{"id":15890,"date":"2026-11-15T13:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T13:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/?p=15890"},"modified":"2026-11-15T13:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-15T13:10:15","slug":"kirubel-assefa-taba-new-album-ethio-jazz-november-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/15890","title":{"rendered":"Kirubel Assefa (\u12aa\u1229\u1264\u120d \u12a0\u1230\u134b) Builds His New Album, T.A.B.A., on Ethiopia’s Four Musical Modes, Out Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirubel Assefa (\u12aa\u1229\u1264\u120d \u12a0\u1230\u134b), the Ethiopian bassist who spent years on stage with Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmoud Ahmed and Aster Aweke, releases his new album, T.A.B.A., on Thursday, November 20, on the Ethio Jazz Factory label.<\/p>\n

The title is a small music lesson in four letters. Each one stands for a qenet, the traditional modes that give Ethiopian songs their scale, their tuning and their mood: Tizita, Ambasel, Bati and Anchihoye. Anyone who grew up hearing Tizita at family gatherings knows the ache of that first mode, the sound of memory and longing. Kirubel has built a whole record around it and its three sisters.<\/p>\n

Eleven New Songs Rooted at Home<\/h2>\n

Kirubel wrote all 11 compositions himself, then arranged, produced and recorded the album. He plays bass and keyboards on every track and guitar on all but one. The label is pressing it as a vinyl LP, with five songs on the first side and six on the second, from the opener Yetizetaye to the closing Malolo. Other titles include Konjo Loga, Addis 1887, Bonga and Enjemer Chewata.<\/p>\n

The sound reaches back to Ethiopian records of the 1970s and 1980s and sets them beside jazz, funk, reggae, Afro Cuban grooves and West African rhythms. Saxophonist Randle Fisher plays on all but one track, and Nolawi Kebede joins him on saxophone for six. The guitarist Thomas Temesgen, known to many fans as Tommy T., turns up on Semada, which is already streaming as a preview.<\/p>\n

Kirubel sums up his aim as “modernizing Ethiopian music without Westernizing its identity.” In the album notes he puts it more simply: “I can bring in jazz, funk, African and Latin rhythms and still know where home is. The foundation remains Ethiopian.”<\/p>\n

\"The
The cover of T.A.B.A., Kirubel Assefa’s new album, which shows painted singers and horn players inside giant letters (Ethio Jazz Factory)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a School Band in Addis Ababa to Los Angeles<\/h2>\n

Kirubel was born and raised in Addis Ababa, where he first played drums in the band at St. Joseph School. He started his musical life at 14 and later moved to the United States, where he picked up the bass, studied at Musicians Institute and played with reggae, funk and Cuban bands in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Over more than four decades he has worked as a player, arranger and musical director for some of the biggest voices in Ethiopian music, among them Tilahun Gessesse<\/a>, Mahmoud Ahmed<\/a>, Aster Aweke, Gigi and Tewodros Tadesse, and the Nigerian reggae star Majek Fashek. In Los Angeles he helped start Lasta Sound, a band that mixed Ethiopian melodies with young jazz players such as Kamasi Washington, long before Washington became a global name. The group even played themselves in the film Journey to Lasta, and Kirubel also wrote music for the IMAX documentary Mystery of the Nile.<\/p>\n

The timing of the new album carries some weight. Tilahun died in 2009 and Alemayehu Eshete in 2021, and Mulatu Astatke<\/a>, the father of Ethio jazz, finished his farewell tour late last year. Kirubel learned this music on the bandstand from that generation, and he says he sees T.A.B.A. as a way to carry it forward rather than keep it behind glass.<\/p>\n

The album arrives on Thursday, and the vinyl edition is already listed in the Ethio Jazz Factory shop.<\/p>\n