New reissue on the Éthiopiques series. Featuring the hit singles of the Ethiopian musical scene of 1972. Reissue of the impossible to find original LP. Includes one unreleased track, never released on the éthiopiqes CD series. After releasing around fifty 45 rpm singles and his first 33 rpm album Amha Esthèté set about compiling his best 45s on a series of now legendary albums (the originals are impossible to find) in 1972. The first four volumes of ‘Ethiopian Hit Parade’ were released in September and October 1972, with the fifth volume appearing in January 1973. An audacious, funky outlaw, a music lover and an entrepreneur in tune with the baby- boomer generation, young Amha Esthèté (he was only twenty-four when he launched his label) will be remembered as the instigator of a peaceful revolution thick with soul and rock’n’roll. The opening track of the first compilation is highly symbolic. Addis Abeba bété (Addis Abeba is My Home) is an exuberant and light-hearted hymn (“Running into you was a dream, but where can I meet you properly?”) whose life-affirming message is still relevant today for people living in the Ethiopian capital. The other tracks on this first volume celebrate such pioneers of modern Ethiopian groove as Girma Bèyènè, Seyfu Yohannes, Tèshomè Meteku, Menelik Wèsnatchèw, Mulatu Astatq and Muluken Melesse, alongside “tradi-modern” singers representing Amhara (Essatu Tèssèmma) and Oromo culture, so rich and so long marginalised (Abbèbè Tèssèmma and Gèmètchu Itana).
