No one knows what to make of the term Ethio-jazz, and very few know what to make of Debo Band. This group sounds nothing like anyone has ever heard before. This is a collective that has its roots in the little-known Ethio-jazz musical movement that took place \u2013 in Ethiopia \u2013 in the late \u201860s but was fleeting, lasting all of less than a decade. But the sheer energy that this 11-piece ensemble packs in their music speaks the universal language of rhythm and will surpass all geographic and musical boundaries, even for those listeners who don\u2019t consider themselves particularly receptive to \u201cworld music.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word \u201cDebo\u201d is an archaic Amharic word that means \u201ccollective effort,\u201d as per bandleader and band saxophonist Danny Mekonnen. And Debo Band is in the truest sense a collective. They are a group of musicians out of Boston that comprise disparate (Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian) origins, jamming out this awesomely cool concoction of Ethiopian music, jazz, funk, and rock. With its jazzy, free-flowing nature and the prominent horn section, Debo Band can be sort of equated with Dave Matthews Band, if a contemporary equivalent is to be sought to give a sense of familiarity to their music; however, Debo does make DMB sound like featherbrained pop fluff for sure. <\/p>\n
Debo\u2019s music is intense to say the least. The utterly electrifying vocalist Bruck Tesfaye sings with utmost passion, at times as if he is channeling Jello Biafra\u2019s fieriness, shooting words out of a machine gun mouth in a beautifully strange language. The combination of the brawny brass section and the crazy time signatures on this album is like a freight train that delivers numerous hard and satisfying blows of sheer amazing moments. <\/p>\n
However, the album\u2019s red-hot spirited cuts \u2013 like \u201cAkale Wube,\u201d \u201cNey Ney Weleba,\u201d and \u201cAsha Gedawo,\u201d to name just a few \u2013 are simply so phenomenal that their mellower counterparts \u201cYekefer Wegagene\u201d and \u201cAmbassel\u201d sound weak and tepid, but only in comparison. This doesn\u2019t do justice to these slower cuts, as this is a record without any mediocre numbers that couldn\u2019t be any more perfect. This band and this album are truly special phenomena in music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":31298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9033],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42993","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-debo-band","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42993"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}