Don’t Be A Fool

Don’t be a fool

Don’t give your nights to someone else

While giving days to those that really love you

Don’t be a fool like me

And give your life to someone else

While faking love to those who really love you

[Pre-Chorus]

Why couldn’t I have realised

The gravity of telling lies

Who’s weight now shoes upon your faceless mound

I know your heart now and before

But I won’t do it anymore

Trust in me and fall in love again

[Chorus]

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling

And fall into these open arms of love

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling

And fall into these open arms of love

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling around

And fall into these open arms of love

[Saxophone Solo]

[Pre-Chorus]

Why couldn’t I have realised

The gravity of tears in eyes

Who’s weight now shoes upon your faceless smile

I broke your heart now and before

But I won’t do it anymore

Trust in me and fall in love again

Why couldn’t I have realised

The gravity of telling lies

Who’s weight now shoes upon your faceless mound

I know your heart now and before

But I won’t do it anymore

Trust in me and fall in love again

[Chorus]

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling

And fall into these open arms of love

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling

And fall into these open arms of love

Listen to these charms

Cos’ baby I’m not fooling around

And fall into these open arms of love

And fall into these open arms of love

And fall into these open arms of love

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In Ethiopia’s Capital, a Resurgent Jazz Scene

On a recent Sunday evening, a stylish audience in their 20s packed Mama’s Kitchen, a wood-and-glass lounge on the fourth floor of an otherwise closed shopping center near the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. They were there to hear an adventurous young pianist, Samuel Yirga, as he careened between free jazz, études, R&B and the popular local style known as Ethio-jazz, a bewitching genre that fuses jazz with traditional Ethiopian music.

Mr. Yirga’s fingers flew across the keyboard, and the crowd nodded their heads reverently even through deep forays into dissonance. The musician’s intricate arrangements for his band featured psychedelic guitar lines and funky drumming, but the focus remained on the piano melody, which Mr. Yirga accentuated with the kind of ornaments and leaps characteristic of Ethiopian music.

“I think we Ethiopians love our own thing more than other things,” the dreadlocked 29-year-old, who has signed with Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records label, said before the concert. “We respect and love other cultures, but we love our own music, our own food, dance and clothes the most.”

Mama’s Kitchen is one of several venues featuring different jazz styles — from swing to acoustic, instrumental to free jazz — that have sprung up in the Ethiopian capital in recent years. The resurgent music scene is far from the only change occurring in this frenetic city of nearly four million.

Bulldozers have created canyons between the palm trees planted on busy boulevards to make way for a light rail system, set to debut in 2015. Domed Orthodox churches and tiny stalls with tin roofs and painted signs are interspersed with brand-new skyscrapers, glass-fronted malls and the spaceship-like complex that houses the headquarters of the African Union. During rush hour, visitors can spend a lot of time listening to Ethiopian pop in the Soviet-era blue Lada sedans that serve as taxis.

Nowadays jazz concerts take place all over the city, and on nearly every night of the week a clarinet is being played in a mirrored discothèque in an old hotel, or in a smoky one-room club near the airport. But even though Ethio-jazz dates from the 1960s, its reappearance in the capital is a fairly new development.

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The Saxiest Divas of Smooth Jazz

Magdalena

 

Jeannete

 

Jessy

 

Candy

 

Mindi

 

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30 April Is International Jazz Day

Ethiopian Jazz by Wudasse Band — EteMete (Darling)

Gregory Porter – On My Way To Harlem

According to UNESCO, the international community proclaimed 30 April as “International Jazz Day”. The Day is intended to raise awareness in the international community of the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people. Many governments, civil society organizations, educational institutions, and private citizens currently engaged in the promotion of jazz music will embrace the opportunity to foster greater appreciation not only for the music but also for the contribution it can make to building more inclusive societies.

Why International Jazz Day?

• Jazz breaks down barriers and creates opportunities for mutual understanding and tolerance;
• Jazz is a vector of freedom of expression;
• Jazz is a symbol of unity and peace;
• Jazz reduces tensions between individuals, groups, and communities;
• Jazz fosters gender equality;
• Jazz reinforces the role youth play for social change;
• Jazz encourages artistic innovation, improvisation, new forms of expression, and inclusion of traditional music forms into new ones;
• Jazz stimulates intercultural dialogue and empowers young people from marginalized societies.

 

Source: UNESCO

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Forest Whitaker Is Louis Armstrong

Forest Whitaker to Star as Louis Armstrong in Major Film

A forthcoming Louis Armstrong biopic will star Forest Whitaker as the revered Satchmo. Whitaker will also direct the film, titled What a Wonderful World after one of Armstrong’s most popular songs. The film is the first major motion picture biography of Armstrong to be authorized by his estate. Now, this sounds better than “Idi Amin”

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