Hailu Mergia “Yene Mircha”

Hailu Mergia’s new album “Yene Mircha” came out 27 March on Awesome Tapes From Africa. Order Hailu Mergia”Yene Mircha” LP/CD/Tape from our shop.

Hailu Mergia. The man is such a joy to work with, to be perfectly honest and earnest. His work is inspiring to me, but also his attitude. And he knows what he’s about. He makes his way through the world in a confident but unassuming manner. And he absolutely gives it his all onstage, all over the world, all the time, most likely every time.

Lala Belu lifted Mergia 

The past two years Mergia pranced across the global from festival to club to theater, performing songs from his “Lala Belu” album, which blew up throughout 2018. It was this first new album in over a decade.

Now, he is already releasing his next new recording, “Yene Mircha,” which is produced by Mergia this time in DC with his trio there, along with a whole bunch of guests. There are horns and vocals and mesenqo and guitar in the mix. Beautiful cover photo by Ian GC White.

About the new album

Hailu Mergia’s new album “Yene Mircha” (“My Choice” in Amharic) encapsulates many of the things that make the keyboardist, accordionist and composer-arranger remarkable—elements that have persisted to maintain his vitality all these years, through the ebb and flow of his career. The rock solid trio with whom he has toured the world most recently, DC-based Alemseged Kebede (bass) and Ken Joseph (drums), forms the nucleus around which an expanded band makes a potent response to the contemporary jazz future “Lala Belu” promised. “Yene Mircha” calcifies Mergia’s prolific stream of creativity and his philosophy that there is a multitude of Ethiopian musical approaches, not just one sound.

The first single from Hailu Mergia “Yene Mircha”  is “Abichu Nega Nega“