ADJECTIVES ARE A GATEWAY

Here we go. My foot just crossed the border with into get lost territory. Starting innocently enough, taking a dive into Soul Safari's Ethiopia tagged posts. Who knows, maybe he'll have an Mulatu Astatke post. Then I see a post from 2010 titled Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex -Ethiopunk. Ethiopunk?? Okay then, here we go.

First it was just Getatchew Mekuria and the Ex and the song "Almaz Yeharerwa". Smoking in a Velvets plodding way. But the sax, by Getatchew Mekuria, an Ethiopian legend I'm soon to learn, is awesome. Kinda gives it a plodding Velvets meets X Ray Spex feel. Time to backtrack. How did this well known Ethiopian sax player end up playing with a Dutch band?

It's all at Soul Safari: "The Ex, from Holland, often described as an avant-ethno-improv-punk band, toured Ethiopia twice and fell in love with its music. The Ex had their 25th year anniversary party in November 2004 and they invited Getatchew to perform there with the ICP, the Instant Composers Pool, for many decades Holland’s most amazing free-improvising jazz group." Sounds good. But how did they end up recording together? The answer, again, at Soul Safari. I won't be a spoiler, let's just say it was Mekuria's idea.  He was seventy years old at the time.

So far pretty cool, but who are The Ex? They formed in 1979, and already in the first paragraph of their bio, I'm kinda liking their their methodology. From their bio: "...choosing their instruments by drawing straws to decide on who-plays-what, and start from scratch. For the first half year the group concentrates mainly on an extended hit-and-run graffiti publicity campaign, the name being chosen based on the fact that it could be sprayed on a wall in two seconds flat!." Sounds good enough for another detour.

I checked out a video of The Ex playing in Ethiopia. A small portion of the audience seems to be into them, but the dominant expression of the audience is WTF bewilderment. That set me thinking about other unusual audience juxtapositions. By the time I think of Crime playing at San Quentin and the Cramps playing at Napa State Mental Hospital, the wheels are coming off. I can feel the whole night getting pulled out from under me.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Getatchew Mekuria and the Ex - Yeharerwa mp3 at Soul Safari
Getatchew Mekuria and the Ex - Eywat Setenafegagn mp3 at Internet Archive
Getatchew Mekuria - Tezeta mp3 at Soul Safari