Pioneer Works Swing (Live)

by Hailu Mergia

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Lavinie Cloutier Ça vient juste de sortir! J'avais déjà un de ses album et là j'ai décidé de me gâter en achetant tout le reste!

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Finally a live recording that documents one of Hailu Mergia's stellar live performances, this celebratory concert was recorded with his trio in 2016 at a familiar venue that has hosted some of Mergia's most fiery Stateside concerts, Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.

Includes unlimited streaming of Pioneer Works Swing (Live) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$22 USD or more
Cassette + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Pioneer Works Swing (Live) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$12 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Pioneer Works Swing (Live) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Purchasable with gift card

$15 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$6 USD or more
Hailu Mergia — Pioneer Works Swing (Live) Deluxe Edition
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited 500 - Deluxe version includes 3-color vinyl, poster, OBI & bonus 7” featuring 2 more songs form the concert! Designed by Pioneer Works.
*Limit one per customer—fans only.

Includes unlimited streaming of Pioneer Works Swing (Live) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Yegle Nesh (Live) 06:20	buy track
2.	Tizita (Live) 11:47	buy track
3.	Belew Beduby (Live) 05:55	buy track
4.	Anchihoye Lene (Live) 07:17	buy track
5.	Abichu Nega Nega (Live) 05:27	buy track
6.	Yetewat Hil (Live) 08:34	buy track

about

It’s been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia re-emerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival.

Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player’s powerful DC-based trio—which practices each weekend in his basement—featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.

Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like “Tizita” or “Anchihoye Lene”) upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia’s original compositions (like “Yegle Nesh”) shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age.

"Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents.

Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he’s been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old-fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.

credits

released November 3, 2023

Recorded Live at Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016

Hailu Mergia — Keyboards, Accordion, Melodica, Vocals
Alemseged Kebede — Bass Guitar
Kenneth Joseph — Drums

Recording by James Clark & Justin Frye
Concert organized by Oliver Conan
Mixed by Ted Young
Mastered by Jessica Thompson
Photos by Edwina Hay & Walter Wlodarczyk
Design by Daniel Kent
Design assistance by Callum Abbott & Mei Lenehan

license

about

Hailu Mergia Washington, D.C.

Master accordionist and veteran bandleader, arranger and keyboardist, originally from Ethiopia.

shows

Jun 22

Sony Music Hall

New York (NYC), NY
Jun 28

Mass MoCA

North Adams, MA
Jul 19

Union Park

Chicago, IL
Aug 20

La Belle Angèle

Edinburgh, UK

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