"Buda Musique's mind-expanding Ethiopiques series—23 discs strong and counting—is a treasure trove of strange and wonderful music, none more so than that contained on Negus Of Ethiopian Sax, which is devoted to tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya and his shellela music. Unless you've already had the good fortune to encounter Ethiopiques, it's probably safe to say you won't have heard anything like it ever before. And almost as safe to predict you will be transfixed, transported and hooked.

Primal and shamanic, Mekurya's playing evokes something of saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, with all their passion and in-the-moment invention (though none of Ayler's extended altissimo screeching), with a shot of honking tenor men Big Jay McNeely and Willis Jackson thrown in for added funk.

But the relationship is an illusory one: Mekurya's style developed in complete isolation from the US free jazz it distantly and tangentially resembles, and is entirely Ethiopian in origin and form."
 
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Purchase Getachew Mekurya: Ethiopiques volume 14: at Buda Musique, Artist Direct