The unlikely relationship between Jamaica and Ethiopia is nonetheless both obvious and unavoidable. Haile Selassie, former Emperor of Ethiopia, is of course the figurehead of Rastafarianism, and Ethiopia the religion's fabled Zion. The symbolic red, green, and gold colors of the Ethiopian flag pervade Jamaican iconography, while Jamaican folk hero, activist, and reggae mainstay Marcus Garvey advocated a return to Africa. And of course the two nations will be linked forever through reggae, still the musical lingua franca across much of the globe but especially throughout Africa.
Yet while reggae is steeped in African and specifically Ethiopian imagery, with the Ethiopian Amharic dialect even cropping up in several classic songs, the number of prominent collisions and collaborations of Ethiopian and Jamaican musicians remains rather limited. You'd think someone would have thought to fuse Ethiopia's rich musical heritage with reggae by now, but apparently reggae's long-distance love of Zion has been enough.
British producer and Transglobal Underground vet Nick Page, aka Dub Colossus, got the ball bouncing with A Town Called Addis, an intriguing conflation of reggae and dub sensibilities with Ethiopian pop. It's an ingenious idea made more interesting by its roundabout mode of composition. First, Page traveled to Addis Ababa, where he began work on the album in a hut, the sessions frequently interrupted by children playing, dogs barking and the like. Next, Page took the tapes back to England, inviting a handful of Ethiopian players along with him to put the finishing touches on the disc.
It's the second factor that makes A Town Called Addis so appealing. On top of Page's various riddims are a host of imported X-factors, from Ethiopian singer Sintayehu "Mimi" Zenebe to Teremag Weretow, who plays a one-stringed fiddle known as a messenqo. With the sessions rounded out by a handful of other Ethiopian musicians of varied backgrounds and prominence, from prestigious saxophonists to relatively unknown pianists, the project all but completes itself. A + B = C.
Granted, that undersells Page's dub instincts, and in fact A Town Called Addis would have been perfectly listenable free from its Ethiopian components. Yet the more ear-catching elements of "Entoto Dub", such as its jazz-infused horns or exotic plucked strings, would have been sorely missed, as would have been the impassioned vocals enlivening the spacey "Tazeb Kush" or the smartly interwoven performances that bring "Yeka Sub City Rockers", "Tizita Dub", the wobbly and woozy "Sima Edy" and "Ophir Dub" into vibrant 3-D. The thrilling horns and piano on "Mercato Music" alone even overshadow the otherwise overwhelming dub factor (by design-- it's a Dub Colossus disc, not a Ethiopiques comp).
It's the kind of culture clash that used to sneak out of dub-crazy Brit Adrian Sherwood's studio all the time back when that producer was working at his prolific peak, rich and exciting without ever feeling like a bland busman's holiday. From Jamaica to England to Ethiopia and back, you can hear the give and take between the different cultures, united through music and a desire to create something new out of traditions so old.
