Either/Orchestra - Ethiopiques 32: Nalbandian L'Ethiopien The Ethiopian (2025)

Armenian composer and educator Nerses Nalbandian (1915–1977) is recognized as the key pioneer of modern Ethiopian music and the founder of the "Swinging Addis" movement and Ethio-jazz. He belonged to a family of Armenian exiles; his uncle, Kevork Nalbandian (1887–1963), had already laid the groundwork for modernism in the 1920s by creating musical theatre and composing the first national anthem. Nerses, who moved to Ethiopia in the late 1930s, became an influential teacher and, starting in 1946 as the Musical Director of the Addis Ababa Municipality Band (later the Haile Selassie Theatre Orchestra/National Theatre), promoted the development of institutional bands, choral singing, and the implementation of modern teaching methods.

Nalbandian skillfully integrated Ethiopian musical parameters (pentatonic scale, ternary rhythms, qǝñǝt modes) into the modernization process, avoiding excessive Westernization. Despite his immense contribution and the respect he commanded among musicians, his status as a "stateless foreigner" (fèrendj) regularly led to humiliations and exclusion from the most senior positions, as evidenced in the history of the three anthems associated with the Nalbandians (two national and the OAU continental anthem "Africa Africa").

In contrast to the popular but historically inaccurate narrative that attributes the start of "Swinging Addis" solely to Mulatu Astatke (who returned to Ethiopia in the late 1960s), it is Nerses Nalbandian, starting from 1955, who is the true central figure of this musical renaissance. This Éthiopiques volume, featuring Nalbandian's forgotten legacy recorded by Russ Gershon's Either/Orchestra, aims to fill this historical gap.

Tracklist:
01-01 Either/Orchestra - AMHARA RUMBA [5:58]
01-02 Either/Orchestra - MOT LEHULUM EKUL [6:02]
01-03 Either/Orchestra - YENE HASSAB [7:32]
01-04 Either/Orchestra - MAMBO#1 AZNALEHU SELANTE [6:02]
01-05 Either/Orchestra - YETEZETA RORO [5:56]
01-06 Either/Orchestra - ADERETCH ARADA [4:35]
01-07 Either/Orchestra - AMBASSEL [6:28]
01-08 Either/Orchestra - LEBE MEN ATEFA? [3:21]
01-09 Either/Orchestra - ENEGENAGNALEN [2:59]
01-10 Either/Orchestra - EYEYE [6:06]
01-11 Either/Orchestra - HULET WEDDO AYHONEM [8:47]
01-12 Either/Orchestra - QELEMEWA [4:26]
01-13 Either/Orchestra - TEBEB NEW TEQAMI [5:01]
01-14 Either/Orchestra - AFRIQA [3:12]