Do. 22.08.2024
Golden sound: Ethio-jazz icon Hailu Mergia in the barracks
He ran a restaurant, worked as a taxi driver and drove travelers to the airport. But he is also a star of the golden jazz era of the 70s in Ethiopia. Tomorrow evening Hello Mergiathe almost 80-year-old keyboardist, accordionist and synth pioneer, in the Kaserne Basel. by Mirco Kaempf
08.24.22 Hello Mergia
Hailu Mergia is considered an icon of Ethiopian jazz of the 1970s. A reissue of his 1985 solo album gave him new impetus to tour again. On Friday he will play at the Kaserne Basel.
Hailu Mergia – The Best of Hailu Mergia
When Hail Mergia was around ten years old, the accordion was the most popular instrument in Ethiopia. He grew up near the city of Addis Ababa. Before he could play traditional folk songs, he sang them. Little by little, he gained musical independence. He played for two years as part of the military before founding the eight-person Walias Band with like-minded people. They mostly played in the club of the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa or other hotels. They performed with borrowed instruments and played for a few dollars. The sound varied depending on the audience – in the early evening they played old jazz standards, sometimes French or Japanese songs, for wealthy travelers and diplomats. The later the evening, the more unusual the sessions became. After the Dreg military regime took over in 1974, they played all night long to get around the curfew. The album “Hailu Mergia & Walias” gives an impression of the golden sound of that time.
The Walias Band was a style-defining force in a scene that is now considered the golden era of Ethiopian jazz. They played a mixture of classical pentatonic folk songs, mixed with western bop, soul and their own variations. In 1981 they were the first Ethiopian band to ever tour the USA. After two years, many of the band members stayed there – partly to escape the military regime in Ethiopia and the massacres.
In the 1990s, Hailu Mergia stopped performing live, but not playing. As a taxi driver he always had his battery-powered keyboard in the trunk and practiced between trips, recording melodies with his cell phone. The reason he is now on the road again was a re-release that the American label “Awesome Tapes from Africa” from a cassette that he recorded alone in the studio in 1985. “Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanaye” was a return to the Ethiopian folk melodies of the 50s, but played with various keyboards, drum machines and a Moog synthesizer. An album that sounds both nostalgic and futuristic.
Hailu Mergia – The Best of Hailu Mergia
Hailu Mergia is now releasing new albums and touring again. Instead of playing all night long for Ethiopian youth in Addis Ababa who wanted to circumvent the curfew, he is now performing more frequently in front of western audiences who are rediscovering the former icon. Tomorrow evening also in the Kaserne, from 8:30 p.m. as part of the Basel Theater Festival.
