Addis Ababa has long carried jazz in its bloodstream. From the golden era of Ethio-jazz to the layered improvisations that echo through intimate venues and national stages, the city has never been unfamiliar with the language of brass, rhythm, and memory. It has heard masters reinterpret tradition, witnessed experimentation stretch the boundaries of sound, and absorbed decades of musical dialogue between Ethiopia and the world.
But every so often, a moment arrives that is not about continuation alone — it is about emergence.
ዘመነ Young belongs to that moment.
Presented under the Young Addis Project and curated by Letarik Tilahun, this live jazz concert does not position young musicians as learners stepping into an established tradition. It presents them as authors — individuals and collectives actively shaping a sound that reflects their time, their influences, and their city as it exists now.
At the heart of the concert lies a question that is both artistic and generational:
What happens when Addis Ababa’s musical memory meets the discipline of jazz, the inheritance of Ethiopian sound, and the urgency of young authorship — all within a single, intentional stage?
This is not a rhetorical question. It is one the concert attempts to answer in real time.
A City’s Memory, Reinterpreted
Addis has heard jazz before — but often through the voices of those who defined it. What makes this moment distinct is that it is not anchored in legacy alone, but in reinterpretation.
The musicians of ዘመነ Young are not simply inheriting Ethio-jazz as a fixed form. They are engaging with it as material — something to be stretched, questioned, layered, and reimagined. The pentatonic scales that once defined a genre become tools for experimentation. Rhythms that carried cultural memory are reframed through contemporary arrangements. Improvisation is no longer just technical mastery; it becomes a language of identity.
This is where the concert shifts from performance to statement.
Because what is being presented is not only music — it is a generation negotiating its relationship with tradition. Not rejecting it, not replicating it, but actively composing within it.
The Architecture of the Evening
The structure of ዘመነ Young is deliberate. It is not a lineup; it is a progression.
The evening opens with Medina Zelesegna, whose solo saxophone performance establishes a singular voice — intimate, unaccompanied, and exposed. In that moment, the audience is invited into listening at its most focused level: one artist, one instrument, one narrative.
From there, the stage expands.
The Young Addis Staff Band, Yeka Band, and Bereket Abebe Band introduce ensemble language — where individual voices begin to interact, respond, and build collective expression. These performances move between original compositions and reinterpretations, weaving together structure and improvisation, discipline and spontaneity.
Midway through the night, a Begena solo interlude interrupts the momentum — intentionally.
The begena, often associated with spiritual reflection and stillness, shifts the atmosphere inward. It slows the pace, reframes the listening experience, and anchors the evening within a deeper cultural and historical register. In that pause, the concert acknowledges that innovation does not exist without memory.
Then, the night opens fully.
The Letarik Variety Orchestra, led by Letarik Tilahun, brings the concert to its largest scale — an orchestral finale that gathers the fragments of the evening into a unified, expansive sound. What began as a solitary voice evolves into a collective force.
A Listening Journey, Not Just a Concert
What makes ዘመነ Young compelling is not only who performs, but how the audience is guided through the experience.
The progression from solo to ensemble, from stillness to orchestral intensity, mirrors a broader narrative:
- From individual expression to collective identity
- From inheritance to interpretation
- From quiet formation to public articulation
In this sense, the concert becomes less about consumption and more about witnessing.
It asks the audience not just to hear, but to recognize — to notice the subtle shifts in tone, the confidence in arrangement, the willingness to experiment. It invites listeners to consider that what they are hearing is not yet fully defined, and that is precisely the point.
This is a generation in formation.
Why This Moment Matters
The significance of ዘመነ Young lies in its timing.
Across Addis Ababa, a younger generation of musicians has been quietly developing — rehearsing, collaborating, experimenting outside the spotlight. Their work has often existed in fragments: small performances, informal sessions, digital traces. What has been missing is a space where that emerging sound is presented in full, with intention and artistic seriousness.
This concert provides that space.
It does not frame young artists as future potential. It frames them as present reality.
And in doing so, it challenges a familiar narrative — that innovation in Ethiopian jazz must always be measured against its past. Instead, ዘመነ Young suggests that the future is already unfolding, and that it deserves to be heard on its own terms.
A Generation, Heard in Full
Some concerts entertain. They offer an evening, an escape, a moment of enjoyment.
Others do something more enduring. They reveal a shift that has been happening beneath the surface — a change in voice, in confidence, in artistic direction.
ዘመነ Young is the latter.
It gathers a generation that has been forming quietly and places it, deliberately, on one stage. It arranges their voices, structures their expression, and presents them not as fragments, but as a whole.
For one evening, what has been developing in pieces becomes audible in full.
Event Details
ዘመነ Young
📅 Monday, April 27, 2026
🕕 6:00 PM
📍 Ashenafi Kebede Concert Hall
🎟 Tickets available via Telebirr
