Mix and Match

Sometimes a mix of things you wouldn't think go together turns out to hit the right note. The evening started at a Korean restaurant, Rainbow, where I tried the spicy fried white-fish, juk rice porridge, along with pan-cooked bulgogi. After we finished off the dishes and a few beers, my colleague M and I headed to a concert at Alliance éthio-française d'Addis Abeba of freestyle jazz and traditional Ethiopian rhythms.

The place probably held about 100 people, and it was packed when we arrived, but we found a place to stand until a couple of seats opened up. The band leader was a keyboard player who roared on his Roland, flanked by a bass player throwing down thick beats, a drummer, a percussionist, and then the horn section featuring a baritone sax, trumpet and trombone. They were joined by traditional musicians playing a masenqo (single-stringed instrument played with a curved bow) and a washint flute, as well as two Amharic vocalists who took turns wowing the crowd. M was busy taking pictures of the group, as he's friends with a few of them, and I soaked up the music along with the francophile crowd. At the end of their hour-long set, we rallied for an encore, which the band was kind enough to oblige. 

After the band called it a wrap, the house lights came on. I took a few minutes to look around the hall, which I realized at that point doubled as an art gallery, showing an exhibit by an Ethiopian artist, Alemayeh Regrassa, titled l'enfant. It was getting late though, so soon enough M and I grabbed a taxi outside and headed back to Bole talking about jazz-fests and fusion.