Ex Ethiopia

Terrie and Andy Ex (Terrie Hessels/Andy Moor)

Over the past week I've made four paintings documenting a string of recordings in the top 100 about the connection of the Dutch punk band The Ex with Ethiopian musicians. Five of the eight portraits are of elderly men, but there not ordinary men, they legends of the Dutch punk and jazz, and Ethiopian jazz scenes. The remaining three of women of various ages, but no ordinary women either! Katherina Bornefeld is normally the drummer of The Ex, but on a video recording of The Ex live in Addis Ababa, the legendary Han Bennink sits in and Bornefeld sings the song Eyoleo by the Mahmoud Ahmed while playing percussion on a cowbell. I combined Bennink and Bornefeld in the next double-portrait.

Katherina Bornefeld/Han Bennink

In another video on YouTube The Ex plays a live concert in Groningen (Netherlands) assisted by the Ethiopian saxophone player Getatchew Mekuria on a track written by Mekuria called She Ilelle (or Shellela). Here (below) I combined Mekuria and Ahmed (the two authors of the two songs mentioned.)

Mahmoud Ahmed/Getatchew Mekuria

Mahmoud Ahmed and Getatchew Mekuria both prominently feature multiple times on the influential CD series Ethiopiques. Volume 6 and 19 from the series are by Ahmed while Volume 14 is by Mekuria. Both musicians I've know for a long time as the library in Columbus, where I then lived, had many discs from the series. Both have been in the Top 100 before. In 2011 I wrote about the series, then on Mulatu Astatqe, in this blog. The final double portrait painting is of the contemporary musicians Tirudel Zenebe and Selamnesh Zemene. Tirudel Zemene features on the disc Ilita!: New Ethiopian Dance Music that was produced by Terrie Ex and released on Terp Records, a label founded by Hessels. Zemene, Mekuria, Zenebe, Bennink, Bornefeld, and Terry and Andy Ex, all featured in the preliminary painting for this Top 100 series. (Read here, and here.) Selamnesh Zemene performed with The Ex when she was still in the band Fendika in 2008. There is video called Gonder on YouTube. Gonder is not the actual title of the song that appears on Soundpoetry, part 5, but refers to the city Gondar, from which Fendika hails. In the Spring I saw Zemene perform live in Nijmegen (Netherlands) with Baduma's Band. Selamnesh Zemene is yet represented twice more in the Top 100 independently from The Ex.

Selamnesh Zemene/Tirudel Zenebe