Mahmoud Ahmed Comes to Melbourne, 20 January

The Playhouse will host an exclusive cross-continent collaboration between legendary Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed – in his first Melbourne visit – performing live with Melbourne-based Ethio-jazz band the J Azmaris on 20 January.

Described as 'the Red Sea's most seductive soul singer' and a living legend in his native country, Mahmoud Ahmed deftly combines the traditional Amharic music of Ethiopia -- essentially a five-note scale that features jazz-style singing offset by complex circular rhythm pattern -- with pop and freestyle jazz.

Known for his swooping multi-octave voice, Ahmed's recordings defy the normal definitions of Afro pop, with jazztimes.com describing his music as "a deeply melancholy mixture of guitar, organ and horns that sounds somewhere between a Southern soul band and JAmes Brown's Famous Flames".

Starting his career as a member of official Imperial Band for Emperor Haile Selassie, Ahmed cut his first single in 1971 and quickly became a favourite across Ethiopia during what is now considered the country's 'golden age' of music. This period of musical freedom was curtailed when a military coup in 1974 overthrew the Selassie regime. While the subsequent military government – a dictatorship under Mengistu which lasted 17 years – suspended all musical nightlife and prevented Ahmed recording on vinyl due to current censorship laws, this did not stop him making music.

With many Ethiopian refugees living abroad, Ahmed became one of the first modern Ethiopian music makers to perform in the United States on a 1980-81 tour. In 1986, a time when Ethiopia was making international headlines because of continued political repression and famine, Belgian label Crammed Discs released the collection Ere Mela Mela drawn from two Kaifa LPs Ahmed had recorded in Addis a decade earlier and Ahmed's music began to reach a larger western audience. But it was Buda Musique's famous Ethiopiques compilations in the late 1990s that finally brought him to into Western and international consciousness. This was followed by new recordings and tours in Europe and the United States and a BBC World Music Award in 2007.

The enduring affection with which Ahmed is held by Ethiopian diaspora communities around the world makes his onstage collaboration with the J-Azmaris, musicians from Melbourne's Ethiopian community, even more fitting. Established by pianist Daniel Atlaw Seifu, a professionally trained Ethiopian jazz, traditional and contemporary musician, the J-Azmaris infuse a mix of original compositions with those of the great Ethiopian composers who have come before them, paying special respect to prominent father of Ethio-Jazz, Mulatu Astatke as well as other prominent musicians including Mahmoud Ahmed and his contemporaries. Normally a seven piece band, the J-Azmaris will expand to an 11 piece especially for this concert.

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