Ethiopiques, Vol.1: Golden Years of Modern Ethiopian Music '69-'75 CD

Francis Falceto, the French promoter and musicologist behind this project, used Volume 1 to open the long running Ethiopiques series for Buda Musique, catching Ethiopia's "Golden Age," the swinging Addis Ababa scene between 1969 and 1975 that the 1974 Derg coup shut down. This first installment sticks to vocal and dance band sides rather than the Ethio-jazz that later made the series famous through Mulatu Astatke, but that's the point: hear where the whole run started before the saxophones take over.