Éthiopiques 30: “Mistakes On Purpose”

Although Girma Bèyènè  only recorded a handful of songs himself, he worked as a composer and arranger for some of the Ethiopia’s biggest golden era stars, and worked with the likes of Alemayehu Eshete and Walias Band, for whom he composed the enduring hit “Musiqawi silt.” Bèyènè was among those who left Ethiopia to escape the Communist regime, but after  25 years of silence, he returned to music with Mistakes On Purpose, a collaboration with French ethio jazz band Akalé Wubé. The album contains mostly reinterpretations of Bèyènè’s original compositions, with the band moving between soulful, bluesy, or funky arrangements, and for the first time it is Bèyènè’ himself singing, his age worn voice adding a feeling of intimacy and emotion to these timeless songs.