Boston Globe,
Concert Preview
>>
With diversity comes surprise: It’s hard to leave Lowell without having been bowled over by a type of music that you’ve never experienced before. This year, that experience came for this reviewer courtesy of the Ethiopia-by-way-of-Boston Debo Band, accompanied by the wild dance of the troupe Fendika. An agglomeration incorporating violins, trumpet, sax, tuba, accordion, and propulsive electric guitar, the band characterizes itself as playing Ethiopian music of all periods. But it’s heavy on a species of funk and spacey jazz married to traditional Ethiopian sounds and vocals. If George Clinton had come from Ethiopia instead of outer space, the result might have been what Debo Band gives you. It was - like the festival itself - folk music in the widest sense of the term. 08/02/11
>> go there
|