Mahmoud Ahmed

In Ethiopia the word is "eskeusta," which roughly translated means ecstasy, more specifically it is a shaking sensation that begins at one's shoulders, quivering down the spine and into the legs and feet. And of all of the great male vocalists that Ethiopia has produced (don't laugh, there have been quite a few) none are able to create eskeusta better than Mahmoud Ahmed. For 30 years Mahmoud Ahmed has deftly combined the traditional Amharic music of Ethiopia (essentially a five-note scale that features jazz style singing offset by complex circular rhythm patters which gives the music a distinct Indian feel), with pop and jazz yielding some of the most adventurous, passionate, ear-opening, downright surrealistic sounds this side of the deepest, darkest, dub or the most out-there free jazz. In fact, until you've heard Ahmed's sweeping multi-octave voice in full workout, words hardly do it justice. As with the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, he simply has to be heard to be believed and appreciated. Ahmed has been a star in Ethiopia almost since the day he began recording. His swooping vocals, complimented by the freewheeling jazziness of the Ibex Band (with whom he recorded his masterpiece Ere Mela Mela) is very different from what normally is lumped into the broad expression afro-pop. The rhythms are repetitive and intense, not too dissimilar from, say, Fela, just a little less hard. But it's Ahmed voice: swirling high notes that sound as if they're chasing one another, impeccable tone and phrasing that is the distinguishing element. By singing in this style Ahmed has attempted to fuse the past and present. He's not an elitist when it comes to singing older Ethiopian music but rather he hears the similarities in Ethiopian pop that have thrived over time and is keen to...