Lala Belu

After reissuing three of Hailu Mergia's classic albums to great success, Awesome Tapes From Africa have taken the veteran Ethiopian jazz musician and full-time cab driver back into the studio and produced his first new album for 15 years. And it's a stonker. Lala Belu is a great Ethio-jazz album, but it's also a great jazz album, full stop. It's all played by a trio, with Tony Buck on drums, Mike Majkowski on bass and Mergia playing all manner of keyboards: accordion, piano, organ, synths, melodica, you name it. Various overdubs give the ensemble the sound of a heavy-driving sextet.

There's all sorts here, from cool soul-jazz, to dub excursions and Herbie Hancock-like synth spirals, and a lovely piano solo piece at the end. The highlight is ‘Anchihoye Lene’, which starts laying down a deadly groove before Mergia's organ takes it all the way to downtown Addis Ababa. The title-track itself is a bit of a let-down, with solos that don’t have the same level of excitement as the other tracks. But the rest of the album is a blast.