Photo Credit: Kristian Ranker
If you’ve never been then you won’t really understand it. Even if you’ve lived here your whole life, it’s still easy to miss. But if you listen and look closely, you’ll find Los Angeles’ rich tradition of fusing traditional African practices with jazz. Groups like The Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra led by Horace Tapscott come to mind as the prime example of this spiritual jazz tradition. Continuing with this beautiful legacy is Los Angeles-based drummer and producer Te’Amir whose latest EP, Abyssinia, pays homage to his Ethiopian roots. Released on Friday, July 27 via Brighton-based imprint TruThoughts, the 5-track EP acts as a wonderful primer for listeners who want to take a deeper dive into the rich musical and cultural tradition of the Horn of Africa. We broke down the five tracks from Abyssinia. Continue reading for our insights.
“Habesha”
Dedicated and inspired by Habesha people, the lead track of Te’Amir’s Abyssinia starts with funky distorted piano melody that loops against another piano counter-melody and a percussion figure. The combination of the three seemingly separate elements play and dance around each other to create a counterpoint of poly-rhythms that is later anchored by the bass. As you groove along and settle with this beautiful ode to Abyssinian people, the groove suddenly gets interrupted, and you hear four hand claps as if to count us all off to another place. Heavy drums kick in and now you’re nodding your head to a familiar hip-hop groove. Just under a minute in his latest album, Te’Amir has already given us an introduction to his Ethiopian heritage in a way that we can all relate to and understand.
“The Quest”
Backed up by Dustin Warren on vocals, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on strings, and Mike McTaggart on guitar, the second cut off Abyssinia is a dreamy slow burner that hypnotizes and surprises the ears with its unexpected strokes of color. Rebekah Raff also joins “The Quest” as her panned glisses on harp act similar to a palette cleansers during a course meal. Grounded by the ostinato from the organ, “The Quest” shines by allowing its guest musicians to take liberties and express themselves in the groove.
“All That You Need”
Featuring Warren once again, the textures from this song and the previous track are so close that it’s almost impossible to listen to “All That You Need” without first going through “The Quest.” Listening to this song by itself without prefacing the previous track is akin to watching the latest Star Wars films without ever watching the previous six that came out. Sure, you can probably figure out what’s going on and take a guess based on the contents in front you, but it’s a deeper experience once you understand the background and the context of where things come from.
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