Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
Piano Solo (Ethiopiques 21)Buda Musique 860122, 2005
01. The Homeless Wanderer
02. The Last Tears of a Deceased
03. A Young Girl’s Complaint
04. The Mad Man’s Laughter
05. Presentiment
06. Mother’s Love
07. Ballad of the Spirits
08. The Song of the Sea
09. Homesickness
10. Golgotha
11. The Jordan River Song
12. The Garden of Gethesemanie
13. The Song of Abayi
14. The Story of the Wind
15. Evening Breeze
16. Tenkou! Why Feel Sorry?
In the rich, varied and bizarre history of African music, the tragedy of the Ethiopian pop recording industry stands alone. But for the past few years, Buda Records has brought us the Ethiopiques series, showcasing the immense scope of the golden age of Ethiopian music – lovingly assembled, remastered and fully annotated. An outstanding pianist and a remarkable composer, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou (now a Christian nun in a Jerusalem monastery) once recorded her own piano solo works, steeped in Ethiopian culture.The rich, personal poetry of these songs brings to mind Claude Debussy or Carlos d'Alessio's "India Song" – a rare curiosity indeed, with beautiful melodies and a charming interpretation.
Having exposed the goldmine of pre-Mengistu Swinging Addis and tentatively explored traditional instrumental and vocal music, Francis Falceto's incomparable Ethiopiques series keeps rolling with one of its strangest volumes yet. Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou was a daughter of privilege, and as such was sent abroad to Europe in the 1930s for a Western education. Her schooling included music, and she became a pianist, eventually moving to Jerusalem and recording highly unique pieces that filter the traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scale through classical technique-- in the end sounding like impressionistic jazz.
I thought I had heard every tale told about the love of music. This is as interesting a story as it is unusual.
Move over Mulatu Astatke and Girma Yifrashewa. Wake up the echoes of Prof Ashenafi Kebede. There is an old but new, no, not a sheriff, but a nun in town. Yes, you read right, a nun. This is the story of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, a musical genius. Her talent has been compared to Jazz and classical greats like, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Jelly Roll Morton, and even Eric Satie as well as Beethoven in some of her works.
I guess genius comes in many shapes and forms. This unheralded musical talent, however, has such an interesting tale, it almost makes her musical talent the side story. I accidentally stumbled into her CD last weekend at a store and decided to do a little research on her, as I sometimes do before purchasing the CD. The short bio I found was absolutely amazing. Here are a few excerpts.
The latest installment in the Ethiopiques series is a brilliant, gorgeous and captivating record: solo piano compositions from Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, whose warm, gentle touch evokes everyone from the work of Debussy to Fats Waller to Bill Evans. Born in 1923 into a learned Ethiopian family, Guebrou was educated in Switzerland (where she first learned piano) and Cairo as well as in her native country. - Soundfix
Meditations on bible themes and the beauties of nature were her favorite subjects and her compositions were often built around recognizably Ethiopian melodic structures. But they also reveal refracted shards of what would certainly be cited as influences if only it could be established she had ever heard the works of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Abdullah Ibrahim and especially, Eric Satie. But ultimately, Sister GuÈbrou seems to be a lone reed -- but a very beautiful one. - Christina Roden
The 21st volume in the grand Ethiopiques series (not bad for a country that has no musical tradition of its own to speak of) is dedicated to the solo piano works of the outstanding composer and performer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou , a daughter of Ethiopian high society who chucked it all to become a nun in the nation's Orthodox Church. Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was educated in Europe. She played violin (under the tutelage of Polish émigré Alexander Kontorowicz ). She took up her piano studies while in the convent and teaching at an orphanage. - Thom Jurek
"Not bad for a country that has no musical tradition of its own..."? Well, somebody done told you wrong, Mr Jukrek. I think you need to do some homework about Ethiopian music. But that will be adressed at a later date on this blog. For now, your kind review serves our purpose.
320 kbps mp3, including full booklet scans
http://rapidshare.com/files/113975805/ETMG-PS.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/113979372/ETMG-PS.part2.rar
