Edinburgh Fringe : Hailu Mergia

Doors : 19.00

£18.00

General Admission Standing

Over 14 Only / Under 16 with an adult

Hailu Mergia
It’s been a little over ten years since keyboard and accordion-player 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.

Now in his fifth decade of music-making, Mergia continues to push the
boundaries of his remarkable abilities. He 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. 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, covering cities and countries by the dozens over
the last few years.

His most recent album is *Pioneer Works Swing (Live), *which captures a
powerful 2016 performance in Brooklyn. 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.