Country : Ethiopia Label : Piranha Genres and styles : East African Traditional / Ethiopian Jazz / Saharan Blues Year : 2020

Afropentatonism

· by Alain Brunet

Afropentatonism is the title of a first collaboration between desert bluesman Alhousseini Anivolla and Ethio-jazz guitarist Girum Mezmur. Singer, guitarist, and bassist, Niger’s Anivolla had made a name for himself as frontman of the group Etran Finatawa, and also through his own projects from 2012 on. As for Mezmur, the superb guitarist has a long history in East Africa and is one of the key players of the musical revival in Addis Ababa, at the end of a cultural darkness under the authoritarian powers. Flashback? Ethiopian modernity expressed itself musically as early as the end of the 1950s, but it became world-famous long after its key elements had been expatriated to Europe. Ethio-jazz is a long way from the Tuareg blues, but the two styles are nevertheless linked by the desert culture, present everywhere in Niger and also in the northern part of Ethiopia. Ethio-jazz draws from the traditions of the Nile, at the confluence of African and Arab civilizations, but also from North American R&B, funk, and jazz. As for desert blues, it is the direct ancestor of Afro-American blues, but one feels the clear distinction in the playing, in the tone, in the direct and lucid character of the declamations, in the vocal inflections and of course in the instrumentation, even if it is electrified. In this case, the meeting of these two musical currents from Nile-region and Saharan Africa is essentially built on the exploitation of pentatonic scales (at five pitches of sound), so famously at the roots of the blues. On Afropentatonism, Ethio-jazz exhales more richness, harmonic and also rhythmic (binary/ternary alternations), which takes nothing away from the hypnotic grooves of the sandy Niger blues. One thing’s for sure, the meeting occurs between these two great currents of Africa. The exchange is fair, inspired and committed.

Latest 360 Content

Nuits d’Afrique | Daby Touré Restarts His Machine

Nuits d’Afrique | Daby Touré Restarts His Machine

Nuits d’Afrique | Mateus Vidal Reborn With Axé Experience

Nuits d’Afrique | Mateus Vidal Reborn With Axé Experience

Festival de Lanaudière | Chanticleer : To Polyphony And Beyond

Festival de Lanaudière | Chanticleer : To Polyphony And Beyond

Nuits d’Afrique | Less Toches, Three Nights in A Row

Nuits d’Afrique | Less Toches, Three Nights in A Row

Nuits d’Afrique | All the Peppers of Sauce Piquante Sound System

Nuits d’Afrique | All the Peppers of Sauce Piquante Sound System

Festival de Lanaudière | Collectif9 : contemporary music through groove and folk

Festival de Lanaudière | Collectif9 : contemporary music through groove and folk

Nuits d’Afrique | Jean Jean Roosevelt and The Afro-Realist Song

Nuits d’Afrique | Jean Jean Roosevelt and The Afro-Realist Song

Nuits d’Afrique | Daby Touré’s Montreal Cycle

Nuits d’Afrique | Daby Touré’s Montreal Cycle

Nuits d’Afrique | Las Karamba, Between Sisterhood and Activism

Nuits d’Afrique | Las Karamba, Between Sisterhood and Activism

Nuits d’Afrique | A Groovy Night with Fulu Miziki Kolektiv

Nuits d’Afrique | A Groovy Night with Fulu Miziki Kolektiv

Laura Krieg – Crépuscule

Laura Krieg – Crépuscule

The Cure – Mixes Of A Lost World

The Cure – Mixes Of A Lost World

Nuits d’Afrique | Sarab, East-West Conversation In Your Face

Nuits d’Afrique | Sarab, East-West Conversation In Your Face

Squid – Cowards

Squid – Cowards

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Colombian Consciousness and Dynamism

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Colombian Consciousness and Dynamism

Five Wonderfully Weird Acts to Catch at ShazamFest 2025

Five Wonderfully Weird Acts to Catch at ShazamFest 2025

Nuits d’Afrique | Flavia Coelho, A Woman of Many Instruments

Nuits d’Afrique | Flavia Coelho, A Woman of Many Instruments

Nuits d’Afrique | Shatta Initiation with Blaiz Fayah

Nuits d’Afrique | Shatta Initiation with Blaiz Fayah

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva Launches the Festival with a Bang

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva Launches the Festival with a Bang

Festival de Lanaudière | Live tour de force by Christian Tetzlaff: the JS Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas

Festival de Lanaudière | Live tour de force by Christian Tetzlaff: the JS Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas

Sextile – yes, please.

Sextile – yes, please.

Festival Un Goût des Caraïbes: All Those Islands Within The Island

Festival Un Goût des Caraïbes: All Those Islands Within The Island

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Afro Columbian Electronic Groove

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Afro Columbian Electronic Groove

Subscribe to our newsletter