Blogtrotters

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hailu Mergia & The Walias [with Mulatu Astatke] - Tche Belew [1977]





     Hailu Mergia and the Walias “Tche Belew” Out 14/10/14



Awesome Tapes From Africa release this legendary album on October 14th.

You can buy it hereAmazon.com pre-order


       Did you know that during the 1970s — a span of ten years! — there were only three instrumental Ethiopian albums recorded and released on vinyl? It’s true. Well, if the Internet says it’s true, then it’s true. I trust the Afro-pop websites way more than I trust my instincts. More than that, even, I trust Francis Falcetto, the mastermind behind the Ethiopiques series. He describes Ethiopia as a vastly misunderstood country. It is unique in regards to its topography (green landscape, highlands that act as a natural fortress), religion (Catholic since the early 4th century, long before Catholicism took over Europe or the Americas), and language (Ge’ez, a Semitic language whose derivations are related to it in the same was French, Spanish, and Italian are related to Latin). It took until the late 1960s for independent bands to form, but by that time the musicians of Ethiopia had decades to practice and understand theory. After learning of Western music from peace corp volunteers and military radio stations, the state run radio stations decided to slowly liberate the airwaves, so to speak, and allow more popular Western music to reach Ethiopians. Combine that with the natural generational divides we see in the history of every other country in the world, and you’ve got a powder keg of ridiculously great music waiting to explode.





       Mulatu Astatke was the first musician of his generation to study abroad. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He brought his fondness for jazz and Latin music back to Africa, and — even before renowned musicians like Fela Kuti — was recording “modern” African music. He continued to compose and produce records into the ’70s, which is when Hailu Mergia recorded Tche Belew. The album was released in 1977, and features Mulatu on the track “Musical Silt.” Many Ethiojazz and Ethiopian pop fans consider it to be one of his greatest contributions to Ethiopian music. I’m not that well versed, so I couldn’t say definitively, but I think it’s great.





      Tche Belew is a fairly unknown album by most fans’ standards. Which, naturally, makes it supremely hard to find. And original copies are quite valuable. Just two days ago the LP sold for $4,250 on eBay. Take a listen and you’ll realize why it’s such a sought after gem from an amazing period in the history of recorded music.







10 comments:

le soleil est rare said...

damn ! never heard of this record. it's not even on discogs.
4000$ for a single record is crazy though, even if i know "Arthur Verocai" sold for 5000$ once... thanks.

2b0rn0t0b said...

hey, man ...this album is EPIC ..probably one of ten ethiopian records ever !!! ..there is only one rip of this record ..still waiting reisue on compact disc ..I slightly enhanced this rip on Sound Forge ..just volume it up and remove some too loud clicks ..

enjoy ..

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Do you think that this album might be released in the Ethiopiques series one day; could you ask Francis Falcetto about it?

2b0rn0t0b said...

I have no courage to aks Mr Falcetto, since he asked me to remove all ethiopique albums posted on my blog :-(

pj said...

really nice discover, thanks a lot!

Unknown said...

@ Bora
you are in the list of http://blogsetcie.blogspot.fr/
Kidloco

Feilimid O'Broin said...

One addition to the notes that accompany the album, the largest Christian church in Ethiopia is the Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን?; Transliterated Amharic: Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan), an Orthodox church related to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egyot. Ethiopian Orthodox church members are not Catholic. The split between the Catholic and Orthodox churches arose largely from different beliefs in the nature of Christ. The Orthodox believe that the nature of Christ is monophysite; that is he is divine. Catholics believe that Christ's nature was dualistic, both divine and human. There is a much smaller Catholic church in Ethiopia that is Chalcedonian. The Council of Chalcedon elevated the See of Constantinople to a position second in eminence and authority to the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. I realize this weighty stuff unrelated to the music but your blog performs a valuable service by making people aware of Ethiopian music and culture and the majority of Ethiopian Christians do not consider themselves Catholic and affiliated with the Church of Rome.

Anonymous said...

Thanx for this, love Mulatu & The instrumental hits series, noe discovering this

Gedefaw said...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/535ulkm2pyp2jpv/Hailu+Mergia+%26+The+Walias+Band+%28with+Mulatu+Astatke%29+-+Tche+Belew.zip



u can get download here

Anonymous said...

Thanks. pretty music.