Fikreaddis Nekatibeb

These two posts of rare Ethiopian recordings from the 1960s, from the archives of Ethiopia's National Radio, are among this blog's most popular.  Both of these recordings feature wonderful orchestral arrangements, with horns and some strings.  The Ethiopian music I love most, however, are the woozy cassettes released in the 1980s, with driving electric bass lines, staccato guitars, and yearning saxophone solos.  The kind of music featured on this lovely compilation.  With global interest in Ethiopian music continuing to grow, the artists of this era, singers like Ephrem Tamru, seem to be garnering more attention.  Fikreaddis Nekatibeb, perhaps my favorite singer from this generation, deserves some of this attention.  She remains relatively unknown outside of Ethiopia, despite a thirty year career and a series of very good recordings.  [I played her great 2004 release almost weekly when I was on the VOA].

Fikreaddis was born and raised in Gondar. She started performing with a military band and released her first cassette in the early 1980s.  She has since worked with many of the great arrangers and bands in Addis and released, by my count, a half-dozen cassettes and CDs.  Her most recent release came out in 2015.  As far as I know, Fikreaddis still lives in Addis--at least she did when I interviewed her a dozen years ago!  I don't know when this cassette was released, these tracks are dubbed from an unmarked cassette that an Ethiopian colleague gave me twenty years ago.  I suspect that this is a mid-eighties release.  It features all of the elements I love from this era, a warm analogue wooziness, a driving rhythm section, and great vocals. 

Download Fikreaddis Nekatibeb

Enjoy!!