If there was ever a testament to the local music’s potential to transcend time and place, Debo Band is it.  Take the name, for example.  Debo translates to “communal labor” or “collective effort” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s national language.  Like a 13-piece band version of the little engine that could, Debo’s short lifespan has seen the band grow from an enthusiastic learning project to a global sensation that bridges cultures as well as musical eras.  It was a stroke of great fortune that they chose to stop at Balliceaux on this particular tour, as it involved a very rare and unique collaboration of artists.

Hailing from Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), Debo is the brainchild of Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen, who studied Ethiopian music at Harvard to enhance his understanding of the music his parents played at home while growing up.  He assembled the band from other like-minded yet non-Ethiopian musicians, and together, they honed their skills on the fundamentals of Ethiopian music despite having little to no background in it (aside from Danny and Bruck Tesfaye, their Ethiopian-American lead vocalist).  “I think a thing that adds to Debo Band is the fact that there are non-Ethiopians,” states Danny.  “What they add to the music is their interpretation of the rhythms and scales.”

The band itself, and as a result their material, is an interpretive project.  With the intention of carrying the torch from Ethiopia’s Golden Age of music, Debo not only modernizes the classics of that era, but also classicizes the modern with “old school versions of contemporary songs.”  Contemporary Ethiopian pop has gone the way of drum machines and synthesizers, much like our beloved American version, so Debo reinvents these songs through the lens of 70s jazz and funk with diverse instrumentation that includes violin, accordion, electric guitar, bass, drums (a full traditional kit and a traditional goat skin variety), saxophone, trombone, and tuba.

Just as our respective versions of pop music share the same trend of increased electronics over time, Ethiopia experienced their Golden Age of music around the same time America began to embrace rock and roll in the 60s and 70s.  Ethiopia’s Golden Age is characterized by a tremendous overlapping of musical styles, ranging anywhere from European big band brass to Middle Eastern to Latin jazz.  Most notably present, however, is the funk courtesy of James Brown.  This style is what bridges the gap between the virtually simultaneous movements of the West Coast’s Afrobeat and the East Coast’s Golden Age.  It is in this spirit that Debo moves forward, intending to be a continuation of this Golden Age by bridging cultures and genres while seamlessly maintaining a sense of indebtedness to tradition.  “One of our goals is to bring this project and Ethiopian popular music to a higher level,” states Danny. 

This overall goal is made evident with this particular tour.  Since their inception in 2006, Debo has twice fundraised to travel to Africa to participate in music festivals.  These inspiring trips led to an exciting collaboration with Fendika, a musical collective native to Addis Ababa.  Now, for the first time, Fendika has traveled to the U.S. to participate in Debo’s tour.  Fendika features a powerful female vocalist (Selamnesh Zemene), a kebero (goat skin drums) player (Asrat Ayalew), and a male (Melaku Belay) and female (Zinash Tsegaye) dancer.  Melaku, a world-renowned dancer, is the director of Fendika.  His resume of work is impressive, to say the least, featuring performances with Dutch punk band The Ex all the way to showcases at Lincoln Center.  “I learned to walk by dancing,” Melaku states simply and without a trace of arrogance. 

This much is clear when Melaku and his female counterpart join Debo onstage.  Whereas the West Coast of Africa generates their style of dance from the hips, East Coast dance stems from the shoulders.  Resembling human wind-up dolls, the dancers slowly build their movements to a climax of shaking and convulsions that I couldn’t come close to emulating if I made contact with a downed power line. The energy that surges through the audience as a result of their presence onstage is astounding, to say the least.  Debo and Fendika offer the purest of collaborations, a truly transcendent performance to behold.  So many genres, cultures, ages, and energies come together in the production that it becomes difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins.  Through this eclecticism, Debo manages to not only pay tribute to Ethiopia’s Golden Age, but also becomes a continuation of its spirit.  “By working with traditional artists,” says Danny, “we are saying that there is still a lot to be said and explored in the traditional way.” 

This tour also marked the release of Debo’s first record Flamingoh (Pink Bird Dawn), a 4-song EP that contains live renditions of classic Ethiopian tunes that were performed at various venues during their last trip to Africa.  Just within these four songs, one might hear anything from wah-driven Commodores funk, to seductive quasi-gyspy melodies, to violins that would sound completely at home on Zappa’s Hot Rats.  One particular number, “Lantchi Biye,” sounds like the aural equivalent of Burroughs’ Naked Lunch.  Its jazzy, hypnotic, rhythmic strut is undercut by subversive horns that evoke a slight sense of danger, making the listener slightly uneasy at the organized chaos but ultimately excited by its dissonance.  The rhythmic structures of East African music tend to be almost contradictory; one will often witness different members of the band bobbing to very different, distinct beats.  This most likely proved advantageous for the primarily white Fan audience, as it is not as easy to tell when someone is dancing offbeat. 

As for the future of Debo, Danny hopes to have Fendika back for another U.S. tour in July or August of 2011.  This will hopefully coincide with the release of their first full-length album, as well as the release of Twice in a Lifetime, a documentary detailing the band’s travels and performances in East Africa.  Danny has put his PhD in ethnomusicology on hold for the moment to focus on Debo.  I can’t help but feel that, given his experiences over the past few years, the degree is already well deserved.