Africa's musical influences continue to spread, even to Switzerland. When the Geneva-based trumpet-player Raphael Anker started listening to the Ethiopiques series of recordings, many of them from the 60s and 70s, he decided to begin playing his own versions. He's not the first musician to be impressed by the jazz, soul and funk of Ethiopia's golden age; it has inspired some great music from the likes of Dub Colossus and the Heliocentrics.

But as this rousing set showed, Anker and his band bring a fresh, contemporary edge to old and new Ethiopian styles, while retaining the spirit of the originals. The Imperial Tiger Orchestra is named after the Imperial Bodyguard Band of the Haile Selassie era and Monty Python's "tiger in Africa" sketch, but it's far from being a Swiss novelty. Much of the best Ethiopian music is based around brass, and in this six-piece band Anker's trumpet work was finely matched by John Menoud on baritone sax, and they were joined by keyboards, two percussionists, and multi-instrumentalist Cyril Moules, who played Ethiopian krar and the bouzouki-like Thai phin.

The setting was bizarre – they were playing in a smart Canary Wharf restaurant where too many of the diners wanted to talk rather than listen – but that didn't worry the band. This was an exclusively instrumental set, dominated by sturdy Ethiopian melodies, and the slick interplay of the two brass players, but the band constantly changed direction. There was a glorious funk work-out on Lale Lale, played in tribute to the great Mahmoud Ahmed, bursts of freeform jazz, and a rousing treatment of the traditional wedding song, Shinet, that started with hand-claps, moved on to solos from brass and phin, and ended with wailing electronic effects. Next time round, they deserve an audience that listens, and maybe gets a chance to dance.



Source: www.guardian.co.uk/