Best of Ethiopia

From the late ‘60s through the early ‘80s, Ethiopia had one of the world's most unique and distinctive music scenes. Blending folk elements—especially modal melodies and triple meters—with modern instrumentation, the bands worked past technical constraints to make hundreds of raw, electrifying records, running the gamut from Mulatu Astatke's stately Ethio-jazz to Ayalew Mesfin's blistering rock.