The musicians of the jazz era in the 1920s maintained their inheritance of Afrocentric melodic patterns from the global communities from which they came, codifying granular parts and solo improvisations in a way that pitched them back to their musical genesis. This influence shaped generations of musicians and genres worldwide. At the peak of the era, jazz introduced polyrhythms and modal chord structures that inspired musicians to merge jazz with their homegrown musical anatomies.
Ethio-Jazz Creativity: From Harlem to Addis — Afrocentric Inheritance, Legal Hurdles, and the Evolving Global Power of Jazz
These evolving patterns were paired with brass instruments, saxophones, chordophones (stringed instruments), idiophones (instruments that are struck or shaken), membranophones (instruments covered with skin), aerophones (wind instruments), and electrophones (electrical instruments). Musicians across continents embraced these instruments and styles, producing collective ensembles that resonated on all sensory levels. As jazz progressed, musicians moved away from Western major and minor scales and adopted blues scales for compositions, solos, and improvisations.
Hester, K. (2000). From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call “Jazz” explains jazz as a Black innovation shaped through field hollers, spirituals, blues, ragtime, classic jazz, swing, bebop, hard bop, free jazz, funk, soul, fusion, and neoclassic jazz. These composers were not only fluent in their musical vernacular but could improvise within a society that was often hostile to their creative expression. Jazz became a language of resilience, protest, and invention.
It’s easy to romanticize jazz’s cultural value, but its roots are embedded in systemic struggle. Jazz emerged during periods of racial segregation and was often banned from mainstream venues, forcing musicians to perform underground. These conditions helped catalyze the genre’s shift from structured tonality to freer forms of expression.
Monson, I. (2007). Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa notes how copyright laws like the 1909 Copyright Act and its 1972 amendment often failed performers. While songwriters and publishers benefited from copyright, performers were left without equitable compensation. Recording costs were deducted from royalties, and many jazz musicians ended up with debts instead of earnings.
Duke Ellington’s case (Ellington v. EM Music Inc.) revealed how record label EMI breached contract terms. The plaintiff alleged both breach of contract and fraudulent concealment. The globalization of the music industry made these contracts more favorable to corporations than to artists. Through strategic corporate reconfigurations, companies often evaded their original agreements.
Patrick Kabanda’s The Creative Wealth of Nations highlights how culture is essential to economic and social vitality. He urges recognition of creativity as a form of wealth creation. Jazz exemplifies this: born from adversity, it evolved into a medium of soft power, cultural diplomacy, and community cohesion. As nations look to diversify economies and adapt to post-industrial futures, investing in music, the arts, and education rooted in cultural authenticity becomes critical. Jazz shows that creative expression is not just leisure—it’s leverage.
Kay Kaufman Shelemay’s Sing and Sing On further emphasizes music as a vital tool for displaced communities to preserve memory, identity, and solidarity. Jazz, like many other diasporic music forms, binds people across continents and centuries through performance and shared histories.
Euro-American twelve-tone and serial composers of the 20th century created intellectually compelling music, but few had the improvisational fluency of jazz musicians. Jazz composers, like their baroque and romantic predecessors, could create and adapt music in real-time—an act of intellectual dexterity and emotional release.
Though difficult to define, jazz remains an African-American creation born in the 20th century. From field hollers to hip-hop, every musical development retained Afrocentric elements. Jazz evolves continuously while honoring its roots.
In Ethiopia, jazz was embraced and reimagined through Ethio-Jazz—a hybrid of traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scales and American jazz forms. Mulatu Astatke pioneered this blend in the 1960s, inspiring a national musical renaissance. These developments found a home in Addis Ababa’s thriving nightlife, where venues showcase live jazz, reggae, hip-hop, Afro-beats, and traditional performances seven days a week.
During the 1960s and 70s, Addis was a cultural crossroads, where global vinyl records were imported and broadcasted via Kagnew Station from Asmara. Live bands were in demand, and the city’s musical palate was wide-ranging. The Derg’s rise in 1974 forced musicians to adapt, restricting lyrical themes to political messages while simultaneously prompting a resurgence of traditional Ethiopian music.
Workaferahu Kebede’s article “Soul Music Invades Ethiopia” captures the influence of James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and soul music’s arrival. Important figures in this period include:
- Amha Eshette – Producer and Harambe Music Store owner
- Girma Beyene – Vocalist and songwriter influenced by Cole Porter
- Michael Alazar and Melkae Gebre – Musicians contributing to the evolving Ethio sound
The Ethiopiques series, especially Revolt of the Soul, documents this fusion of tradition and innovation.
Modern Ethio-jazz musicians like Hailu Mergia, and contemporary bands such as Qwanqwa and Wudasse, continue to reimagine the genre. In America, artists like Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, and Kamasi Washington are redefining jazz by integrating hip-hop, soul, funk, and electronic elements—honoring the past while carving new frontiers.
According to Hester, African music has always been a medium for divine communication, cultural preservation, and community cohesion. In America, it helped forge a cultural identity for displaced Africans. Jazz became a byproduct of this synthesis—a fusion of African polyrhythms with European harmonies transformed by lived experience.
Emperor Haile Selassie also played a formative role in shaping Ethiopia’s modern music scene. In the 1920s, he brought 40 Armenian orphans to Ethiopia, who later became the nation’s first official orchestra—known as the “Arba Lijoch.” Their presence had a lasting impact, helping lay the foundation for institutional music education and the hybridization of Western and Ethiopian styles.
As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Music is the international language of all mankind.” Jazz exemplifies this universal spirit. It is rooted in specific cultural traditions but speaks across borders and generations.
On World Jazz Day, we are reminded that jazz is not merely an art form—it is a living archive, a protest, a celebration, and a tool for social transformation. From Harlem to Addis, from Robert Glasper to Qwanqwa, from Ellington to Eshette, jazz continues to express what words cannot: the beauty, the pain, and the power of human creativity. If nations are to move forward with justice, equity, and imagination, they must embrace and invest in the creative wealth of their people.
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