The Budos Band by Meghannmarco

Any search through music blogs or on Youtube these days will show you that The Budos Band have been getting some attention this summer, much much more than is customary for an afrobeat band, however talented, let alone an amateur one. And, yes, all of it is deserved and, if you ask me, it is still on the understated side.

They are an 11-strong horn-heavy, all-male, instrumental band from Staten Island, the New York suburb, and were initially, or so the official lore goes, formed through an after-school jazz community program and called “The Barbudos” until one of them got a shave and they had to do some urgent renaming. Their music was a fusion of afrobeat, of the pure the Fela kind, and American 60’s organ-heavy soul/jazz. On the other side of the Verrazano Bridge, in Brooklyn, the people at Daptone Records liked that : they were producing the great Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings 60’s R&B revival act and this music must have felt like a natural complement. An album followed, in late 2005, creatively called “The Budos Band“, which has its moments, especially TIBW, but is nothing really groundbreaking although very nice and comfy overall. The piece that was singled out, Volcano Song, was unfortunately too much of a Fela tribute to ever become catchy as a single, ie in less than 3 minutes. Too bad.

Then they stumbled onto the “Broken Flowers” soundtrack, featuring two great Ethiopian jazz tracks by Mulatu Astatqé, and started doing stuff closely derived from that, like Budos Rising or Origin of Man (of which there is a good live performance on video here), with dark, sinister, tension-building tones, in which they excel. They even injected some 70’s Ethiopian funk into their more upbeat pieces, à la Alemayehu Eshete, which did indeed spice them up, although those remain quite moderately tempoed, nothing that will make you lose a shoe on the dancefloor. Their second album came out in July, even more creatively called “The Budos Band II“, another strong hint that they are more agile with instruments than with words, and it is definitely of the all killer/no filler type.

The Budos Band - My Girl
The Budos Band - Mas o Menos

“My whole idea, was sort of fusion with Ethiopian and jazz and modern music. I started at Berklee this idea of the ‘Ethiojazz’ business. From there I came to New York and I had this group, and what I wanted to do, I did it there.” While returning to Ethiopia from NYC he brought the Hammond Organ and the Vibraphone to his country, and later on changed the whole Ethiopian music scene, by a combination of Ethiopian five scale music with jazz and fusion.

This was the first release from Brighton’s Soundway Recordings and they have made a great debut with this 4 track EP, all 4 songs are notable here, but `Ebo Lala` is the standout track, with the help of the African chant lead by Seifu Yohannes. Rest of the catalogue is interesting as well, particularly but not limited to the Orlando Julius and the Panama compilation from 1965-75 releases..

He has recently done the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers movie, which has got good reviews on IMDB and elsewhere. Get these tracks and spread Mulatu’s music like the Ebola.

Mulatu Astatke - Ebo lala
Mulatu Astatke - Yekitir Tezata
The Code International - Yekermo Sew (Mulatu cover)