Brilliant Solo Piano

Ethiopiques vol. 21 is an album in the Ethiopiques series (focusing on brilliant Ethiopian Jazz from the 60s) featuring Ethiopian pianist Tsegue Maryam-Guebrou. Her piano work has an enchanting sound giving the listener a blend of emotions, often sounding haunting, playful, melancholy and just plain beautiful all at the same time. She had a 35 year gap in performing until someone tracked her down and got her to play again at a concert in Washington D.C. in 2008. The story of her life is extraordinary as you may guess from the emotion she plays with:


Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then again during Mussolini’s occupation of Ethiopia’s capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948. Today, she spends up to seven hours a day playing the piano in seclusion and even gave a concert to some lucky ducks in Washington D.C. a few years ago. A compilation of her compositions was re-issued on the consistently great Ethiopiques label. You can read more about her life at the Emahoy Music Foundation. (to teach classical and jazz music to children in Africa and assist American children to study music in Africa.)