SPECIAL EVENT: Getatchew Mekuria & THE EX with Daniel Nebiat @ SPK (Polish Combatants Hall)

Wavelength Series

SECOND SHOW ADDED! FIRST NIGHT ALMOST SOLD OUT!!

Wavelength Presents:

GETATCHEW MEKURIA & THE EX & GUESTS

The Ethiopian sax legend  meets the Dutch punk legends...
First Canadian Tour! Irresistibly danceable “Ethio-punk”!
Featuring Toronto’s Brodie West, alto sax

Two nights!!
Saturday Sept. 12, 2009 @ 9pm
With guests DANIEL NEBIAT TRIO (Toronto/Eritrea)
+ Sunday Sept. 13, 2009 @ 8pm
With guests CANAILLE (Toronto/Jeremy Strachan ensemble)
+ DJs Daniel Vila & Chuck Skullz (both nights)

Location: SPK (Polish Combatants Hall), 206 Beverley St., Toronto
Tickets: $22 adv at:
Soundscapes, 572 College St.
Rotate This, 801 Queen W.
African Palace, 834 Bloor W.
Blue Nile Restaurant, 1260 Danforth AVe.
+ TicketWeb.ca

Show of the Year!
Following up on successful cross-cultural presentations like 2008’s Kalimba Summit, Toronto’s long-running indie music institution Wavelength is pleased to announce one of our major special events for 2009. In collaboration with the Guelph Jazz Festival and La Sala Rossa in Montreal, we have invited Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex to Canada to perform for the first time together in this country. This ongoing collaboration between the septuagenerian Ethio-jazz saxophonist and the pioneering Dutch art-punk group is one of the most marvellous examples of cross-cultural fusion in modern music. As heard on the outstanding 2006 album Moa Anbessa, this show sees The Ex expand to a 10-piece band that also includes a horn section and Ethiopian dancer. Having taken Europe and the U.S. by storm with their irresistibly danceable “Ethio-punk,” Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex are sure to put on Toronto’s Show of the Year... and just in time for Ethiopian New Year!

A Unique Collaboration
The Ex are an Amsterdam based avant-punk quartet who have been in existence since 1979, and have released more than 20 full-length albums since then, and received worldwide acclaim. The group’s sound evolved past basic political punk to incorporate influences from free improvisation and Eastern European folk music, best expressed through their collaborations with the late cellist Tom Cora — without discarding the jagged sound that made them effectively the Continent’s answer to Gang of Four. In recent years they have expanded their musical pallette even further by initiating cultural exchanges with artists from the vibrant music scenes of Ethiopia. One such collaborator is Getatchew Mekuria, the "king of the Ethiopian saxophone," who has been playing Ethio-jazz since being a member of "police bands" in Addis Ababa in the 1940's. The Ex's championing of Mekuria in 2004 effectively led to the septuagenerian tenor sax player coming out of retirement. In 2006, The Ex and Getatchew Mekuria released the CD Moa Anbessa (Terp Records), a monumental collection of "Ethio-punk" that incredibly fuses soulful Ethio-jazz with dissonant, often improvisatory punk rock. Moa Anbessa was re-released on the vinyl format in 2009.

Local Boys Makes Good
Wavelength is about supporting all things Toronto, and this wouldn’t be a Wavelength show without a local connection. Alto saxophonist Brodie West is a Toronto native and current resident, and one of The Ex's horn players for this ongoing project. Also a member of the contemporary jazz quintet Drumheller, West spent time in Amsterdam playing and studying with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg of the Instant Composers Pool, which in turn led him to meeting collaborating with The Ex. The evening’s opening act, meanwhile, is Eritrean-Canadian krar player Daniel Nebiat, whose music combines both traditional and modern forms of Eritrean music. Though there has been political strife between Ethiopia and Eritrea, culturally the two nations still share much in common — and especially when it comes to music. Wavelength garnered much attention for presenting Nebiat at our Sunday series in 2007, which led to him opening for Seun Kuti at Harbourfront, and we are happy to have him back.

This event is supported by Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Soundscapes Music and Batuki Music Society.