Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: “On Ethiopian Jazz”: Teshome Mitiku with Either/Orchestra

The Either/Orchestra, a ten-piece group that was founded in 1987 and has recorded ten albums, is regarded as one of Massachusetts’s major contributions to the international music scene. The E/O has recently become deeply involved in Ethiopian music; the group collaborated with Teshome Mitiku for the first time in 2010, in a performance that headlined the Chicago Jazz Festival. Mitiku, an Ethiopian musician born in 1949, was part of Ethiopia’s first and most popular modern music combo, the Soul Ekos, in the 1960s. Forced to leave his country in 1970 after leading a protest song at a concert at Addis Ababa University, he moved to Sweden and later to the United States, where he now performs regularly in the Washington, D.C. area and elsewhere. This event will bring the ensemble and solo performer to the GSD for a discussion of Ethiopian jazz and a demonstration, featuring vocalist Teshome Mitiku and musicians from the Either/Orchestra: saxophonist/founder Russ Gershon, bassist Rick McLaughlin, and pianist Gilson Schachnik.