DESCRIPTION:
Girma Negash sings Yene Hassab in front of a big band for the first time in half a century, with special guest Dawit Frey on clarinet.

Girma was one of the featured singers with the Haile Selassie Theater Orchestra in Addis Ababa in the 1960s, when the band was led by Nerses Nalbandian.

In 2011, the Either/Orchestra traveled to Addis to revive Nalbandian's arrangements in their original format, and were fortunate to find Girma ready and able to reprise this haunting song.

This is an excerpt from the first of two concerts of this music, May 13, 2011 in the courtyard of the Alliance Ethio-Francaise.

Tom Halter, Dan Rosenthal - trumpets
Joel Yennior - trombone
Hailey Niswanger, Dawit Frey - clarinets
Russ Gershon, Charlie Kohlhase - saxes
Josh Rosen - keyboard
Rick McLaughlin - bass
Pablo Bencid - drums
Vicente Lebron - congas

Directed and edited by David Fisher

Thanks to Francis Falceto, the Nalbandian family, the Alliance Ethio-Franciase, the US and Spanish Embassies in Addis for their support.

copyright 2011, Accurate Records. All rights reserved.