The classically trained musician was associated with the jazz genre and spent her life in a convent. She will remain in death as much as in life a figure of beautiful contradictions. Her legacy as a ...

Rivaling Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and a handful of others, Mulatu Astatke ranks among the most influential African musicians of all-time. I was in Boston, lecturing for ...

One of the country's oldest instruments, the begena was once reserved for the elite -- and effectively banned during the Marxist Derg regime between 1974 and 1991. Biruktawit Tasew's fingers glide ...

Left: Ayalew Mesfin [Photo by Hannah Brooks]. Right: Hailu Mergia [Photo courtesy of the artist] For many people outside of the Habesha community, their first experience with Ethiopian music came from ...

Getting a piano to a remote school in Africa was no easy task, but concert pianist Girma Yifrashewa knows its value Girma Yifrashewa will never forget the exhilaration of receiving his own piano. It ...

Éthiopiques (Ethiopian in French) collection of Ethopian popular music is certainly extensive; 28 volumes produced so far to my knowledge on France’s Buda Musique label, and probably more volumes have ...