Ethiopiques, Vol. 6: Almaz

1	Almaz Men Eda Nèw 4:05
2	Asha Gèdawo 5:25
3	Tchebo Aymolam 3:03
4	Feqer Endègèna 6:16
5	Ambassel 7:51
6	Zèmèdié 3:43
7	Kulun Mankwalèsh 6:01
8	Mèla Mèla 5:30
9	Antchiyé 5:54
10	Nafqot Nèw Yègodagn 3:21
11	Yasdestal 3:07

Barnes & Noble

Imagine the ecstatic soul wailing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan bottled in the sharkskin-clad body of James Brown, and you've got Mahmoud Ahmed. For over a decade, the West's sole glimpse of Ethiopian pop came from Ahmed's legendary, out-of-print ERE MELA MELA. That disc's psychedelic guitar, undulating rhythms, and tesselated tonalities that fell somewhere between Indian scales and free jazz made it a cult favorite, and Ahmed's gale-force voice became synonymous with the music of this ancient East African kingdom. ALMAZ, recorded two years before ERE MELA MELA (in 1973) captures Ahmed with the Ibex Band, a sax-and-guitar-heavy combo strenuously urging the Biblical beats of Ethiopian music into the modern era of funk and jazz. The spooky, hesitant groove of "Ambassel" ripples with organ and loping bass lines like an opium-den hallucination, flutes and Ahmed's multi-active voice stab out lines of pain and desolation. The wah-wah guitar snarling through "Kulun Mankwalesh" juts out at crazy angles from the hypnotic 3 / 4 funk laid down by super soul drummer Tesfaye "Hodo" Malkonnen. Included at the end of ALMAZ are a proto-version of "Mela Mela" and two tracks dating from 1971. The first time Ahmed's voice was put to vinyl, these two James Brown-flavored burners reflect the earliest sparks of greatness from a hugely influential figure in African pop music. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

One of the great Ethiopian singers, and its first international star, in these 1973 recordings Mahmoud Ahmed shows a voice similar to Arthur Conley on a very soulful selection of material, with the slower pieces like "Feqer Endegena" and "Ambassel" offering him at his best (as opposed to the first three upbeat tracks which seem to share a single thought and groove). Of course, the fact the "Zemedie" and "Ambassel" seem virtually the same song hardly detracts from their appeal, the flute flittering around the former's portentous blues chords particularly attractive, with Ahmed's voice hypnotic in its charisma. "Kulun Mankwalesh" has an almost Latin start before the wah-wah guitar signals soul all the way. "Mela Mela" and "Antchiye" both tweak the American ideas to make them ineffably Ethiopian, as if the Muscle Shoals studio had been recreated in the parallel universe of Addis Ababa, while the final tracks, "Nafqot New Yegodagn" and "Yasdestal," could be vintage Stax, except for the language. Throughout, Ahmed's on top vocal form, a man who deserves to be enshrined in the soul pantheon. A master at work. Chris Nickson