Hailu Mergia

As a major star of the Ethiopian music scene in the 1970s, organ player Hailu Mergia and his Walias Band created a groundbreaking mix of traditional melodies and psychedelic funk and soul grooves, although international recognition eluded him until he was finally re-discovered by a young American audience in the 2000s.

Born in the ancient city of Debre Birhan in the central Shewa Province, he was raised on tribal songs from the Oromo, Amhara and Tigrinya cultures before learning the accordion as a 14-year-old while serving in the Ethiopian army, later discovering the electronic organ in the 1960s. He plied his trade playing long sessions in Addis Ababa hotels and clubs for tourists and the upper classes, but a cultural revolution and the influx of Motown, soul and jazz records brought in by US Peace Corps led to a golden age of experimental Ethiopian pop music with Mergia and Walias at the forefront.

The hypnotic, funky synth sound was best captured on the popular hit 'Musicawi Silt' and Mergia's landmark album 'Tche Belew' in 1977, but amid civil war, famine and a Marxist dictatorship, Mergia and Walias headed to America on tour in 1981. A lukewarm response in the US caused the band to split after two years, but Mergia went on to release the solo album 'Hailu Mergia and his Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanaye' in 1985, before settling in Washington DC and working as a taxi driver. Between shuttling people to and from the airport he continued to play for his own pleasure on an old Moog synthesiser, until obscure music obsessive Brian Shimkovitz stumbled upon his recordings and offered to reissue them through his Awesome Tapes from Africa label in 2013. Despite his humble, shy nature, his old albums became popular with young, Brooklyn hipsters and nerdy record collectors alike and he put together a trio to play gigs across the US and Europe and tour with the indie band Beirut. He finally released a brand new album 'Lala Belu' in 2018 and its mesmerising, free-form grooves and vibrant, intoxicating energy cemented his reputation as a groundbreaking maestro of Ethio-jazz.