Gétatchèw Mèkurya – Ethiopiques 14: Negus of Ethiopian Sax (Buda Musique)

Accorded the ill-fitting mantle of the African Ayler in some circles, Mèkurya did share Albert’s penchant for adapting folk forms to new conduits of expression. Reshaping traditional shellèla songs, improvised war chants sung prior to battle, through the mouthpiece of his saxophone, Mèkurya coined a style of music that had uncanny parallels to the emancipated tonalities of free jazz. Across this generous French compilation the creepy parlor trick organ riffs of Girma Bèyènè and distantly recorded drums of Eshètu Haylé as rhythmic backdrop leave his horn free to arc and soar. Trumpet and a second sax also add to the fray on occasion and it’s on these tracks where the saxophonist’s combative nature really comes to the fore. Favoring a quivering vibrato and flinty style of phrasing, Mèkurya scalding lines compromise little in the way of attitude or potency. Curiously, he rarely strays from similar Arabic-sounding scalar patterns during most pieces, creating a symmetry that starts to pall over the long haul. Still, it’s the riveting intensity of his tone that long outlasts any transience in the material.