THE MUSICAL NUN
Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou
I thought I had heard every tale told about the love of music. This is as interesting a story as it is unusual.
Move over Mulatu Astatke and Girma Yifrashewa. Wake up the echoes of Prof Ashenafi Kebede. There is an old but new, no, not a sheriff, but a nun in town. Yes, you read right, a nun. This is the story of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, a musical genius. Her talent has been compared to Jazz and classical greats like, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Jelly Roll Morton, and even Eric Satie as well as Beethoven in some of her works.
I guess genius comes in many shapes and forms. This unheralded musical talent, however, has such an interesting tale, it almost makes her musical talent the side story. I accidentally stumbled into her CD last weekend at a store and decided to do a little research on her, as I sometimes do before purchasing the CD. The short bio I found was absolutely amazing. Here are a few excerpts.
The latest installment in the Ethiopiques series is a brilliant, gorgeous and captivating record: solo piano compositions from Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, whose warm, gentle touch evokes everyone from the work of Debussy to Fats Waller to Bill Evans. Born in 1923 into a learned Ethiopian family, Guebrou was educated in Switzerland (where she first learned piano) and Cairo as well as in her native country. Soundfix
http://www.soundfixrecords.com/artists/ethiopiques/vol21/
Meditations on bible themes and the beauties of nature were her favorite subjects and her compositions were often built around recognizably Ethiopian melodic structures. But they also reveal refracted shards of what would certainly be cited as influences if only it could be established she had ever heard the works of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Abdullah Ibrahim and especially, Eric Satie. But ultimately, Sister GuÈbrou seems to be a lone reed -- but a very beautiful one. Christina Roden
The 21st volume in the grand Ethiopiques series (not bad for a country that has no musical tradition of its own to speak of) is dedicated to the solo piano works of the outstanding composer and performer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou , a daughter of Ethiopian high society who chucked it all to become a nun in the nation's Orthodox Church. Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was educated in Europe. She played violin (under the tutelage of Polish émigré Alexander Kontorowicz ). She took up her piano studies while in the convent and teaching at an orphanage. Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
http://cdconnection.com/bin/nph-search?part=77826&source=robot
"Not bad for a country that has no musical traditionof its own..."? Well, somebody done told you wrong, Mr Jukrek. I think you need to do some homework about Ethiopian music. But that will be adressed at a later date on this blog. For now, your kind review serves our purpose.
Well people, I hope y'all will get a copy of the CD for your listening pleasure and also help the orphange at the same time.
Enjoy!
I went searching for this CD and could only find it at a Tower records store. It is also available online at www.towerrecords.com. The album contains familiar tunes that used to be played on the Monday morning recitals of Amharic Literure on Ethiopian radio back home and some new ones I have not heard before. I also recommend other volumes in the Ethiopiques series- Asgeba- volume 18 has traditional azmari songs from Kazainchis and Datsun Sefer in Addis, Tezeta Volume 10 is a collection of Ethiopian blues and ballads...The Ethiopiques series has the best collection of Ethipian music, old, new, modern and traditional, I have come across. (Comment this)
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