By Alemayehu Seife-Selassie

For almost a decade, Addis’s music scene has been dominated by one-man bands. Live performances and musical albums have surrendered to keyboard-led music.

As music is suffering from the lack of taste it used to have when played by whole bands, few believe that this is the best thing that has happened to music. Yet for those who like to reach out to world class music, playing in just a one man band is unacceptable. Kenny Alyn, an African-American musician who has been storming Addis with his music and charm over the past five years, is one such individual.

Kenny has just come back from a six-week musical tour in America. Ironically, the African-American musician was performing mainly for Ethiopian audiences in America. DC, Richmond, New York and Bermuda are all among the states that Kenny performed in. Doing seven shows in six weeks, Kenny has mainly been performing for Ethiopian restaurants. “Because I have concentrated on the Ethiopian community where I went, it was for the people that have heard of me, or had seen me here, or have heard of me performing in Harlem Jazz in Addis, it was like a reunion,” he says. Performing for audiences of hundreds of Ethiopians, who are ready to connect to the new form of Ethiopian music, has been an enjoyable experience for Kenny and his band. “I think Ethiopian people love to see their culture being interpreted by someone from outside.” He believes this is what has made his performances a hit.

For Kenny, it has been very enjoyable to teach music to his fellow African American musicians. “They really appreciated the learning experience,” he says, explaining how the mood was. By associating some of the music with the James Brown style, it was not difficult for Kenny to sink his own version of Ethiopian songs. For Kenny, going back to play with the same band he played with five years ago [before he moved to Addis Ababa] was momentous.

Kenny plays in Addis Ababa with his band “The 251”, composed of six musicians. Zelalem on Drums, Kirubel on keyboard, Sanje on base, Micky on guitar, Vahe vocals and Koffee on percussion are the handpicked performers that Kenny loves playing with. Releasing his unique album “251” [which he named after the Ethiopian telephone code], playing music over the Afro FM 105.3, Kenny has captivated his audience.

Coming to Addis Ababa and performing old Cool and the Gangs songs, Kenny had to adapt to the nostalgic musical scene in Addis Ababa before he released his album. The album took him three years and a half to make and he produced it himself.

Currently, Kenny performs his original songs from the “251” and his upcoming album. So far Kenny has finished seven songs from the upcoming album. “I hope to release the album free, that, is what I learned from the States. Nobody is like buying albums any more. It is more important to get it to the people. I know that might be the ultimate way to stamp out piracy.” According to Kenny, an artist should always be working on putting the art out to the public despite piracy. “I know the local musicians have stopped putting music out and I don’t think that is fair to the people. Music is a very important part of culture. You can’t just stop art. I don’t feel like that it is a fair punishment to the people.”

Kenny hopes that his latest album will have 12 songs; but he does not want to put a time frame to it yet. The album will be free to download and will be given away.
Kenny uses sampling of Ethiopian music in his albums. But he says that compared to Kennan, Nass and Damien’s samplings, his was a very small portion as backdrop. “I just want to draw attention to Ethiopian music without making money off it.” He adds that he will put a mention of the original artist’s songs where they can be found in his album. He says that his reason for doing so is to make a modern sound without harming the original artist.

Kenny has been playing from week to week in Addis Ababa night clubs, but he now says that he has some plans to perform only a couple of shows in a month and make the performance really strong. Pioneering the live performance, Kenny is among the people that have managed to bring back the full-band era. He says that it is up to him and other interested artists to show the youth how music can be performed professionally. “When drinks get in the way you tend to have some familiar people turn rude to you. And I want people to get drunk off music. I like to have people moved by the music. My aim is for more of an outdoor, daytime family event.”

Kenny has made a duet with Johnny Ragga called ‘Yene Nat’ (she is mine; the song is a take on the 80’s Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s ‘The Girl is Mine’). He says that he would be doing another song with Johnny in his new album as well. Kenny performed ‘Shiftaw Libu’ with the same artist on a previous single.

With his flattering intro “What’s up Beautiful People?” Kenny has managed to capture a lot of audience over the Afro FM radio as well. He explains that the world as a performer and as a radio music host, are two entirely different experiences. “It is like wearing two different hats. I had to come there with a slightly different perspective,” he teasingly remarked. Having collected music over the past decade, playing songs is not a challenging task. Over the one year, Kenny played music over the radio; he had received lots of responses, from which only one out of thirty were not friendly. “Some people can be really cold. When I call to ask, 90 percent of the times it is a young junior-high type of person that says I’m sorry. Those are the people that misuse their voices. But on the other side, we (the audience) get along just like a family.” Kenny also says he is always trying to play music that he has not yet played. Giving alternative flavor to an audience that has been overly exposed to MTV music gives him great pleasure.

EthiopianReporter