Necessity might be the mother of invention, but impending motherhood can offer its own potent inspiration. For Meklit, the imminent arrival of her son León in the summer of 2019 fueled the songwriting sessions that led to her new EP, “Ethio-Blue.”
A creative force in the Mission since her early years as artistic director of the Red Poppy Art House in the mid-aughts, the Ethiopian-born singer, songwriter, bandleader and cultural activist celebrates the release of “Ethio-Blue” Saturday at Brava (with an opening set by LoCura Trio and special guest Tarik “Excentrik” Kazaleh on oud, percussion and beats).
Pondering how she would continue her musical life with a babe in arms, Meklit found herself returning repeatedly to “Midnight Lightning,” the Laura Veirs podcast that focuses on musicians who are mothers.
“I was sitting with this feeling, does this mean it’s over?” she said. “I knew in my heart it didn’t mean that, but you hear it all over, women talking about putting their creative work aside. Listening to ‘Midnight Lightning’ was amazing. She’s talking to folks like Rhiannon Giddens, who has two kids, punk and gospel musicians and singer/songwriters, just this big gamut, and it was really inspiring.”
In many ways, “Ethio-Blue” builds on the creative journey Meklit has been on since a trip to Ethiopia with her band in 2016 led to an encounter with seminal Ethiojazz vibraphonist/composer Mulatu Astatke, who challenged her to find her own musical voice and perspective. On the resulting album, 2017’s “When the People Move the Music Moves Too” (Six Degrees Records), she collaborated with Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles songwriter and producer Dan Wilson, a veteran hit maker known for his work with stars like Adele, the Chicks and Taylor Swift.
Eager to work together again, they were talking about how to proceed when Meklit’s life got very complicated. Around four months pregnant, she had just started a new job as Chief of Program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts when she began writing new material. In the past, she’d set aside weeks of open time to work on songs, but that was no longer possible.
“Every morning, I’d spend two hours writing music, and I’d go in to the YBCA in the afternoon,” she recalled. “I wrote for almost a month with nothing good coming out. It had been a while since I had done a stint hammering out songs.”
A key that unlocked her muse was listening to the new album “Assume Form” by James Blake. It didn’t influence her writing, but the English singer/songwriter’s sonic textures seemed to help focus her attention. “I was thinking a lot about: What is the world I want this child born into? And just wanting to be really intentional about the kind of world-building of the songs,” she said.
The EP’s title track is something on an aesthetic mission statement honoring her ancestors, an Amharic response to Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria’s jazz standard “Afro-Blue.” With the advent of the pandemic, her music took shape in response to the struggles she saw around her, like the opening piece, “Antidote,” a kinetic celebration of emotional wisdom.
One of my favorite tracks is “Hagere Ethiopia,” Meklit’s collaboration with poet and playwright Alemtsehay Wedajo, a leading force in Ethiopian theater and the founding director of the Tayitu Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. By setting one of her poems to a traditional melody, Meklit puts into action her desire to uplift “a living legend” while she’s here, “and I was thrilled when she agreed to work together,” Meklit said.
In their previous collaboration, Wilson filled out Meklit’s arrangements with an illustrious cast of players, like Andrew Bird, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band horns, and top-shelf Los Angeles session musicians. On “Ethio-Blue” the focus stays on her longtime band, which includes Ethiopian pianist/keyboardist Kibrom Birhane, drummer Colin Douglas, bassists Sam Bevan and Miles Jay, percussionist Marco Peris Coppola (her husband), and saxophone powerhouse Howard Wiley (a chair covered by Prasant Radhakrishnan Saturday at Brava).
Wilson, who also contributes textures on OP-1 synth on several tracks, did bring in some special guests, including LA singer/songwriter Sara Mulford on synth and keyboard and Macedonian maestro Ismail Lumanovski, whose thrilling reed work captures the spirit of “Birdsong.”
She’s not sure what comes next, but “Ethio-Blue” arrives as a heart-felt response to the imperative of finding her own musical path. Along the way, she’s delivered a bracing shot of Ethiosoul for anyone in need of succor and joy in these weird times,
“Mulatu Astatke gave me this to me, asking ‘What is your contribution to Ethiojazz?’” she said. “I’ve been thinking about how to create this sound since then. Now, these songs feel even more necessary.”
Paseo Artistic: Women of Resistance
Meklit isn’t the only remarkable woman performing Saturday in the Mission. The Calle 24 Latino Cultural District presents “Paseo Artistico: Women of Resistance,” an all-day series of performances “that celebrate women’s resistance and freedom to create, love, and protest.” Taking place at venues around the 24th Street/Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, the performers and artists include Diana Gameros, Alexa Treviño, Evelyn Donaji, Berta Hernández, Andrea Rodriguez, Golden Thread Theater, Martha Rodriguez-Salazar, Chantel Hernandez, Ms. Meg, Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito and others.
Paseo Artistico is co-presented by 24th Street cultural venues including Mission Cultural Center, Brava Theater, Dance Mission, Precita Eyes Muralists, Community Music Center, Medicine For Nightmares Bookstore, Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, and EvolvedSF.
Tim Berne at Bird and Beckett Books & Records in Glen Park
In his only Bay Area performance, alto saxophone great Tim Berne performs at Bird and Beckett Books & Records in Glen Park on Tuesday, March 12, with the remarkable drummer Tom Rainey and guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi. A torrential improviser and prolific recording artist, Berne doesn’t make it out to the West Coast often. His Bird & Beckett gig is an excellent reminder to keep an eye on the venue’s calendar because, along with a steady stream of excellent Bay Area artists, the bookstore often presents traveling players you won’t see anywhere else.