Debo Band – Self-titled

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Debo Band – “Tenesh Kelbe Lay”
s/t

Debo Band was featured on Splinters & Candy back in December when they were getting ready for their appearance at globalFEST 2012. Today they release their self-titled debut album on Next Ambiance / Sub Pop Records. This amazing 11-member band out of Boston brings the house down whenever they perform. They’ve toured Ethiopia twice and have shared the stage with Gogol Bordello, The Family Stone, Tilahun Gessesse (one of the great voices of Ethiopian pop since the ‘60s), The Ex with Ethiopian sax legend Getatchew Mekuria, Group Doueh, and Khaira Arby and Her Band.

“A different archival impulse paid off for Debo Band, a Boston group devoted to the Ethiopian funk of the late 1960s and 1970s: fierce, jagged, complex and galvanizing music. With a beefy horn section, biting violins and a lead singer with a convincing Ethiopian quaver, the group brought back a live version of a style that was never recorded as vividly.” – The New York Times

The band is led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist & ethnomusicologist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by charismatic vocalist Bruck Tesfaye. Debo Band plays music inspired by the Golden Age of Ethiopian pop, found in the Ethiopiques series, curated by French producer Francis Falceto, which features Ethiopian and Eritrean singers and musicians. The ensemble updates this sound by adding their own unique lineup of instruments and original arrangements. Listen to “Tenesh Kelbe Lay” from the record above. Visit Sub Pop Records to download “And Lay” and “Asha Gedawo.” Debo Band will perform at The Bell House in Brooklyn with Grupo Fantasma on July 13th. In September they travel to the Hudson Valley to play at the Take Me to the River Festival in Hudson, NY on September 8th. Get out and grab the Debo Band LP/CD today.