Doors 9PM
$10

Feedel Band is a Washington DC based Ethio-Jazz Band and has been performing as a self contained unit, as well as supporting Ethiopian artists like Tilahun Gessesse, (The king of Ethiopian music) ,and very recently with Aster Aweke (The queen of Ethiopian music) on her current “Ewedihalehu” US tour. Feedel band’s “Ethio - jazz” genre, Founded in 2010 by Araya Woldemichael, and weeks later, his current band members joined him and together they have formed the first native Ethiopian group in north America as an Ethio -jazz music-oriented band that starred Moges Habte on Sax, Alemseged Kebede on Electric bass, Araya Woldemichael on keyboards and Samson Juffar on drums. After Samson Juffar’s departure to Ethiopia, drummer and percussionist Mikias Abe-bayehu took Samson’s place. In addition to guitarist Kaleb Temesgen and drummer Joseph Kenneth, Trombonist Ben Hall and krarist Minale Bezu, the band found its own and a very unique Ethio-jazz sound. Since 1997 the Éthiopiques series released on the French label, Buda Musique, has made Ethiopian music an underground obsession, exposing jazz heads and rockists to the jazzy funkiness that emanated from East Africa in the ’60s and ’70s. You may have heard songs from Volume 4—there are now 28 volumes in total—in Jim Jarmusch’s 2005 film Broken Flowers-which features Feedel’s sax player Moges who was born in Addis Ababa, and can be heard performing the funky James Brown Band-influenced cut “Muziqawi Silt” on Éthiopiques’ Volume 13 with his ’70s group The Walias Band. On the other hand Feedel’s bass player Alemseged Kebede’s great groovy bass lines can be heard and found in Aster Aweke and Tilahune Gessesse’s music CD. The group is currently working with DC-based producer, composer and an arranger Araya Woldemichael for their up coming new album. Feedel Band’s sound can best be described as a merging of ’60s R&B, funk and jazz with traditional Ethiopian songcraft. Feedel is by definition, the Amharic word for letter or alphabet. In all languages we learn to read one letter at a time, and from those letters we form words. Feedel Band is taking Ethiopian music and Jazz, and blending it into a simmering stew of musical genre’s with textures and feelings that evoke sounds both ancient and modern. They are creating and in some cases re-creating the musical language of what has been called EthioJazz. The members of Feedel Band are acclaimed musicians in their own right. Individually, and as part of a larger group they’ve all performed with numerous well known musicians and artists. Since the bands inception, the reception that Feedel has received has been extraordinary. At FestAfrica 2011, the audience was enamored with their warm and engaging style. While their music is inspired by the sounds of legendary Ethiopian bands like Walias, Ibex and Mulatu Astatke. Feedel Band also composes and perform their own original music. Their newly released CD is called “Ethiopian Ocean.”