, reggae and all other forms of music to the streets, schools and to the people. “I've been organizing since I was born, and [finding time to practice] is one of the reasons I play on the streets, because I sit there for about three or four hours without moving. It's a great marketing scheme - if I want to sell 20,000 records to the people in my community, then the people should know me and the next thing is that I should create music that they really love.”
Byard Lancaster knows that building from the ground up is the first step in the process of sonic and spiritual liberation.