Already there was a large, animated crowd of music fans clustered around the box office, basking in the warm spring sunshine as they waited to purchase their tickets for the annual marathon show that would begin at one in the afternoon and continue until late into the night. It was early, a little past eleven oвЂ™clock in the morning, when I arrived outside the Theater on that long-ago New YearвЂ™s Day. The date was Septem(Meskerem 1, 1961), and the occasion was the Grand New YearвЂ™s Music Festival at the Ambassador Theater in Addis Ababa. It occurred almost exactly two years after the Utah show. Perhaps I can best do this by inviting you to revisit with me a second musical event. In Part II, I will attempt to thank Tilahun in a more personal way, by acknowledging how profoundly he affected me during the years I spent as a Peace Corps VolunteerвЂ“and musical performerвЂ“in Ethiopia. As I begin writing again on the 40th-day memorial of TilahunвЂ™s death, I feel privileged to join you once more in commemorating this great, iconic singer.

Part I of my tribute to Tilahun Gessesse concluded on a late summer evening in 1966, when staff Amharic teachers and I performed his beautiful song вЂњOo-oota AyaskeffamвЂќ in a music show during Peace Corps training at the University of Utah.

SuttonвЂ™s Tribute to Tilahun Gessesse вЂ“ Part II вЂ“ Ye Muzika Metsihet All of Ethiopia, and music lovers around the world, are in mourning. This is the first of a three-part appreciation and reminisence by Charles Sutton about his friend, the supremely gifted singer, Tilahun Gessesse, who passed away on Apin Addis Ababa. Characteristically, Charlie often directs the proceeds from his CD sales to the Institute for Ethiopian Studies or another deserving beneficiary. In a recent recording, Charlie played masinko and sang, in Amharic, naturally, with two long-time Ethiopian musician friends. In his jazz, CharlieвЂ™s improvisations reveal the depth to which Ethiopia has entered his soul. He is still a working musician both as a teacher and a performer. His friends and acquaintances know Charlie to be a gracious, warm and generous man, thoughtful and polite to a fault. He describes the impact of that discovery, which directed his life toward a deep and lasting relationship with Ethiopia, its people - particularly musicians, and its language, in which his fluency and elegance continue to astonish.Д¬harlie needs only a brief introduction from me since he will provide the rest himself. He was a musician, and even before he arrived, Charlie had discovered Ethiopian music through his Amharic language instructors. The following is a tributeД¬harles Sutton - usually known as Charlie - came to Ethiopia with the Peace Corps in 1996. On April 19, 2009, Ethiopians lost the greatest popular musician the country has ever produced, the supremely gifted singer, Tilahun Gessesse.

Ethiopian old music tilahun gessesse