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Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou

Title: Ethiopiques Vol. 21 (Piano Solo)

Label: BUDA

Cat No:860122
Format:CD

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Discovery Records
specialist music - mail order

The ever-fascinating Ethiopiques series continues its journey, but on this 21st volume departs on a unique detour - featuring 16 exquisite solo piano compositions by the extraordinary Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, who plays in a reflective, melancholy but elegant home-grown style with little touches of Western classical tradition, Satie, Scott Joplin, Ernest Lecuona, and maybe even a pinch of Bill Evans.

Born in 1923, the daughter of a famous Ethiopian intellectual, author & politician, she was educated at a girl’s boarding school in Switzerland, learning piano & violin. She returned to Ethiopia in ’33 for more studies until Mussolini invaded in ’36. She & her family were deported to Sardinia, then Naples. After the war she was taught music by Alexander Kontorowitcz (a Polish ex-classmate of Jascha Heifetz) - a key figure in Ethiopian music education. Bouts of depression led her to enter a nunnery, but subsequent illness forced her to a less arduous orphanage teaching post.

She recorded 2 LPs (included here) in Germany in 1963 to raise money for the orphanage. From 1967 she worked at the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem. She made a third LP again in Germany in 1970 and a 4th in Israel in ’72 (also included here), before returning home - only to get caught up in the Ethiopian revolution in ’74. She returned to the Jerusalem monastery in ’84 and is still there. She released a CD in 1996 containing some of her previous recordings, but with 4 new pieces, which conclude this disc.

Track Listing for Ethiopiques Vol. 21 (Piano Solo)
1. The Homeless Wanderer
2. The Last Tears of a Deceased
3. A Young Girl’s Complaint
4. The Mad Man’s Laughter
5. Presentiment
6. Mother’s Love
7. Ballad of the Spirits
8. The Song of the Sea
9. Homesickness
10. Golgotha
11. The Jordan River Song
12. The Garden of Gethesemanie
13. The Song of Abayi
14. The Story of the Wind
15. Evening Breeze
16. Tenkou! Why Feel Sorry?

Reviews

fRoots - Rick Sanders

Tseque-Maryam Guebrou's album is quiet and reflective. There's an attractive rolling left-hand arpeggios, balancing simple melodies and modulations. Her music is devotional, modest and refinded.

Discovery catalogue available for
Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou

Ethiopiques Vol. 21 (Piano Solo)