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| From left - The drummer Tesfaye mekonnen (Hodo); guest singer from Asmara police orchestra, Teshome Mitiku & Bass and sax player Fekade Amde Meskel of Soul Ekos Band. (Courtesy photo) |
Teshome Mitiku is one of Ethiopia’s most legendary Jazz and Soul musicians. In the golden era of “Swinging Addis”, at the height of his career he was forced to escape his home country. He has not returned to Addis Ababa ever since.
After 43 years, Teshome is now ready to go back to Ethiopia. This film will accompany him on an epic journey of personal redemption, family reunification and musical homecoming.
And Addis will swing again.
Teshome Mitiku is a music superstar in 1960s Ethiopia. With his band Soul Ekos, his music becomes popular way beyond the country’s borders – until the unbearable political situation forces him to emigrate. For the next forty years, Ethiopia will suffer from monarchic and communist repression, while Teshome has to live in exile. Until now.
Teshome Mitiku is finally preparing to return to his home country. His plans might even include to record a new album in Addis Ababa. This reunion with his companions from the old days and the young musicians of the new generation will revive the groove of “Swinging Addis”. And we will be with him on this journey…
Writers-directors Heidi Frankl and Christian Fussenegger became experts of Swinging Addis’ music. They visited Teshome in his exile in Washington DC, accompanied him to a concert with the renowned jazz ensemble “Either Orchestra” in Boston, MA. They got to know Teshome’s friends and family and met his daughter Emilia in Sweden (who became a superstar herself with the smash-hit “Big Big World” in the late 1990s). They went to Ethiopia and found members of Teshome’s family in Addis Ababa, and travelled the country to breathe its distinctive flavors. And they will be with Teshome when he will perform his hypnotic groove in Addis Ababa again - for the first time after more than 40 years of exile.
http://vimeo.com/41105967
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